Why is COP24 so important?

– In Paris, the countries of the world made a conscious choice to initiate a transformation to a low-carbon society. This agreement resulted in three clear targets: the temperature goal, increased resilience and adaptation ability, and transformation of financial flows in line with low-carbon development. If Paris was about “what”, Katowice is about “how”. In other words, we will discuss how we can implement these commitments in a transparent and comparable way, in order to see if our actions lead to reduced carbon emissions, and to ensure reliability of the bottom-up perspective of the COP system.

What are your biggest expectations from COP24?

– I hope that we will be able to adopt the Paris Agreement’s rulebook – frameworks, structures and guidelines that will lead our actions. I also hope that we will protect our global ownership by ensuring that countries have a shared, yet differentiated, responsibility depending on their circumstances. This is what helped us reach the agreement in Paris, and this is what will help us now.

For me, it is crucial that the rulebook is robust and dynamic. A robust rulebook will help us compare outcomes of our actions so that we can follow up on them in future. With a dynamic rulebook, we will have incentives to increase ambitions over time. We know that everyone needs to do more, and the rulebook should help us along the way – not hinder from setting higher goals. Even though I am optimistic, we should not underestimate the obstacles that we might face in Katowice.

How will the IPCC special report on the global warming of 1.5 °C impact the negotiations in Katowice?

– The report has become a clear signal that the world needs urgent actions. The report was in focus of a group of ministers, including Minister for International Development Cooperation and Climate Isabella Lövin, during the PreCOP, the UN climate conference held annually before COP. The report itself is a result of the Paris meeting where the UN climate panel, IPCC, got the assignment. We will see how exactly it will influence COP only during the meeting itself. The report will be the foundation for the so-called Talanoa Dialogue that will take place during COP24. The purpose of the Dialogue is to evaluate the global climate action in relation to the Paris Agreement’s temperature goal. The result will be further incorporated in the review of measures that the countries should implement by 2020. At the same time, it is important to remember that the purpose of the meeting in Katowice is to reach an agreement about the implementation rulebook.

What are your expectations from the business sector’s contribution during the meeting in Katowice?

– The 1.5-degree report shows that the transformation that we are to perform is one of a kind. We cannot manage that without the business sector. In Katowice, business should show that the transformation is feasible, and that its benefits are not only climate-related. A part of the UN climate process is an arena that we call the Global Climate Action Agenda. It is a platform where stakeholders from different sectors meet to demonstrate their solutions, form partnerships and, perhaps, take on new commitments. The corporate presence tends to create positive dynamics. A positive momentum in negotiations is created when companies show how much is already happening with the existing technology. Companies must get the opportunity to contribute to the Talanoa Dialogue. The Dialogue focuses on three questions related to the temperature goal: Where are we right now? Where are we going? How can we get there? It is companies’ contribution to the last question that is most crucial. The UN’s global reach has never been more important, and we can only reach our goals if we work in different directions, and if both business and the civil society are involved in the transformation process that we are about to implement.

Johanna Lissinger Peitz, Chief negotiator for the Swedish delegation at the international climate negotiations, as well as one out of three Chief negotiator for the EU with responsibility for climate finance.