Highlights and images for 4 September 2018

Following an opening ceremony, parties at the Bangkok Climate Change Conference focused on establishing negotiating groups to continue their work on the Paris Agreement Work Programme (PAWP). Plenary meetings of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA), the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI), and the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement (APA) made good progress, with each body launching its work without major disagreements. In the afternoon, several of the negotiating groups held their first meetings and started substantive negotiations on various issues, including on:

• Accounting of financial resources provided through public interventions under Agreement Article 9.7;
• Matters related to Article 6 (market and non-market approaches);
• Common timeframes for nationally determined contributions (NDCs);
• The public registry referred to in Agreement Article 7.12 (adaptation communication);
• The public registry referred to in Agreement Article 4.12 (NDC registry);
• Further guidance in relation to the adaptation communication;
• The committee to facilitate implementation and promote compliance; and
• Further matters except the Adaptation Fund.

Negotiations on several other items are scheduled to begin on Wednesday.For extensive details on the day’s negotiations and to hear what delegates said in the corridors, see our daily Earth Negotiations Bulletin.

IISD Reporting Services, through its Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) Meeting Coverage, provided daily web coverage and daily reports from the Bangkok Climate Change Conference - September 2018. In addition, IISD Reporting Services has publish a summary and analysis report from the Conference.

Photos by IISD/ENB | Kiara Worth

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Opening Session

View of the dais during the opening session

UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa 

Frank Bainimarama, COP 23 President

Incoming COP 24 President Michał Kurtyka, Poland

Kaveh Zahedi, Officer in Charge, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP)

Surasak Karnjanarat, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Thailand

Opening Sessions of SBI, SBSTA, and APA

APA and SBI Co-Chairs consult informally on the dais

SBI Chair Emmanuel Dlamini, eSwatini

SBSTA Chair Paul Watkinson, France

APA Co-Chairs Sarah Baashan, Saudi Arabia, and Jo Tyndall, New Zealand

Abdullah Tawlah, Saudi Arabia

Majid Shafie-Pour, Iran, speaking on behalf of the Like-minded Developing Countries (LMDCs)

Informal Consultations throughout the Day

SBSTA contact group on matters relating to Article 6 of the Paris Agreement

SBSTA contact group on financial resources provided and mobilized through public interventions in accordance with Paris Agreement Article 9.7

SBI informal consultation on common timeframes for NDCs referred to in Article 4.10 of the Paris Agreement

SBSTA informal consultations on the technology framework under Article 10.4 of the Paris Agreement

Informal informal consultations on adaptation

Civil Society Action

Members of civil society demonstrate outside of UNESCAP, calling for an end to fossil fuels and for more progress to be made in the negotiations

Around the Venue

UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa speaks with Incoming COP 24 President Michał Kurtyka, Poland, before the start of the meeting

Members of the UNFCCC Secretariat

SBSTA Coordinator Wanna Tanunchaiwatana and SBSTA Chair Paul Watkinson, France

UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa

APA Co-Chairs Sarah Baashan, Saudi Arabia, and Jo Tyndall, New Zealand, speak with Sergey Kononov, APA Coordinator

Delegates from the Russian Federation

Annela Anger-Kraavi, Estonia, and Carlos Fuller, Belize

Patrick Suckling, Australia

Delegates from the EU consult informally

Delegates from Brazil

SBSTA Chair Paul Watkinson, France, consults with members of civil society

Marcelo Theoto Rocha, Brazil, speaks with Alf Wills, South Africa

Delegates consult between sessions

Chen Zhihua, China; Ravi Prasad, India; and Xolisa Ngwadla, South Africa

Delegates from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain

Delegates from Togo, Angola, and Bhutan

A delegate reads the Earth Negotiations Bulletin to keep up to date with the negotiations

Delegates from Chile

Delegates from the Maldives