BONN, Germany, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- The 23rd Conference of Parties (COP 23) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) kicked off here on Monday with a call to adhere to the path of Paris Climate Change Agreement.
COP 23 is widely seen as an important first test for the ambitious international reforms agreed in Paris. The Trump administration has announced Washington's departure from the accord by 2020, making the United States only one of two UN-registered states, together with Syria, which do not support the treaty.
Attended by 25,000 visitors from 195 countries, COP 23 is the largest multilateral climate change conference to be organized since the first such event was held in Berlin in 1995. Over the course of next two weeks, COP 23 aims to formulate a uniform set of rules for countries to measure and report their CO2 emissions.
Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, warned on Monday that 2017 was already likely to become one of the three hottest years on record.
"We must act now," Espinosa said.
Espinosa outlined the work governments will be looking to address in Bonn. The goal, above all, is to take the next essential steps to ensure that the Paris Agreement's operating system is completed in time and that ways, as well as means to implement it, are strengthened.
The newly-elected COP 23 president, Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama further emphasized the importance of promises made in Paris being kept by the international community to prevent catastrophic climate change.
"All over the world, vast numbers of people are suffering, bewildered by the forces against them. Our job as leaders is to respond to the suffering with all means available to us," Bainimarama said.
China's special representative on climate change, Xie Zhenhua, said at a press conference prior to the COP 23 that China hoped participants could reach a draft guideline reflecting the needs of all parties and all the key elements in the Paris agreement.
German policymakers have repeatedly said that the unwillingness of the U.S. to cooperate on combating climate change only served to strengthen their country's resolve to uphold the treaty together with other international partners such as China.
Speaking at the opening of the conference on Monday, German Minister for the Environment Barbara Hendricks (SPD) made a plea for regulatory clarity to ensure that all states honored their responsibility under the 2015 Paris Accord to take effective action in the face of climate change.
CLIMATE CHAGNE STICKING POINT IN GERMAN COALITION TALKS
Germany has announced providing another 50 million euros (58 million U.S. dollars) in financial assistance on top of a previously-agreed sum of 190 million euros to island nations which face an acute threat from climate change.
Revealing the availability of further funds, Hendricks said that Berlin was "sending a clear signal" that Germany would "show solidarity" towards those worst affected by climate change.
Germany wants to reduce its own greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent until 2020. However, German media have reported growing fears among officials and environmental organizations that Berlin will fail to meet this objective unless it dramatically intensifies its current efforts.
Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) has been accused of talking up Germany's role as an international leader in climate action while failing to take any meaningful action during her past three terms in office. The newspaper "Zeit" criticized on Monday that Germany was still the world's largest producer of coal power and lagged behind other countries in their dedication to phase out petroleum and diesel engines.
The subject of climate change has become one of the biggest sticking points in ongoing "Jamaica" coalition talks. The Green party has called for the next government to declare a fixed date for a national exit from coal and to show less leniency towards the country's powerful automotive industry.
Fearing the economic consequences of such policies, these proposals are vehemently opposed by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Christian Social Union (CSU) and Free Democratic Party (FDP). (1 euro=1.16 U.S. dollar)
