Finishing Paris Agreement rulebook at COP24 in Katowice “feasible” – German negotiator

It is “feasible” that the UN climate summit in Katowice in December (COP24) will produce an agreement on implementation guidelines (also called rulebook or work programme) to the Paris Climate Agreement, Germany’s negotiator Nicole Wilke from the environment ministry has told journalists. At the conclusion of a preparatory meeting held in Bangkok, Wilke said that some parts of the text, which is to define the rules for countries to measure and report emissions, climate action, adaptation to climate change and climate finance, were already “very mature,” while others, particularly those concerning reporting on climate change mitigation, still reflected diverging views. The German delegation also expects the COP in Katowice to prompt member states to start taking stock of their current climate actions and raise their ambition to reduce global warming to well below 2°C, as set out in the Paris Agreement of 2015.
NGO Germanwatch said that one of the reasons why negotiations weren’t making faster progress was divergent approaches to the issue of climate finance. In order to ensure success in Katowice, “industrialised countries must provide for reliable climate finance so that climate change mitigation and adaptation to climate change become possible worldwide,” Germanwatch team leader for international climate policy Rixa Schwarz said.

Find a press release by the environment ministry in German here and the Germanwatch press release in German here.

For background on the Katowice COP read the CLEW article Poland's Katowice COP: Next coal country hosting UN climate talks.