Postcard from Katowice: Tuesday, December 4
After David Attenborourgh, broadcaster and natural historian, warned COP yesterday of the collapse of civilization if we don’t act on climate change, the climate conference is focusing on different areas for action.
After David Attenborourgh, broadcaster and natural historian, warned COP yesterday of the collapse of civilization if we don’t act on climate change, the climate conference is focusing on different areas for action.
Agriculture is one sector identified as a priority for COP 24, via the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture. This stream of work started on Monday and GCF's role was recognised in supporting resilient agriculture in regions of the world that are most impacted by climate change, such as our work in Zambia, Cambodia, and Namibia.
On climate finance, two announcements of relevance to GCF to date: the multilateral development banks (including several GCF partners) announced a commitment to align their investments with the Paris Agreement, whilst the Katowice Commitment on Tuesday focused on the role of private banks to direct finance flows towards sustainability - signatories including BNP Paribas, a newly Accredited Entity to GCF.
Meanwhile the NGOs at the COP celebrated the start of the climate conference with the ironic 'Fossil of the Day' award - not an honour that most participants would welcome. The first edition was given to Poland for its 'love of coal,' after an eye-catching Polish homage to coal within the conference venue featured coal jewellery and coal soap amongst its attractions.
GCF reports to the COP each year, and tomorrow it is hosting a High Level side event to provide a report on progress over the last year, as well as the measures being taken to evaluate its impact - and how it is using those evaluations to strengthen operations. The meeting takes place at 1315 in the conference room 6 - named 'Bug' in area G.