COP 22: Nations take forward global climate action

Countries accelerated global climate action across a broad range of areas at the 2016 UN climate change conference as they fast-tracked the political and practical aims of the historic Paris Climate Change Agreement.

While multi-billion and multi-million dollar packages of support for clean technologies; initiatives for boosting water and food security in developing countries were also among the many new announcements and initiatives launched, governments also set a rapid deadline of 2018 to complete the rule book for operationalising the Paris Agreement to ensure confidence, cooperation and its success over the years and decades to come.

Countries like Canada, Denmark, the European Union, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Switzerland and the United States announced over $23 million to provide a major scale-up of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Climate Technology Centre & Network (CTCN) as it delivers tailored capacity building and technical assistance at the request of developing countries across a broad range of mitigation and adaptation technology and policy sectors.

According to a press release by the UNFCCC, the conference’s vision commits these countries to various ambitious aims, including achieving 100 per cent renewable energy between 2030 and 2050.

Executive Secretary, UNFCCC, Patricia Espinosa, said, “The landmark Paris Agreement set the course and the destination for global climate action. Here in Marrakesh, governments underlined that this shift is now urgent, irreversible and unstoppable.

“During COP 22, the strength, the support for and the robustness of the Paris Agreement was furthered underlined, with nine more ratifications received at the UN in New York and the promise of many more to come. Nations reaffirmed that the agreement is in their national interests and a key catalyst to a better, more prosperous future for their citizens.”

COP 22, hosted by Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, saw almost 500 heads of state or government and ministers attend. It also witnessed the first meeting of the Paris Agreement’s top governing body following early entry into force of the Paris Agreement on 4 November.

At the close Fiji was announced as the host of the 2017 UN climate conference, with Germany assisting the Pacific island nation by holding it in Bonn.