19 November 2015: The incoming French Presidency of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC has released an aide-mémoire summarizing the outcomes of the Pre-COP meeting held from 8-10 November 2015 in Paris, France. The aide-mémoire reflects the incoming Presidency’s “understanding of the broad lines of the discussion.” The documents sets out the key messages from the four working groups on equity and differentiation, ambition, post-2020 finance, and pre-2020 action and support.

On equity and differentiation, the general considerations reported include that the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDRRC), in light of different national circumstances will be applied across the board but be put into practice differently for different elements of the agreement.

For mitigation, the COP 21 Presidency lays out the key messages that, among others: all countries will prepare, maintain and update a contribution; developed countries will continue to take the lead; provision of support is necessary for developing countries’ mitigation contributions; and there is ongoing debate about conditional versus unconditional contributions from developing countries.

On ambition, the Pre-COP considered the long-term goals, especially in terms of a temperature goal, and a global stocktake on mitigation, adaptation and means of implementation (MOI), with support for holding it every five years and many suggesting the first take place in 2018/2019, according to the document.

On post-2020 finance, the aide-mémoire states that the US$100 billion goal should be seen as a floor in the post-2020 period and that developed countries should continue to lead. The group reportedly converged on the idea of complementary contributions from other countries in accordance with national circumstances, but differed on how to express this idea. Other key messages reported are the importance of predictability for planning, the central role of public finance, that the Financial Mechanism of the Convention will serve the agreement, and that a signal to the economy is needed to shift investment flows.

On pre-2020 action and support, the group considered a facilitative dialogue in 2017/2018 that could take stock of current undertakings with the possibility of enhancing action and support, as well as proposals on the table related to high-level engagement, mobilizing non-State actors, and appointing two champions to catalyze cooperative action. Views differed on whether an adaptation Technical Examination Process (TEP) should be undertaken. On the US$100 billion goal, discussions considered, inter alia, the need for clarity on definitions, possible intermediary goals and creating a clear path to reaching the goal. In addition, a mechanism for capacity building was proposed in this group.

The aide-mémoire notes that ministers also had the opportunity to raise issues outside of these four working groups, and discussed, inter alia: parity between adaptation and mitigation; inclusion of loss and damage, and options for making the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts (WIM) permanent; the challenge of tackling the impact of response measures and economic diversification; possibilities for anchoring REDD+ in the agreement; and using sound climate science as a basis for action and contributions. Of the 70 Parties that took part in the meeting, 60 were represented at ministerial level or equivalent. [Aide-Mémoire] [French Presidency COP 21 Website] [IISD RS Story on the Pre-COP]