As the first step on the post-Paris journey, nations were able to meet in Marrakesh as Parties to a global agreement already in legal force after less than one year. 115 of 195 Parties have now ratified the Paris Agreement which required just 55 ratifications (and 55% of emissions) to come into law. This is an extraordinary achievement bearing in mind that it took 12 years for the Kyoto Protocol to make the leap from paper to practice.
COP22 aimed to take forward actions agreed last year. Progress was made against the Paris Work Plan, including a commitment to finalise the “Paris rulebook” by 2018. At the same time progress was also being made by governments and by non-Party stakeholders – companies, investors and subnational governments which will have a key role in the low-carbon transition. Here are a few indicators of action at scale from Marrakesh:
- 675 companies and investors have made ambitious climate commitments through We Mean Business including 200 companies which have committed to set a Science-Based Target for emissions and 32 companies which have committed to improve water security;
- 22 countries have joined the 2050 Pathways initiative and will set a national climate plan to meet the Paris emissions goal of keeping the world well below 2 degrees of global warming. The United States, Mexico, Germany and Canada have already published 2050 climate plans.
- 83 companies have now committed to use 100% renewable power, and 48 Vulnerable Countries pledged in Marrakesh to move towards using 100% renewable energy after a year when renewable energy became ever more mainstream;
- 29 new state and regional governments joined the Under2 Coalition which now comprises 136 subnational governments and a collective GDP over $22 trillion.
In the context of the political changes that have taken place across the world this year the steadfast intent articulated in Marrakesh by Parties to the Paris Agreement shines out like a beacon.
2016 also marked the start of a new focus on demonstrating action and progress, building on the commitments made in 2015. Within the negotiations the ‘Facilitative Dialogue’ in 2018 will support enhancement of national climate plans in advance of the 2023 Global Stocktake. In addition the Climate Champions set out a vision for using the UNFCCC’s NAZCA Portal to track the progress of the 12,549 (and counting) climate commitments by Non-Party Stakeholders.
CDP’s 2016 report launched shortly before COP together with We Mean Business, ‘Out of the Starting Blocks’, set a baseline for assessing corporate climate action which will be revisited annually going forwards. The ACT project, which is CDP’s collaboration with France’s ADEME and was widely discussed in Marrakesh, provides a sector-specific methodology for assessing how companies are moving towards a post-Paris world.
Looking ahead to 2017, key objectives include moving further and faster to finance the low-carbon transition, making faster progress on decarbonising the high-emitting sectors on which our economy relies, and understanding the new political landscape. We also look further to 2018, and after that to the other milestones towards the Paris Agreement goal of achieving net zero emissions by mid-century. There is plenty of work to do to get there, but the map now has more signposts on it and we have most definitely started the journey.