Engagement at COP22

 

Against the colorful and historic background of Marrakech, Morocco, COP22 aimed to be the ‘COP of action.’On one hand, expectations for COP22 Marrakech were relatively low, after the groundbreaking global agreement emerging from COP21 Paris. On the other hand, the need to translate the political consensus of COP21 into tangible steps toward implementation of the Paris Agreement has never been more urgent. With the rate of global temperature increase exceeding most climate models, with political shockwaves from the United States threatening to disrupt progress in pre-2020 action on climate change, and with a pressing need for agreement on the rulebook for the Paris Agreement, COP22 had a high bar to clear for producing actionable outcomes.

 

We feel that the transport sector is responding to this call to action, and as a result of efforts over the past years, there was an unprecedented presence of transport at COP22. We were able to build bridges to other sectors in Marrakech, which is key to decarbonizing the transport sector. We feel empowered by the positive reception of our proposals for pre-2020 action alongside longer-term action, as well as the broad support for our call for inclusion of adaptation on more equal terms with mitigation.

The SLOCAT Partnership, under the Paris Process on Mobility and Climate (PPMC), organised a full-day Transport Day on 13 November 2016 during COP22 in Marrakech, Morocco.

The event brought together the global transport community with several goals, including developing perspectives for transformative action for transport in support of the 2DS/1.5DS targets; building bridges between transport and other sectors for integrated action on climate change and sustainable development, and supporting the Moroccan Presidency in realizing its COP22 objectives to create global implementation plans for the Paris Agreement, to accelerate pre-2020 solutions for Africa, and to increase focus on climate adaptation and the role of women in climate action.

Read more

After “COP of Action”, Transport Prepares to Act

One of the strongest recommendations from COP22 is that effective action on transport and climate change will require the transport sector to move beyond the UNFCCC process and to make active linkages with sustainable development-oriented processes as well as institutional processes within individual, transport related, sectors such as energy, health and finance. The PPMC will in 2017 therefore participate on a regular basis in processes outside the UNFCCC to build support for its plans to transform the transport sector. This makes it important that the PPMC ensures that analytical work on transport and climate change goes beyond climate aspects and integrates, where required or helpful, sustainable development aspects.

Download full report