COP23: What's at Stake in Bonn?

While the Paris Agreement agreed upon in December 2015 outlines what governments and stakeholders can do to prevent climate change, COP23 will be about action and implementation – even more so than the last conference. COP23 is extremely important for securing the momentum of the Agreement and for preparing increased global climate action until 2020.  Establishing the “Paris Rulebook” and Further Challenges The Paris Agreement provides an important framework for global climate action, but the concrete steps towards limiting global warming are not yet clear. This is why COP23 needs to focus on establishing the so called “Paris Rulebook” defining rules and regulations for implementing and monitoring the historic Agreement. Countries also have to find strategies for more ambitious climate action as well as push for progress in areas such as climate finance, capacity building, adaptation, and loss and damage. At the same time, the presidency of Fiji sheds a light especially on the very vulnerable position of small island states, probably drawing much attention to adaptation as well as climate finance.  A “technical” conference in an interesting political context Even though COP23 might not be considered a very political conference because of its rather technical tasks, the political context actually is very interesting and raises several questions: In which way will the USA contribute to the negotiation process after its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement? What roles will cities and communities play that have strongly opposed President Trump’s decisions on climate policy so far? Will countries be able to secure a roadmap for climate finance to provide the promised funds to the Green Climate Fund despite a rather slow start?  More reports on the climate conference:  www.fes.de/lnk/cop23