UNFCCC COP 21 Preparations and Challenges

The twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC and the eleventh session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol are expected to take place from 30 November to 11 December 2015, in Paris, France.

The meeting will mark a decisive stage in negotiations on the future international agreement on a post-2020 regime, and will, as agreed in Durban, adopt the major outlines of that regime. By the end of the meeting, for the first time in over 20 years of UN negotiations, all the nations of the world, including the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, will be bound by a universal agreement on climate. In order for the agreement to come into effect in 2020, at the end of the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, subsequent COP meetings will work on finalizing its details.

For the preparation of this Conference, France is working in close consultation with Poland and Peru – the host countries in 2013 and 2014 – and with the international community and all civil society players. The French presidency is already totally galvanized to ensure an ambitious, fair, global climate agreement is reached in Paris in 2015, in order to limit global warming.

The French ambassador for climate negotiations, H.E. Jacques Lapouge, who will be in Geneva on Thursday 10 April, has issued a rallying call for both the public and private to work towards climate abatement ahead of the 2015 global climate conference in Paris.

An information session on the preparations of the UNFCCC COP21 by the French Ambassador for Climate Negotiations, took place at the International Environment House II. This event is organized in the framework of the Geneva Environment Network, in collaboration with the French Government.

Agenda

15:00
Coffee & Tea

15:15
Welcome and introduction (French and English)
Jan DUSIK, Director, UNEP Regional Office for Europe

15:20
Preparations and major challenges of the UNFCCC COP 21/ CMP 11 (French)
H.E. Jacques LAPOUGE, French Ambassador for Climate Negotiations

16:00
Question-and-answer session (French and English)

17:00
End

Opening remarks

Before introducing COP21 taking place in Paris in 2015, Jan Dusik remind the participants that three major climate change events/milestones are taking place this year.

IPCC Fifth Assessment Report

The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) is being launched this year. It will provide a clear view of the current state of scientific knowledge relevant to climate change. The conclusions of the first working group on the physical science basis were presented at the end of last year, at the Internatinal Environment House. IPCC met in Japan last month to finalize working group II contribution on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability, and are meeting now in Berlin to consider working group III contribution on mitigation.

United Nations Secretary-General Climate Summit

Another important event taking place this year is the United Nations Secretary-General Climate Summit in September 2014. This event is an integral part of his strategy to engage leaders and advance climate action and ambition, drawing on his global convening power and harnessing the full strength of the UN system, working in partnership with all sectors of society. The Summit will serve as a public platform for leaders at the highest level – all UN Member States, as well as finance, business, civil society and local leaders from public and private sectors – to catalyze ambitious action on the ground to reduce emissions and strengthen climate resilience and; and to mobilize political will for an ambitious global legal agreement by 2015 that limits the world to a less than 2-degree Celsius rise in global temperature. The Summit is intended to be a solutions-focused Summit that is separate from, but complementary to, the UNFCCC negotiating process. It aims to provide evidence that leaders across sectors and at all levels are taking action, thus expanding the reach of what is possible today, in 2015, and beyond.

More information on: http://www.un.org/climatechange/summit2014/

Climate Change COP20

The last major event taking place this year is the Climate Change COP20 taking place in Lima in December.

Climate Change COP21

For the preparation of the Climate Change COP21 conference, to be held in Paris, France is working in close consultation with Poland and Peru – the host countries in 2013 and 2014 – and with the international community and all civil society players. The French presidency is already totally galvanized to ensure an ambitious, fair, global climate agreement is reached in Paris in 2015, in order to limit global warming.

Discussion

Following questions and remarks from DRC, Egypt, Sierra Leone, WMO, WWF international, H.E. Jacques Lapouge provided additional information on various topics, including on the Copenaghen experience (logistics – transport and accomodation of developping countries), the negotiations process (blocks trust), the issue of co-chairs changing after Lima, the Green Climate fund, the links with Post-2015 process and SDGs, the inclusiveness of the process, financing the poorest countries, inovating financing, long term vision and ambition of the agreement, broad mobilazation, public/private financing, 30 years anniversary of the the Villach conference and decision to create IPCC, technology transfer and financing, specific results from Warsaw COP.

Agenda

Opening remarks

Discussion

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