Civil society groups call on countries to make progress on implementation of Paris Agreement

Amidst a worsening climate crisis, countries have gathered in Bonn, Germany from the May 8 to 18 for three simultaneous meetings under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Representatives from Climate Action Network, a network of over 1000 civil society organisations working to fight climate change in 120 countries, have called on governments to use the climate talks in Bonn to pick up from where they left off in Marrakech in advancing work on the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

Sven Harmeling, Climate Change Advocacy Coordinator at CARE International, emphasized that the urgency to get the Paris Agreement off the ground is crucial given that impacts from climate change are becoming more dire with more droughts in Africa and heatwaves in India.

The scale of ambition has to be commensurate with the urgency that we are seeing from impacts.

Speaking on the specifics of advancing work on implementation, he added. 

"We also need to see Parties at Bonn bring more clarity and progress on accounting modalities for climate finance which was a left-over issue from Marrakech," he said.

Brandon Wu, policy director from ActionAid US, highlighted that as uncertainty on the US' position on the Paris Agreement continues, civil society groups urge the Trump administration to stay in the Agreement but it must also respect the spirit of the Agreement to meet the goals of Paris.

"Even at the current scenario we don't meet the goals of keeping warming to 1.5 degrees C and any move to scale down ambition will definitely not meet this goal – which is what Paris is all about," he added. There has been a remarkable push from Governors and Mayors to keep the US in the Agreement, he added.

Lucile Dufour, Climate Action Network France, spoke about the victory of Emmanuel Macron and the implications of this for climate action.

"Although Macron didn’t make energy transition a priority during his campaign, he is unlikely to stop environment progress. Without a push from other leaders and civil society he will not increase ambition so we still have work ahead of us. He did say France will keep the lead in global climate progress. If he is to do this he needs to adopt climate policies to increase international solidarity and domestic policies to raise ambition."

Observers have underlined the need for the 10-day international conference to advance substantive progress on the rules and processes that will fully operationalise the Paris Agreement. The session marks the half-way point to the finalisation of this process by 2018.

Earlier this month, the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group convened in Bonn for preparatory meetings to consolidate its positions and strategies ahead of the upcoming negotiations.

The group believes that significant pollution cuts and the transfer of finance and technology are needed in order to limit global warming to well below 1.5C, the limit identified by many scientists and social movements across the world.

Chair of the LDC Group, Gebru Jember Endalew, in statement, said: “Climate change is costing lives and livelihoods, particularly in poor and vulnerable countries so there is a need for urgent action by all countries. The LDC Group will continue to push for fair and ambitious action by all.”

Endalew added: “for many of our countries, keeping the global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius is a matter of survival. Therefore, we all have to work towards a cleaner, greener, low-carbon global society as soon as possible.

Many estimates suggest that more than $100 trillion is needed to transition to a global low-carbon society.