20 COPs in 23 years: We are now told that one more COP will not transform the world .

Get ready for ‘sustainable negotiations’! We are not yet there. After 23 years and 20 COPs,UNFCCC says 21st COP will  not decide the transformation.  Christina Figueres, Executive Secretary of UNFCCC warns that the fight against climate change is a process and that the necessary transformation of the world economy will not be decided at one conference or in one agreement.

“This is probably the most difficult task we have ever given ourselves, which is to intentionally transform the economic development model, for the first time in human history”Ms Figueres stated at a press conference in Brussels.

The Top UN Climate Change Official is optimistic that a new international treaty will be adopted at Paris Climate Change conference at the end of the year. However the official, Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of UNFCCC,  warns that the fight against climate change is a process and that the necessary transformation of the world economy will not be decided at one conference or in one agreement.

“This is the first time in the history of mankind” she said “that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the industrial revolution. That will not happen overnight and it will not happen at a single conference on climate change, be it COP 15, 21, 40 – you choose the number. It just does not occur like that. It is a process, because of the depth of the transformation.”

Four goals

Figueres, however, pointed out that the legal treaty is only one of four important parts  of the process. In addition to the treaty, there are the current Climate Change actions from now and until 2020, the  financing packages and the so-called Intended National Determined Contributions (INDCs).  These are the actions that countries intend to take under a global agreement from 2020 and have to be publicly outlined before the start of the conference. It is expected that all major economies will deliver their plans in time: the US, China, and the European Union have already shown their cards.

Maximum level of ambition

Ms Figueres went on to say that the sum total of the national contributions are not expected to be enough to limit the increase of world temperature to 2ºC.

“That is not a discovery, that is not a breaking news item. We need to get to the maximum level of ambition of collective INDCs because what we are going to have to do all of the time is to close the gap between what science tells us where we have to be and where we actually are….But the point is will we be at the end destination? I would argue, yes.”

See part of the interview :

https://europa.eu/eyd2015/en/unric/posts/questions-cristina-figures-cop21