9 December: Delegates at COP 21 discussed a revised version of the Paris outcome during an evening session of the Comité de Paris. Introducing the revised draft, COP 21 President Laurent Fabius informed parties that the text: is “inspired” by the ADP draft Paris outcome from Saturday, 5 December; incorporates ministerial facilitators’ recommendations; and draws from ADP co-facilitators’ suggestions and experience. He explained that the 29-page text, which contains three-fourths fewer brackets than the previous draft, aims to provide an overview of progress made and identify clear options on three cross-cutting issues still to be settled at the political level.

On progress made, he said compromise or significant progress had been made on capacity building, adaptation, transparency, and technology development and transfer. He noted initial progress had been made on forests, cooperative approaches and mechanisms, and preamble, and that progress on adaptation would enable parties to focus on loss and damage. On the remaining political issues, Fabius identified differentiation, financing and the level of ambition of the agreement. He encouraged parties to scale up consultations on these.

Consultations continued throughout the night in an indaba and a consultation, the first on differentiation, finance and ambition, facilitated by COP 21 President Laurent Fabius, and the second on other issues still requiring work, such as loss and damage, response measures, cooperative approaches and mechanisms, and preamble, facilitated by COP 20 President Manuel Pulgar-Vidal (Peru). [IISD RS Coverage of COP 21]

The Rio Conventions Pavilion convened ‘Gender Day’ on 9 December. During three sessions, participants discussed: the current state of gender and environmental sustainability knowledge; opportunities and gaps for monitoring the progress of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)’ implementation; means and approaches to enable equal rights to access, ownership, and control over land; gender-responsive actions to foster climate adaptation, disaster risk reduction (DRR), and opportunities for scaling-up, while bearing the SDGs in mind; how the Rio Conventions could support achieving the SDGs; and areas that still need to be improved to ensure better inclusion of gender across the three Rio Conventions. [IISD RS Coverage of Rio Conventions Pavilion]

During an event on ‘Climate Change and the Global Renewable Energy Revolution: Is Africa Ready?,’ organized by the Africa Pavilion, panelists spoke of the Africa Clean Energy Corridor as an “ambitious undertaking” that requires coordination among all sectors. They underlined that regional power pooling is important, and highlighted that nearly 600 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa have no access to electricity, but that there is enormous potential for clean energy to address this challenge. At an event on ‘Coordination of Pan African Energy Initiatives,’ participants addressed: the need for data on decentralized energy provision; the need to combine adaptation and mitigation; the potential for renewable and marine energy; and whether sovereignty issues can hamper efforts for better coordination of energy initiatives. During an event on ‘Creating Enabling Environments for Private Sector Finance for Renewable Energy in Africa,’ participants discussed: whether African countries should implement carbon taxes; the role of civil society with regard to private investment in renewable energy; and the effect of financial turbulence on African energy markets. At an event on the ‘The Electricity Model Base for Africa (TEMBA),’ panelists described TEMBA as an open source energy modeling tool designed to inform the development of medium and long term energy strategies so that policymakers can allocate resources most efficiently. [IISD RS Coverage of Africa Pavilion]

Numerous events took place around the COP 21 venue. The event ‘The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) at a Crossroads: Enhancing the Usefulness of the IPCC to the UNFCCC Process’ focused on: the role of methodologies in IPCC reports; the re-structuring of IPCC Working Groups; building capacity to engage more developing country authors in IPCC reports; and IPCC procedures and processes. At an event on ‘Climate Success Stories from Subnational Governments,’ which considered the initiatives being undertaken at the subnational level in Canadian provinces, panelists reported on climate change predictions for Ontario, where average temperature will increase by 4ºC by 2050, including increases of up to 7ºC in the Arctic areas. The event highlighted impacts of climate change including false springs that damage food crops and discussed potential plans to establish a “continental carbon price,” involving Mexico and the US. During an event on ‘Multi-Level Climate Governance: An Integrated Analysis of National, Regional and Local Policies,’ participants addressed ecosystem services and natural capital, and their importance for land-use change mitigation, providing insights from dynamic global vegetation models, and illustrating trade-offs between mitigation and CO2 fertilization on yields.

At an event on ‘Building a Resilient Pacific Through Effective Weather Climate and Early Warning Systems,’ future key areas of work for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) were highlighted, including: supporting national meteorological and hydrological services (NMHSs); sharing expertise; establishing early warning, climate and hydrological services; building capacities for global observation and data-exchange; engaging scientific and development partners; and encouraging enhanced cooperation among members, including on joint infrastructure. During the event ‘High-Level Meeting on Climate Change and the Role of Markets and Trade: Leveraging Co-Benefits,’ participants considered the need for multilateral trade frameworks dealing with environment to be coherent and the need for global discussions on food waste. During an event on ‘Global Market-Based Mechanisms for Reducing Emissions from Aviation and Shipping’ participants addressed: the political feasibility of regulating maritime emissions; market-based solutions, on the understanding that climate change is essentially a market failure; effects of free trade agreements; and transparency in the negotiations.

At an event on ‘Planet at the Crossroads: Advancing Nature Based Solutions to Climate Change after Paris,’ participants considered: green-and-grey infrastructure programme for coastal resilience, DRR and climate adaptation; the very low cost of nature-based solutions compared to other technological approaches; and potential actions for oceans beyond national jurisdiction. The event ‘Reducing Short-Lived Climate Pollutants for Quick Results on Climate and Development’ considered different perspectives on Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCPs) and activities to reduce their emissions. At an event on ‘Health Central to Climate Change Action,’ panelists emphasized the crucial role of medical professionals in educating the public about climate change and urged appropriate training of health professionals to deliver key changes in behavior. During the event ‘Why the Climate Change Agreement is Critical to Public Health,’ panelists cited new research estimating that reform of global energy subsidies could reduce CO2 emissions by more than 20%, reduce the number of premature deaths by more than half, and raise government revenues by nearly US$3 trillion a year. [IISD RS Coverage of Side Events] [IISD RS Coverage of Paris Climate Change Conference]