The tenth Petersberg Climate Dialogue (PCD) concluded on Tuesday with a commitment to joint progress on climate action. Previous PCD meetings had focussed on negotiating an agreement and rulebook. The priority at this year’s meeting was implementation. The goal is for the international community to continuously enhance its climate action efforts in order to ward off dangerous climate change. The representatives of 35 countries expressed their expectation that the international community will submit revised climate targets and long-term strategies to the United Nations by the year 2020.
Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze commented: "No country in the world can save the planet unilaterally. But luckily, no country needs to. All over the world, countries, companies and societies are moving forward. And all over the world, people, and not just the young generation, are demanding that policy-makers get serious about climate action. Our task is to fulfill the promise of the Paris Agreement and ward off dangerous climate change. We are all aware that the climate targets submitted by the international community in Paris are not yet enough. This is why it was agreed in Paris that all Parties would revise their NDCs by 2020 and present updated goals. Achieving this in the next two years will be decisive for the success of the Paris Agreement."
Carolina Schmidt, Chilean Environment Minister and President of the next Climate Change Conference in Santiago, noted: "The states have a great challenge for COP25: Moving from negotiation to ACTION, strongly increasing the AMBITION in the fight against climate change. That is why we need to get to COP25 with clear agreements on many issues - how to increase ambition in global climate action; how to generate a strong commitment to reduce emissions in the updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC); how to include different actors below national level like cities, regions and the private sector with concrete climate action commitments in the Summit of the UN Secretary-General to be held next September. Additionally, how can we integrate ADAPTATION to climate change on the agenda of all the countries of the world and strengthen the means of implementation for action through financing, capacity building and technology transfer".
Germany and Chile organised the tenth Petersberg Climate Dialogue as co-hosts with the theme "Fulfilling the promise of Paris". The two countries are close partners in international climate policy and work especially closely on energy transition. Globally, Chile is the country with the largest percent expansion of renewable energy in recent years.
The talks in Berlin focussed on organising the new implementation and ambition-raising phase in international climate policy in order to generate the greatest possible global momentum for climate action. The years 2019 and 2020 are crucial years for this because, in Paris in 2015, the international community pledged to update their nationally determined contributions in 2020. The UN Climate Action Summit on 23 September in New York, attended by heads of state and government on the invitation of UN Secretary-General Guterres, will be an important milestone on the way to 2020.
Preparation for the 25th UN Climate Change Conference in Santiago, Chile in December was another main topic of discussion. At the conference, open questions on market mechanisms for international climate action will be negotiated. Additionally, the countries will discuss ways to enhance climate targets just before the 2020 deadline.