Expo City buzzed with refreshed air after the day of rest as we entered the second (and political) week of COP28. All eyes were on the Presidency to hear more about the way forward with negotiations on finance, mitigation, response measures, and transparency convening throughout the day.
The Chairs of the Subsidiary Bodies (SB) provided an overview of progress to date and Sultan Al Jaber, delineating the plan for moving forward.
It was noted that the SBs could not complete work on: the Global Stocktake (GST), the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), just transition pathways work programme, mitigation ambition and implementation work programme (MWP), response measures, Paris Agreement Article 6, and the provision of financial and technical support for developing country reporting under the Paris Agreement.
President Al Jaber proposed that pairs of ministers would lead consultations on selected issues and senior negotiators would lead discussions on outstanding technical work, with reports on successful outcomes for all technical matters to be delivered on Saturday, 9 December by 3:00 pm.
President Al Jaber said that, following an informal stocktaking plenary on Saturday, 9 December, in the evening, a single group, to be called the “Majlis” (which means “council” in Arabic), would begin meeting on Sunday, 10 December. While this does not leave the co-facilitating ministers much time to advance political-level consultations, delegates were reassured to see many well-known, capable faces put in charge of these discussions and hoped they would still have a role to play in the Majlis.
A key highlighted issue was the lack of definintion of climate finance by varying reports from Oxfam and the OECD. In the absence of a common definition of climate finance, the reports differ in their methodology, especially with regard to the use of grant-equivalent figures.
President Sultan Al Jaber closed the session calling for a continued spirit of optimism, positivity, flexibility, and inclusivity.
Source: IISD ENB
Comments