Speaking just days after the entry into force of the Paris Agreement on climate change was triggered, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa called for nations to work quickly to implement that accord. “We stand at a moment unlike any other in our collective history and the next few years will determine whether or not we have made the most of this opportunity,” Espinosa said Monday during a keynote address at the Chatham House Climate Change 2016 conference in London.
Until recently, entry into force of the agreement, which nearly 200 nations adopted last December at the last 21st session of the Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC (COP21), seemed unlikely before 2017 or 2018. However, a massive international push resulted in the successful triggering of the milestone last week.
The accord’s entry into force required domestic ratification by 55 nations representing at least 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. A total of 11 new parties ratified the agreement last Wednesday, surpassing the 55/55 threshold and setting up the accord to enter into force on Nov. 4, just before COP22, scheduled for Nov. 7-18 in Marrakesh, Morocco. Rwanda and Poland joined later in the week, bringing the current count to 76 nations representing a total of 59.9 percent of global emissions.
These 76 nations currently comprise the CMA, the parties of the Paris Agreement, and will meet for the first time in Marrakesh as such. The group will need to decide in coming years on a number of implementation items related to the agreement, such as the form of the transparency mechanism of the agreement, and exactly how to run a five year review cycle of national commitments called for in the agreement.
“COP22 this year in Marrakech will not just be a celebration of the entry into force of the Paris Agreement in record time where the first meeting of the CMA will be held. It will also be the first COP that places implementation and action squarely at the center of attention,” Espinosa said.