World Gathers to Preparation for Paris Climate Pact Implementation

Bangkok: Against the backdrop of severe and record heatwaves, bushfires, droughts, and floods across the world, governments are convening a supplementary six-day meeting here from Tuesday to prepare the implementation guidelines of the Paris Climate Change Agreement. The guidelines are needed to make the 2015 Paris Agreement work fairly and transparently for all.

Following a two-year negotiation process, the implementation guidelines are set to be adopted at the annual climate conference, COP24, to be held in Katowice, Poland in December. While the talks have made modest progress, the Bangkok meeting is the last opportunity before COP24 to accelerate negotiations. “Building on progress made, countries now need to take a decisive step forward in preparing the ambitious and balanced outcome that we need in Katowice,” Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), told reporters here.

Achieving success at COP24 will be challenging without the preparation of an official negotiating text on the implementation guidelines. “It will be critical for negotiators in Bangkok to produce solid text-based output that can function as the basis for the concluding negotiations in Katowice and be turned into the final implementation guidelines of the Paris Agreement at COP24. (IANS)