26 September 2017: The 21st meeting of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (CCAC) Working Group prepared a ‘Bonn Communiqué’ for discussion at the CCAC High Level Assembly (HLA), which will take place in November 2017 in Bonn, Germany, on the margins of the 23rd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 23) to the UNFCCC. The Communiqué outlines, inter alia, the Coalition’s accomplishments and priority actions, and includes factsheets on agriculture and waste providing details on voluntary actions.

The meeting aimed to: prepare for the CCAC HLA; advance the CCAC’s objective of leveraging finance at scale; consider the draft CCAC finance strategy; discuss the proposed Pathway Approach for short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) to achieve sustainable development and limit the global temperature rise to under 2°C above preindustrial levels; and assess progress on metrics as a follow-up to the April 2017 Working Group meeting. SLCPs include black carbon, methane (precursor to tropospheric ozone) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).

The Global Pathway Approach establishes a near-term goal of halving the rate of warming in the next 25 years.

Participants focused on voluntary actions in the 2017 HLA ‘Bonn Communiqué,’ with presentations and discussions on agriculture and municipal solid waste. Five breakout groups convened to discuss building support for the actions and Communiqué, which includes sections on the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, the role of cities and sub-national actors and financing.

Participants discussed the Global Pathway Approach, which is based on the recognition that the path the world chooses to reach its ambitious long-term climate target is as important as the target itself, and that early SLCP mitigation helps realize Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 (climate action). The approach establishes a near-term goal of halving the rate of warming in the next 25 years. The CCAC Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) presented on the “pathway analysis tool,” which utilizes well-established methods to evaluate the temperature response of mitigation measures.

Deliberations on leveraging financing at scale focused on current trends in climate finance, barriers to accessing funding, and climate finance gap, which cannot be bridged solely through public finance.

Participants also heard updates on the Household Energy Initiative, the Bricks Initiative, the work of the Demonstration Impact task force, and plans for the third meeting of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA).

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) presented its report titled, ‘Investing in Climate, Investing in Growth,’ which assesses how governments can generate inclusive economic growth in the short term, while progressing towards climate goals to secure sustainable growth in the long term.

The CCAC Working Group, which convened from 25-26 September 2017, in Paris, France, oversees the cooperative activities of the Coalition, and is the CCAC body that makes regular decisions on operational matters. The next Working Group meeting will take place in Toronto, Canada, from 16-20 April 2018.

The CCAC is a voluntary international coalition of governments, international organizations, the private sector and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that aims to: reduce emissions of SLCPs; avoid millions of premature deaths; promote food and energy security; and address near-term climate change. Established in February 2012 by Bangladesh, Canada, Ghana, Mexico, Sweden and the US, together with UN Environment, it currently has 119 Partners consisting of 57 countries, 17 intergovernmental organizations and 45 NGOs. [CCAC Website] [CCAC Working Group 21st Meeting Webpage] [IISD RS Coverage of the 21st CCAC Working Group]