21 June 2018: The second meeting of the Ministerial on Climate Action (MoCA), which is convened by the EU, Canada and China, focused on expected outcomes from the 24th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 24) to the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement Work Programme (PAWP), a set of decisions to be adopted at COP 24 that will operationalize the Paris Agreement on climate change and facilitate its implementation.

The second MoCA met from 20-21 June, in Brussels, Belgium, immediately after the ninth Petersberg Climate Dialogue, which convened in Berlin, Germany, from 18-19 June, and was co-organized by the German and Polish environment ministers. It brought together representatives from 36 governments and was hosted by the EU. The first MoCA meeting took place in Montreal, Canada, in September 2017.

The Chairs’ Summary from the second MoCA highlights that ministers “confirmed that the Paris Agreement is irreversible and is not to be renegotiated, and stressed the importance of multilateralism.” Ministers also discussed the importance of COP 24, which will take place in Katowice, Poland, in December.

Ministers instructed negotiators to use the Bangkok session to produce a text that provides the basis for concluding the negotiations on the PAWP.

Recognizing the need to conclude the negotiations on the PAWP at COP 24, ministers “instructed negotiators to use the Bangkok session, with the help of the Presiding Officers, to produce a text that provides the basis for concluding our negotiations.” They also emphasized the need to be “true to the letter and the spirit” of the Paris Agreement.

On the upcoming High-Level Ministerial Dialogue (HLMD) on Climate Finance to be held in conjunction with COP 24, ministers discussed the need to demonstrate progress in mobilizing US$100 billion a year by 2020, while placing this goal in the context of the public and private investment that will be necessary to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.

The three convening Ministers – EU Climate Action and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete, China’s Special Representative Xie Zhenhua and Canadian Minister Catherine McKenna – called on all ministers to: ensure that the Paris Agreement forms the basis for the implementing guidance to be agreed at COP 24; encourage the development of technical solutions wherever possible; and “direct negotiators to ensure we meet the goal of agreeing to comprehensive guidelines at COP 24.”

In his opening remarks for the meeting, Commissioner Arias Cañete urged that the guidance to be agreed at COP 24 be “robust enough to deliver confidence that we are on track to implementing Paris, flexible enough to reflect relevant differences in Parties’ capacities, and dynamic enough to ensure that all Parties are improving their performance over time.” He also highlighted that the EU’s new targets on renewables and energy efficiency would allow the EU to raise the level of ambition of its nationally determined contribution (NDC) and “increase its emissions reduction target from the current 40% to slightly over 45% by 2030.”

On the first day of the two-day Ministerial, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), in partnership with five non-governmental organizations (NGOs), launched a five-year initiative called Nature4Climate. [Chairs’ Summary of Second MoCA] [EU News Release on EU Climate Action and Energy Commissioner Arias Cañete Co-Convening MoCA] [Opening remarks by Arias Cañete] [Government of Canada News Release on Minister McKenna’s Participation in MoCA]