Climate talks focus on consensus over politically vexed issues

As UN climate negotiations move into the second week, the focus is on finding compromises for politically vexed issues such as finding an acceptable system of accounting for the wide variation in development levels of countries and financial flows from developed to developing countries. Resolution to these two issues are central for finalising the rule book to operationalise the Paris Agreement.

Late on Saturday, the chairs of various groups handling different aspects of the rule book put out texts reflecting the progress made in the course of the first week of negotiations. However, there remains wide divergence in positions among counties.

Issues that require resolution ranges from the standard of information on emissions to be used for reporting progress in slowing down global warming to how often countries will be required to submit updated national climate plans.


Poland, which is chairing this round of talks, on Saturday evening announced that a text that addresses the currently unresolved issues will be completed by Tuesday.

Besides finalising the rule book, there was an expectation that countries would step up the scope of climate action to reflect the urgency expressed by science. This is unlikely to happen in a widespread manner, especially given the successful efforts by the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Russia to prevent robust incorporation of the most recent assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of the need to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

This comes as a big blow, particularly to vulnerable and developing countries. The setback on the inclusion of the IPCC special report puts a dampener on the possibility of increased efforts by countries to slow down climate change.

The other issue that could step up efforts is increased finance. Much will depend on how negotiations at the ministerial level proceed. There are three focused ministerial discussions slated for the week.