Time is a strange thing at climate negotiations. From the outside, it might seem that two weeks is a fairly long time; inside, it can feel like meetings are over in a flash. Days fill up with back-to-back sessions. The line between today and yesterday blurs. Lack of sleep doesn’t help.
But how much time do you need for real progress? Discussions on some issues, such as agriculture, are notorious for overstretching their allocated time. For other issues, such as emissions from aviation and shipping fuel, agreement is out of sight no matter how many sessions get allocated. Time, as they say, is nobody’s friend.
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Time management surfaced as a tricky issue in several discussions on Monday. In discussions on arrangements for intergovernmental meetings, several delegates reaffirmed everyone’s responsibility to stick to the allotted speaking time to avoid meetings running over. Observers had expressed great frustration over the fact that, by the time they spoke during the opening plenary, it was to a largely empty room: party representatives had left for the night. The US called upon parties to give observers the courtesy of staying and listening to their statements, and the European Union supported having observer statements alternate with those by individual parties, following group statements.
Running out of time is the bugbear of tricky agenda items. Negotiators addressing reporting and transparency issues were hopeful that extra sessions would go a long way towards forwarding clean text to the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 27). The first week took steps towards ironing out the transition between reporting under the Convention and the Paris Agreement—always keeping an eye out for the need to “future proof” the process in case of a future withdrawal from the Agreement. Given some earnest engagement over bridging proposals, there is hope that additional time will in this case actually do the trick.
All ENB photos are free to use with attribution. For UNFCCC SB56, please use: Photo by IISD/ENB | Kiara Worth.
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Second Technical Expert Dialogue on Climate Finance
Delegates gather for the second Technical Expert Dialogue under the ad hoc work programme on the new collective quantified goal on climate finance
Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary, UNFCCC
Co-Chair Kishan Kumarsingh, Trinidad and Tobago
Michael Button, COP 26 Presidency
Preety Bhandari, World Resources Institute (WRI)
Zaheer Fakir, Co-Chair of the Standing Committee on Finance
Delegates during the session
Delegates break out into groups to discuss how to frame the new finance goal
Informal Consultations Throughout the Day
Informal consultations on the revision of the UNFCCC reporting guidelines on annual inventories for Annex I Parties
Informal consultations on gender and climate change
Informal consultations on the rules, modalities, and procedures for the mechanism established by Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement
Informal consultations on matters relating to the Adaptation Fund
Informal consultations on matters relating to reporting and review under Article 13 of the Paris Agreement
Delegates from the G-77/China huddle during the informal negotiations on the global goal for adaptation
Delegates huddle during the informal consultations on common metrics to calculate the carbon dioxide equivalence of greenhouse gases
Global Stocktake Dialogue
Delegates during the Global Stocktake Technical Dialogue
Three roundtables take place during the day
María José Sanz Sánchez, Basque Centre for Climate Change
Simon Cardy, South Africa
Andy Reisinger, IPCC Working Group III
Musonda Mumba, UN Development Programme (UNDP)
Mwanahamisi Salimu Singano, Women and Gender
Outi Honkatukia, Ministry of Environment, Finland
Gabriela Blatter, Switzerland
Delegates raise their placards to speak
Paris Committee on Capacity-building
Delegates gather for the 6th meeting of the Paris Committee on Capacity-building (PCCB)
PCCB Co-Chair Roberta Ianna, Italy
Kunzang, Bhutan
Hayrapet Hakobyan, Armenia
Crispin d'Auvergne, Saint Lucia
Renilde Ndayishimiye, Burundi
Hannah Lyons, US
Delegates during the session
Delegates take notes during the session
Observer Farewell for Patricia Espinosa
Family photo with Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary, UNFCCC, and observer groups
During a surprise farewell party arranged by observer delegates, Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary, UNFCCC, is thanked for her unending support for civil society
Observer delegates give Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary, UNFCCC, a standing ovation and applaud her work within the climate process
Gina Cortés Valderrama, Women and Gender
Ceris Jones, Farmers
Yunus Arikan, Local Government and Municipal Authorities
Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary, UNFCCC, thanks the observers, reminding them of their invaluable role in addressing climate change
Civil Society Action on Gender
Before the start of the Global Stocktake (GST), members of the Women and Gender constituency perform an action called 'Spot the G in GST' to highlight that gender matters for ambition, mitigation, adaptation, and finance
Around the Venue
Family photo of the European Youth Adaptation Forum
To commemorate the 30-year anniversary of UNFCCC, bags from each of the COPs are on display
Ian Fry, Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in the context of Climate Change
Delegates from the US consult
Luca Brusa, UNFCCC Secretariat
Annela Anger-Kraavi, Estonia
Stella Gama, Malawi, speaks with a delegate
Archie Young, UK, speaks with a delegate
A delegate reads the Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) to keep up to date with the meeting
Around the venue
