From November 7-16, 2017, the global leaders met for the 23rd annual Conference of the Parties (COP 23) under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which aims to “prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”. It took place in Bonn, Germany from 6-17 November. The government of Fiji was the official host of the event. However, as Fiji cannot accommodate such large event, German government has kindly offered to host the event in Bonn. This year from Centre for Climate Change and Environmental Research (C3ER), BRAC University Ms. Roufa Khanum, Rezwan Siddiqui, and Marjan Nur lead by Dr. Ainun Nishat, Professor Emeritus, BRAC University attended the COP23. The main purpose to attend this COP was to contribute to the side events organized under the Climate Finance Transparency Mechanism (CFTM) project, as well as to participate other key events related to climate finance and governance, loss and damage. Building network with different organizations and individuals working in climate change sectors, and to share and learn the mutual knowledge and experiences was also the additional goal of this visit.
The main objective of this year’s COP was to simply move from promises to action to implement the Paris Agreement. At the conference, COP23 President and Prime Minister of Fiji Frank Bainimarama called on governments to make swift progress on taking forward climate action and finalizing the rulebook of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.The participating organizations have formed networks and alliances to develop ideas and strategies about renewable energy, smart mobility, living infrastructure and sustainable urban design. This has been the good news story of COP 23. Critical initiatives like Gender Action Plan, Local Communities and Indigenous People’s Platform, Launch of the Ocean Pathway Partnership and Insu Resilience were initiated at this year’s conference. The conference also offered nation states a unique opportunity to work more closely with cities, to plan for climate change. However, the COP23 recognized that the present commitment for reducing the GHG emissions isn’t sufficient to meet the principle objective set in Paris, which is to limit the rise in global average temperatures to a maximum of 2⁰ Celsius by the end of the century. C3ER’s participation in COP23 offered the unique opportunity for better understanding of the present trend of global climate actions. C3ER team actively participated in climate change negotiations, several side events, and networking events. Most notably, C3ER team presented the activity highlights, especially of CFTM at the two side events of November 13 and 16 which consecutively took place in Bonn Zone of COP 23 venue and in Derag Living hotel Kanzler of Boon, Germany.