14 November, 2016IndustriALL's director for sustainability Brian Kohler blogs from day five of the twenty-second Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22), 11 November in Marrakesh, Morocco.
Day five of the twenty-second Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22), 11 November in Marrakesh, Morocco.
Friday was the day of the official Trade Union side event within the COP. At an official side event, organizations hope to attract the attention of other participants and have the opportunity to present their point of view to them.
We had a full house! The room was packed with people eager to hear the point of view of trade unions, with some even willing to remain standing through the meeting when all the seats were filled. IndustriALL Global Union’s Brian Kohler presented some of our work on Just Transition and sectoral sustainability analysis.
The discussions that trade unions have been monitoring most closely, at the meetings known informally as the Improved Contact Group on the Impact of Response Measures, have finally released a draft decision. A Technical Expert Group will be established to make formal recommendations to the next COP on Just Transition, industrial transformation and economic diversification. This could be an important point for the realization of concrete Just Transition language in the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
Attempts by Parties to limit the participation of observers are continuing. Why this is the case at this COP is unclear. One rumour has it that there may have been some abuse of observer status by professional pollsters or others, but if this is true it should not be necessary to punish all observer organizations.
Friday of course also saw many other discussions continue, including on technology transfer and continuing efforts to establish the US$100 billion per year climate finance funding.