16 July 2015: A ‘North-Pacific Conference to Prepare for the Road to Paris’ brought together participants from Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and the Marshall Islands in Pohnpei, FSM, from 13-15 July 2015. It was followed by a technical training workshop on intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) on 16 July 2015.

The Conference was organized by the Government of the FSM, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and the Pacific Island Forum Secretariat (PIFS). It aimed to enhance the negotiating capacity and expertise of senior officials from Palau, FSM and the Marshall Islands on climate change adaptation, mitigation and finance in order to further specify their countries’ INDCs and support the coordination of political agendas for the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 21) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to be held in Paris, France, in November-December 2015.

The Conference included sessions on: climate change negotiations and key events; UNFCCC implementation issues; review of the negotiating text under the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) with regard to mitigation, the legal nature of the new agreement, adaptation and loss and damage, and finance; and financing instruments.

The technical training workshop on INDCs, organized by the Government of FSM, Climate Analytics and GIZ, endeavored to enable representatives from from Palau, FSM and the Marshall Islands to benefit from an exchange of views and lessons learned from their domestic preparations, as well as to acquire new perspectives, tools and skills to support them in completing their INDCs. [SPC Press Release] [IISD RS Sources]