Environment and Forests Secretary Istiaque Ahmed has said the 23rd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 23) will formulate the rule book, guidelines and policies to implement the Paris Agreement.
‘This year’s conference will play an important role in implementing the climate deal,” he said while talking to UNB.
Mentioning that the climate change is a global phenomenon, he said Bangladesh is the worst-affected country compared to other countries. “We’ll, therefore, place our statement along with other affected countries here,” he said.
This year’s conference will feature discussions from representatives of 192 countries in three phases.
The first phase will feature member countries from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). The second phase will include member countries from the Kyoto Protocol sans the United States while the third phase will feature the countries that signed the Paris Agreement.
Sources at the Bangladesh delegation said the main point of the this year’s conference will be on how to formulate a policy through a series of discussions to implement the climate deal.
But agreement upon this formulation is being differed between the developed countries and the Presidency country of COP 23, Fiji, who are backed by the nations affected by climate change.
Fiji believes that the policies can be applied through dialogue, which can run till a decision is reached by 2018, while the developed countries are of the opinion of using long-term negotiations, which will delay the implementation process.
The policies include discussions on the supposed nationally-determined contributions (NDC) regarding climate change, regarding its elements, information and parameters.
Adaptation will also be a highly-discussed aspect, while structure for ensuring transparency in the Paris Agreement implementation, compliance mechanism and global stocktaking by 2023 will be other key topics.
Ziaul Haque Mukta, general secretary of Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods (CSRL), said alongside talking about implementing the Paris Agreement, emphasis should be given on how the previous treaties in Kyoto and Paris have failed to curb the rise of global temperature.
He also said as per the latest scientific statistics, the global leaders should determine what substantial steps should be taken to reduce greenhouse gas emission and increase climate change adaptation strategies.
Although US President Donald Trump withdrew his country’s name from the Paris Agreement, it will not have any adverse effect on the implementation of the agreement.
The organising country of COP 23 is Fiji. But due to their infrastructural lacking, the conference is being held in Germany under the United Nations’ supervision.
Technical negotiations will be held from November 6 to November 15 while high-level meetings will be held from November 15 to November 16.
Environment and Forests Minister Anwar Hossain Manju is leading a Bangladesh delegation to the high-level meetings.
