Bolivia is worried that the Katowice agreement on practical guidelines for the Paris Climate Agreement may be delayed amid difficult talks at the ongoing 24th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24), which will delay the implementation of the Paris deal itself, Bolivian Foreign Minister Diego Pary told Sputnik on the sidelines of COP24 on Tuesday.
KATOWICE (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th December, 2018) Bolivia is worried that the Katowice agreement on practical guidelines for the Paris Climate Agreement may be delayed amid difficult talks at the ongoing 24th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24), which will delay the implementation of the Paris deal itself, Bolivian Foreign Minister Diego Pary told Sputnik on the sidelines of COP24 on Tuesday.The ongoing conference in Poland's Katowice aims to finalize the rules and guidelines for the implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change. However, the work on the draft text was slowed down by the argument on whether to "note" or "welcome" the recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The study showed that decreasing global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) rather than 2 degrees set out in the Paris deal as the upper limit would help avoid many weather disasters.
"Yes. We are also very worried that some countries that are the most responsible for emissions are the ones that are leaving the Paris agreement. We believe that this COP is approving decisions that are not sufficient," Pary said, when asked if he was concerned that the Katowice agreement would not be signed in a timely manner.
The Bolivian foreign minister stressed that it was very important to "agree on rules that come from the Paris agreement."
"But also we want this Paris agreement to be implemented as we agreed in 2015," Pary said.
Pary added that Bolivia's priority in the Katowice agreement would be the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities for developed and developing countries.
"It already exists, commitments for developed and developing countries, especially common responsibilities but differentiated responsibilities. This is the main principle that we need taken into account," Pary said.
The issue of whether countries should be treated differently was raised at the conference, with the United States, present at the talks despite its 2017 decision to leave the agreement, insisting that all states get the same treatment. This opinion, however, is not shared by all.
The Paris climate deal, created within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, went into force on November 4, 2016. Its target is to keep the increase in average global temperature at below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
