Looking for Ambition in Rulebook City

7 September 2018

Rules, Rules, Rules €“ they are important and we all knowweneedthem!Themeetingroomsherearefilledwith delegates engaged in intense discussions over the minutiae of the Paris rulebook. The incoming Polish Presidency also never misses a chance to emphasize their laser focus on the rulebook outcome as their absolute priority for COP 24.

But there are other conversations going on here, on equally important subjects €“ where actions of Parties will match the ambitious objectives in the Paris Agreement. In the back room informal consultations, a vision for how the Talanoa dialogue will play out at COP 24 is taking shape, and, ECO hopes, on how it will grapple with the all-important IPCC 1.5 special report.

ECO expects the Polish COP Presidency, in close cooperation with the current Fijian Presidency, to ensure a strong message emerges from the Talanoa Dialogue and COP 24. A message that the world expects more than the ambition in the current NDCs, which puts the world on a path to 3 °C warming or more. A livable planet depends on a clear and unmistakable signal that the world expects countries to spare no effort to improve their NDCs by 2020 and close the emissions gap.

Without a strong and resounding drumbeat at COP 24 on scaled up ambition, the world will judge Katowice harshly.