Report from breakfast seminar: The climate summit in Katowice

The climate summit, COP 24, in Polish Katowice last November was an important milestone in the climate negotiations following the Paris agreement in 2015. Particularly successful was the progress with a rule book enabling the Paris Agreement. In late January Mistra Carbon Exit organized a breakfast seminar themed COP 24.

- Despite a difficult geopolitical situation, the countries managed to agree on a regulatory framework and a reporting system that can provide a clear direction ahead, said Ulrika Raab from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency who participated in the breakfast meeting.

Ulrika Raab is part of Sweden's delegation and had the task of chairing the negotiations on technology issues in Katowice. The rule book is largely technical and covers for example how emissions should be calculated and reported. The rules should both govern what the countries may do and be an assurance that they do what they have promised. 

However, there is an area where the parties didn’t reach all the way in the rule book negotiations. This applies to Article 6, which deals with how countries can use market mechanisms to collaborate in implementing their climate plans. A difference from the Kyoto Protocol's market mechanism, CDM, which focused on making it easier for the developed countries to meet their obligations, is that the market mechanisms according to Article 6 of the Paris Agreement should now contribute to an increased ambition.

-There’s no zero-sum game anymore, the market mechanisms should contribute to more emission reductions than without, said Kenneth Möllersten, former climate negotiation expert at the Swedish Energy Agency, who is now working at IVL and who participated in the breakfast meeting.

To use the market mechanisms properly it’s important to carefully analyze the level of ambition of the countries' individual mitigation plans, he pointed out. This will continue to be one of the major issues before next COP which will be held in Chile.

At the breakfast meeting, Mistra Carbon Exit researcher Ida Karlsson from Chalmers, also presented insights from the summit in Katowice and Hans-Erik Wiborgh, market analyst at Fortum, talked about the work behind the EU's reformed emissions trading system. Moderator was Lars Zetterberg, IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, program manager of Mistra Carbon Exit.

For questions, please contact:

Kenneth Möllersten, kenneth.mollersten@ivl.se, tel. 010-788 68 79

Lars Zetterberg, lars.zetterberg@ivl.se, tel. 010-788 65 57