Now that the negotiation of the Paris Agreement is complete, it’s time for nations to begin implementing their intended nationally determined contributions, preferably even before the accord enters into force, United National Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres said Tuesday during the UNFCCC’s Bonn Climate Change Conference. “We do have a remarkable opportunity, everyone, to carve out a new reality because we have a very good blueprint but we have to make it real, and that means putting up our shirt sleeves and doing the hard work,” she said in a panel discussion.
In the run-up to the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC late last year, nearly 200 nations submitted their intended nationally determined contributions to the agreement. These INDCs consist of national pledges of strategies to counter climate change. The United States, for example, has pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 26-28 percent by 2025. The INDCs comprise the bulk of the Paris Agreement, which is essentially a framework under which nations are to pursue their individual commitments.
The INDCs drop the “I” and graduate to NDCs once the submitting nation ratifies the agreement. At this time, 16 nations have done so. “We have to move from intended to implemented NDCs … perhaps the most exciting area of implementation, because this is exactly where we touch the ground. This is exactly where we actually do bring enhanced wellbeing to people, to cities, to local communities,” Figueres said.
In order to implement their INDCs, and eventual NDCs, nations must do three things, Figueres said. First, they must identify projects that will deliver on their pledges. “Some of these INDCs do have very specific project ideas or some project descriptions, most do not. Most have sectoral targets. Most have policies and measures,” she explained.
Once the nations have taken their INDCs to “the next level of granularity” and identified the projects they will undertake, they then have to determine how they will carry out those efforts. “The second question is, of course, so what do we need, what needs to be put in place in order for me as a country to get what I want out of that identification of my priorities?” she said.
Generally, the answer to that question will be a combination of things, including policies that need to be put in place, public and private financing that will have to be secured, and institutional or other capacity-building infrastructure that needs to be established, Figueres noted.
Finally, once the projects have been identified, and obstacles have been addressed, it is imperative that nations follow through, she said. “Identify the project is No. 1, No. 2 [is] identify what do we need to get there, and No. 3 [is] identify the critical pathway that needs to be walked down in order to be able to get us from the project, the ideal project, the project that we want … whatever it is, we have to get down to changing the reality,” Figueres concluded.
Governments at the Bonn Climate Change Conference will discuss the next steps necessary to implement the Paris Agreement. Delegates are also meeting for the first time as the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement (APA) to begin to prepare draft decisions on all the issues in the Paris Agreement yet to be decided, such as developing mechanisms to ensure adaptation activities are occurring and a framework for countries to address climate change related loss and damage issues.
