Following the entry into force of the historic agreement last year, elaborating its implementing guidelines is now a key focus.

President Jean-Claude Juncker clearly said it in his State of the European Union speech at the European Parliament this year: “I want Europe to be the leader when it comes to the fight against climate change. Last year, we set the global rules of the game with the Paris Agreement ratified here, in this very House. Set against the collapse of ambition in the United States, Europe must ensure we make our planet great again. It is the shared heritage of all of humanity.“

Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Cañete said: “The Paris Agreement has set the direction of travel for the global transition to a modern low-carbon economy. The increasingly frequent and intense extreme weather events we are witnessing across the world are a stark reminder of the urgency of the challenges we face. Now is the time to translate ambition into action and speed up implementation. COP23 will be a key moment to ensure that we are on track to meet our first deadline: completing the Paris work programme by 2018.”

The 23rd Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP23), presided over by Fiji, is taking place from 6-17 November 2017 in Bonn, Germany. It will bring together ministers and government officials, as well as a wide range of representatives from civil society and business.

The EU expects the conference to demonstrate clear progress on the development of the technical rules and guidelines for implementing the provisions of the Paris Agreement, for example on the transparency framework and the 5-year ambition cycle aimed at helping countries make progressively more ambitious contributions. The work programme is due to be adopted at the 2018 UN climate conference (COP24) in Katowice, Poland.

The EU is making solid progress on finalising a legislative framework for achieving its Paris target – its collective nationally determined contribution (NDC) – to reduce EU greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030. This includes revising the EU emissions trading system (EU ETS) post-2020, setting 2030 emissions reduction targets for non-ETS sectors such as transport, buildings and agriculture and integrating land use, land use change and forestry into the EU’s legal framework for climate action. In addition the Commission intends to present a Clean Mobility package of proposals on 8 November to further facilitate the EU’s transition to low carbon mobility and economy.

The EU remains committed to the collective global goal of mobilising USD 100 billion a year by 2020 and through to 2025 to finance climate action in developing countries, from a variety of sources, and continuing to significantly increase financing for adaptation to climate change. In 2016, the EU and its Member States contributed a total EUR 20.2 billion in climate finance, an increase of more than 10% from the EUR 17.6 billion provided in 2015.

Alongside the formal COP23 negotiations, the Bonn conference will showcase climate action by a wide range of stakeholders including cities and regions, businesses and civil society groups. The EU is a strong supporter of the Global Climate Action Agenda (GCAA) as an important platform for multi-stakeholder action and will continue to engage actively in this forum.

The EU will be represented in Bonn by Miguel Arias Cañete, Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy and Siim Kiisler, Environment Minister of Estonia, which currently holds the presidency of the Council of Ministers of the EU.

Events during COP23

During the conference, the EU will host more than 100 events at the EU Pavilion in Bonn (see link below). These events, organised by a variety of countries and organisations from Europe and the rest of the world, will address a broad range of climate-related issues from the energy transition to the role of forests and oceans, climate finance, research and innovation and assessing climate risks.

EU press briefings in Bonn

The EU delegation will hold regular press briefings which will be streamed live and ‘on demand’ at: https://cop23.unfccc.int/

Further information:

• DG Climate Action – Bonn climate change conference (COP23) page
• Questions and Answers on the UN climate change conference in Bonn
• Paris Agreement

Source European Commission