Climate Change

Japan and Brazil, as Co-Chairs, have hosted the Informal Meeting on Further Actions against Climate Change (commonly known as the Japan-Brazil Informal Meeting) in Tokyo every year since 2002. The purpose of the meeting is to exchange candid and informal discussions among chief negotiators and other officials from various countries. The Japan-Brazil Informal Meeting is recognized as one of the major meetings on climate change that serves as a good opportunity to look back at results of COP in the previous year and kickoff each year’s discussions towards next COP.

• (1) Date: Thursday, February 22 - Friday, February 23
• (2) Venue: Mita Conference Hall (Tokyo)

• (3) Co-Chairs:

  (Japan) Ambassador, Mr. Hideo Suzuki, Assistant Vice-Minister and Director-General for Global Issues, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

  (Brazil) Ambassador, Mr. J. Antonio Marcondes, Vice-Minister for the Environment, Energy, Science and Technology, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

(1) Participants (30 Parties):

Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, European Commission, Fiji (COP23 Presidency), France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Poland (COP24 Presidency), Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States

(2) Observers:

UNFCCC Secretariat, APA Co-Chairs, SBI and SBSTA Chairs and Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES)

(1) Session 1: Reflection on COP23

Expressing appreciation to Fiji as the first COP president from small island states, many participants shared the view that the major achievements at COP23 were development of the Paris Agreement Work Program（PAWP）, the design of Talanoa Dialogue [note] and the promotion of Global Climate Action（GCA）. Further developments of the Gender, discussions in the agricultural sector and actions about indigenous people were also pointed out as important outcomes.

[note] Talanoa Dialogue is a stocktaking of the collective progress on mitigation effort of Parties. "Talanoa" is a traditional approach used in Fiji and the Pacific islands to engage in an inclusive, participatory and transparent dialogue, which will be used for Facilitative Dialogue in 2018 by the COP Presidency’s proposal.

(2) Session 2: Expectation for COP24

Poland expressed its strong determination to success of COP24 as the incoming Presidency. Many participants referred the completion of PAWP in 2018 as the most expected outcome. The necessity of maintaining the political momentum through meetings on climate change during 2018 was also pointed out. With regard to Talanoa Dialogue, many participants showed expectation that it would lead to further understanding of the collective efforts of Parties in relation to progress towards the long-term goal and enhancing the ambition. The participants also showed their intention to continue to engage in Pre-2020 implementation and ambition, while a part of developing countries emphasized that ways of operating differentiation and predictability of climate finance should be addressed.

(3) Session 3: Advancing the Paris Agreement Work Program for its completion

The participants discussed how to elaborate PAWP while utilizing outcomes so far including the informal notes in order to complete in 2018. The participants pointed out the importance of the acceleration of the technical discussions, optimization of PAWP taking into the linkages between agenda items and the balance achieved in the Paris Agreement among others.

(4) Session 4: Providing the effective support for the implementation of the Paris Agreement

The importance of climate funds for the steady implementation the Paris Agreement was confirmed. The participants discussed about the challenges about the synergy and the effective management of various climate-related funds including Green Climate Fund (GCF) and Global Environment Facilities (GEF), and its access to the funds. The participants exchanged their opinions and views on the Article 9.5, future direction of the Adaptation Fund, mobilization of private finance.

The meeting served as a fruitful opportunity for the participants to deepen their mutual understanding of the agendas such as Talanoa Dialogue, PAWP and climate finance. The commitment for the completion of PAWP in 2018 was also reaffirmed.
Japan as Co-Chair stimulated candid discussions among the participants at the meeting. Japan also contributed to deepening of the discussions on various issues including effective ways of inputs for Talanoa Dialogue, how to advance adopting PAWP and necessity of accountability for both providers and recipients to enhance predictability of climate finance and points for adopting PAWP.