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Climate Change

Verdict on Talanoa Dialogue

Does the COP24 outcome on the final rulebook of the Paris tions was not widely supported. The Japanese expert said least
Agreement proves that the Fijian COP23 Presidency’s much- developed countries and some European countries supported
touted Talanoa Dialogue has failed in providing a much more the Talanoa calls for higher ambitions but countries like the
stronger result in Katowice? US, Japan, China and India did not.
Not necessarily. This Pacific cultural form of problem reso- Canada, Ukraine and Jamaica were listed as nations that
lution through story telling was not introduced to replace the wanted to submit increased climate pledges in 2020. The so
formal negotiation sessions of the UNFCCC. If anything, it was called High Ambition Coalition whose membership included
to compliment negotiations, more so to inspire countries to rev the EU, UK, Germany, France, Argentina, Mexico and Canada
up their ambitions. also pledged to “step-up” their ambition by 2020.
Speaking to Carbon Brief, WWF Japan’s climate and energy Newer groups like the Powering Past Coal Alliance has also
lead Naoyuki Yamagishi puts it this way: “On one hand, you reported a growing membership that has now grown to include
have a rulebook. The rulebook is, basically, a design of the Scotland, Israel, Senegal, Sydney and Melbourne.
function of the Paris Agreement – a blueprint for the machine to Some will agree that one of the many virtues of the Talanoa
function. The Talanoa dialogue is how much fuel you’re going dialogue is the good energies it injects into what is always
to put in it – we always call this the ambition.” been a very combative and stressful process.
Initiator of Talanoa and Fiji’s re-elected prime minister Frank “It was actually not a negotiation per se, it was more about
Bainimarama had urged UNFCCC states to go for ambitious dialogue with a style of storytelling, and also sharing positive
targets, increase it fivefold he told delegates at the Katowice COP. ideas,” said Yamagishi. “So that spirit didn’t previously exist
Said Carbon Brief: “In the end, the final text simply “invited” in the UNFCCC negotiations, so that was great, and it avoided
countries to “consider” the outcomes of the Talanoa dialogue the finger pointing exercises.
in preparing their NDCs and in efforts to enhance pre-2020 “But then again it also poses the challenge, even if you had
ambition.” a great discussion, at the end of the day it comes down to the
It went on to quote WWF’s Yamagishi as saying that the question whether you will act on it or not.”
reason the final text was weak was because racheting up ambi-

at COP24. All they did was to do nothing
about the goal and scheduled discussions
on it during COP26 in 2020.
But Carbon Credit reported some scaling
up of finances in Katowice.
“Germany said it was making a € 70m
contribution to the Adaptation Fund, while
smaller pledges from the likes of France,
Sweden, Italy and the EU raised the total
to $129m – a record annual fundraising
for the fund.
“Germany also became the first country
to announce a concrete amount for the
Green Climate Fund (GCF)’s replenish-
ment round, offering €1.5bn – double
the amount of its previous contribution in
2014. Norway also pledged $516m to the
GCF, while Japan said it would consider
more funding once the replenishment
process officially starts in 2019.”
The UK also used COP24 to announce
more climate project funding in the UK Industrial smoke Photo: Oransi.com
and in Africa, including a pledge for a net
zero cluster of heavy industry in the UK
by 2040. to measuring the climate alignment of their begin to link short-term carbon targets to
Financial institutions also rallied behind lending portfolios with the aim of steering executive pay from 2020.”
the call to increase climate financing. The them towards the “well below 2C” target, The plight of people displaced both in-
World Bank announced a $200 billion said Carbon Brief. ternally and externally due to the impacts
climate investment programme for 2021- “Finally, amongst the many business of climate change was also discussed at
2026 which doubles the $100b of its pre- statements made at the talks several major COP24 through the tabling of the report
vious five year investment plan. Five other announcements stood out. Maersk, the of a taskforce that studied ways of “avert-
banks – ING, BBVA, BNP Paribas, Société world’s largest shipping company, said ing, minimizing and addressing climate-
Générale and Standard Chartered – with a it plans to cut its net carbon emissions related displacements.”
combined loan book of €2.4tn committed to zero by 2050, while Shell said it will r editor@islandsbusiness.com

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