In 2015, FAWCO's UN Reps Team and Environment Team collaborated to inform FAWCO members about the proceedings of the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP21) held in Paris from November 30 to December 11, 2015. The UN Climate Conference in Paris was of historic importance. While no one from the UN Reps Team or Environment Team were able to attend the Conference, we reported on what was happening. In addition to general background information on UNFCCC (and definitions of the UN’s alphabet soup of abbreviations), we posted summaries of previous UN environment meetings.
In 2016, motivated by the interest of members of AIWC Cologne, FAWCO applied for Observer status at the UNFCCC so our UN Reps could participate in Climate Change Conference sessions in Bonn. We were granted Observer status and three members of FAWCO's UN Reps Team attended meetings in Bonn in May 2017. FAWCO joined the
Women and Gender Constituency of Observer NGOs at the UNFCCC and will continue our coverage of and involvement with the climate conference process.
France was wise to organize the attendance of world leaders at the beginning of the Climate Conference. At the climate top 6 years ago in Copenhagen, the leaders came at the very end. In anticipation of their arrival, the negotiators seemed frozen, hardly daring to make any agreements, with insufficient time left to make a serious deal afterwards. World leaders...
The polluter pays. That is the principle that was agreed upon 20 years ago at the Environment Conference in Rio de Janeiro as the basis of the International Environmental policy. At the Climate Conference in Paris, this is again an important topic. How do you make sure that those who pollute the atmosphere with greenhouse gases pay the costs of...
COP21, Paris, France December, 2015 Notes and Impressions
The Following notes are based on a session Elisabeth von Sachse attended in November at the United Nations in Geneva.
The session covered some of the basics of Climate Change Negotiations, and featured a panel discussion at the close. These are the key points highlighted in the session by the presenters of...
The UN Climate Conference in Paris begins today and the news has been filled with preparations for this historic meeting. After the recent horrific terrorist attacks in the city, the eyes of the world are on Paris as they struggle to reassert their confidence, and provide adequate safety for their fellow Parisians as well as for those attending the Climate...
Charleen Fondrevay, one of the Environment Team members, will be helping to report on the Climate Conference in Paris. Charleen lives in Madrid where a climate march held on November 29. If you live elsewhere on the globe, we hope you found out what was happening close to you and got involved!
The Alianza por el Clima, a group of 400 Spanish organizations...
United Nations Climate Conference (Paris, 2015)
Alphabet soup definitions
While the United Nations is a wonderful organization, they are sometimes a bit hard to follow…all those acronyms. Below you will find explanations of every acronym found on the agenda of the Climate Conference in Paris.
- ADP: Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action
- AWG-KP: Ad Hoc...
