Civil society organisations and women’s groups call for urgent response and decision from parties at the additional SB 48.2 intersessions taking place in Bangkok from 4-9 September in preparation for the COP24 in Katowice, Poland for the following matters of priority for Paris Agreement Work Programme  –

  • For transparency frameworks to truly account the action and support for implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions and 1.5 degree ambition it must take into account the rights based principles that Parties already agreed upon in the Preamble of the Paris Agreement – gender equality, rights of indigenous peoples, ecosystem integrity and protection of biodiversity, respecting human rights and intergenerational equity, ensuring food security and just transition as well as public participation –  that needs to be incorporated into singled items under the APA in order for them to be operationalised.
  • Recognising the transparency arrangements under the Convention, and special circumstances, to uphold and align the framework within existing UN resolutions and conventions on human rights complementary to PAWP.
  • Common reporting guidelines on information related to climate change impacts and adaptation to factor in SDG and Sendai frameworks for disaggregated data and information, in consultation with non-party stakeholders like civil society.
  • Committing to strengthening mandates for Standing Committee on Finance serving the Paris Agreement in assessment of climate finance flows, keeping in mind the vulnerabilities and risks particularly faced by women, children, indigenous people and migrants, especially in least developed countries and small island developing states in the absence of long-term, scaled up, predictable, new and additional financing from developed countries without conditionalities.
  • Climate finance in all forms including private sector must be accounted as public finance and comply to transparent accounting from both developed and developing countries.
  • Separating discussions on climate finance mechanisms like Green Climate Fund and its replenishment process from SB 48.2 or COP24 agenda items are disastrous for responding to the urgent nature of the current climate crisis, that further deepens the existing inequalities within and among countries, and therefore requires political will and unity beyond bilateral approaches.
  • Alliances between fossil fuel industries and governments that have opted out of Paris Agreement is threatening the integrity of PAWP and delaying decisions among parties to the Agreement. Such harmful influences must be blocked by governments that are committed to ensuring the implementation of the agreement.
  • While expert reviews on capacity building especially on matters of mitigation are welcomed for strengthening global climate action, these recommendations must not be limited to scientific reports alone and need to be in consultation with civil society groups for contextualizing to local realities.