Climate Change

Japan and Brazil, as Co-Chairs, have hosted the 20th Informal Meeting on Further Actions against Climate Change (commonly known as the Japan-Brazil Informal Meeting) in Tokyo every year since 2002. The objective of the meeting is to have discussions in frank and informal manner among lead negotiators and other officials from various countries. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s meeting was held in a virtual format in a similar manner of last year, and participants discussed the outlooks and issues of negotiations toward COP27 to be held in coming November.

(1) Date:

Wednesday 16th and Thursday 17th of March, 2022

(2) Venue:

Virtual

(3) Co-Chairs:

(Japan) Ambassador, Mr. AKAHORI Takeshi, Assistant Vice-Minister and Director-General for Global Issues, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
(Brazil) Ambassador, Mr. Paulino Franco de Carvalho Neto, Ambassador, Secretary of National Sovereignty and Citizenship, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Participants:

Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Belize, Bhutan, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Egypt (COP27 Presidency), European Union, France, Gabon, Germany, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, United Kingdom (COP26 Presidency) and United States.

Observers:

The UNFCCC Secretariat, SBI and SBSTA Chairs, and Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES).

(1) Session 1 “Road after COP26: from negotiation to implementation”

The year 2022 marks the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the UNFCCC. The international society is entering the new phase of climate change from negotiation for rule-making to implementation, coupled with the full implementation of the Paris Agreement starting from 2020. In this session, participants discussed how to link an international framework to strengthening the implementation of climate change.
Many participants mentioned the importance of implementing measures against climate change pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels in 2022, taking into account the completion of the Paris Rulebook at COP26. Several participants expressed the need for the Parties that communicated NDCs not consistent with pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, to strengthen their actions such as enhancing their targets, and pointed out that the views of non-state actors including local / sub-national actors, indigenous people, gender, youth and so on should be reflected in the implementation of measures against climate change. Also, some participants mentioned the importance of multilateralism under the UNFCCC, in which measures against climate change have been implemented based on the outcome of Parties’ negotiations, and also pointed out the importance of collaboration with fora outside the UNFCCC such as those regarding protection of biodiversity and ocean, taking into account expanding the areas of climate change nexus.

(2) Session 2 “Outcomes to be delivered at COP27 and paths toward those outcomes”

Parties achieved the adoption of Glasgow Climate Pact as well as the agreement on several important agendas and launched various initiatives and pledges for strengthening measures against climate change at COP26. At the same time, the negotiations on multiple agendas will be continued toward COP27, and participants exchanged their views and necessary future works on each agenda item through following the three parts below.

Part.1: Mitigation, transparency, Article 6, etc

A number of participants shared the need to promote the implementation of mitigation measures based on each Party’s NDC and long-term strategy, and the initiatives / pledges such as Global Methane Pledge launched at COP26. Several participants mentioned Parties that have not communicated or updated their NDCs consistent with pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, should enhance their targets. In relation to this, participants pointed out that Parties should seek to enhance their ambition through “the work programme to urgently scale up mitigation ambition and implementation in this critical decade”, on which a decision is to be adopted at COP27.
Several participants expressed the expectation for the completion of remaining works for operationalizing the market mechanisms of Article. 6 of the Paris Agreement including the establishment of the 6.4 supervisory body and pointed out the necessity of capacity-building for implementation of the first Biennial Transparency Report scheduled to be submitted by the end of 2024.

Part.2: Adaptation, loss & damage, finance, etc

Several participants commented that ambitious outcomes at COP27 should be sought in the areas of adaptation, loss and damage, and climate finance addressed in this part, although discussions on these areas will continue beyond COP27 in the work programmes adopted at COP26.
Regarding adaptation, a number of participants pointed out the importance of implementing adaptation measures based on the best available science, quoting the Working Group II contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report of the IPCC. Also, several participants mentioned their expectations for the early implementation of “the Glasgow–Sharm el-Sheikh work programme on the global goal on adaptation (GGA)” and progresses in the discussion on the GGA.
Regarding loss and damage, several participants mentioned the importance of the agreement on the institutional arrangement of the Santiago Network on which a decision is to be adopted at COP27 and their expectation for the progresses in discussions under “the Glasgow dialogue” on loss and damage, which was launched at COP26.
Regarding climate finance, several participants mentioned the need to continue the efforts to achieve the goal to mobilize USD 100 billion per year jointly by developed country Parties and their expectation for progress in the discussion under the ad hoc work programme on the new collective quantified goal on climate finance.

Part.3: Global Stocktake, science, ocean, technology, etc. (cross cutting issues)

A number of participants expressed their opinions that the Global Stocktake (GST) is an important process to review the measures based on the Paris Agreement and the GST should be conducted to lead to enhance Parties’ ambitions, reflecting the best available science such as the Working Group II contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report of the IPCC. Some participants suggested that participation from non-state actors should be ensured in the GST process because of their widening roles in measures against climate change.
Participants expressed their expectations for the progress in the discussion on climate change and ocean, referring to the ocean-related international fora to be held in 2022.