7th Ministerial meeting on climate action: chairs’ summary 2023

Ministers and representatives from around 30 governments participated in the 7th Ministerial meeting on Climate Action (MoCA) convened by Canada, the European Union (EU) and China, and hosted by the EU in Brussels, Belgium, on the 13th and 14th of July 2023.

The three co-conveners, Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans from the EU, Minister Huang Runqiu from China, and Minister Steven Guilbeault from Canada are grateful to all ministers and distinguished representatives for their engagement, including to the COP 28 President Designate, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General on Climate Action and Just Transition, and other guests for their participation, namely the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the UN Foundation, and one of the co-Chairs of the Transitional Committee on funding arrangements for loss and damage. 

During the opening session, the three co-conveners, the COP 28 President-designate as well as the UNFCCC Executive Secretary emphasised the importance of consolidating global climate cooperation and upholding multilateralism to fully implement the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement and called for the international community to build a collective understanding and deepen mutual trust on the way forward. They highlighted potential opportunities associated with advancing the just energy transition globally and the role of clean energy in the context of a successful implementation of the Paris Agreement, both in domestic implementation but also through international cooperation.  Dr Sultan Al Jaber, as COP28 President-designate, provided a summary of his most recent letter setting out a vision for COP28. Participants broadly welcomed the UAE’s vision and Denmark’s and South Africa’s appointment to lead consultations on the Global Stocktake, as well as Canada and Germany’s continued work with donors to strengthen confidence on the achievement of the USD100 billion mobilisation goal. Participants also called for leveraging synergistic effects of addressing climate change and protecting biodiversity.

Recognizing the importance of the Global Stocktake to the long-term success of the Paris Agreement, participants called for a comprehensive, balanced, ambitious and pragmatic outcome on mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, means of implementation at COP28, in accordance with the goals and the principles of the Paris Agreement.  The Global Stocktake should, in the light of equity and the best available science, assess the collective progress and shortfalls of the past, and send strong political signals that we will accelerate implementation and action collectively including through enhanced support, with a view to meeting all goals of the Paris Agreement. Many participants also stressed the opportunities presented by domestic implementation and international cooperation to exchange lessons learned and good practices to accelerate action, ensure transparency and promote trust and inclusion. Several participants also flagged the opportunity to enhance the integration of efforts on climate and biodiversity with the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

In particular:

On mitigation, many participants stressed the need to ensure that actions are underpinned in the light of different national circumstances, by considering the best available science and specific political signals, including for scaling up renewable energy and energy efficiency, moving away from unabated fossil fuels, while ensuring a just transition both domestically and globally. 

For adaptation and loss and damage, many participants called for the enhancement of the design and implementation of national adaptation plans, nature-based solutions, and wider coverage of early warning systems.

On means of implementation, some participants highlighted the importance of having adequate finance, technology and capacity building for the successful implementation of climate action. While some stressed the need to enhance the alignment of all financial flows with resilient, low greenhouse development, others pointed to the importance of increasing the mobilization of public finance by developed countries for developing countries.

On funding for Loss and Damage, one of the co-chairs of the executive committee informed Ministers about the state of play of the discussions, highlighting there are still significant gaps to close in the discussions, noting that in Dubai difficult political decisions will have to be made. Participants highlighted the political imperative of having a deliverable at COP28, recognising that political leadership and early engagement are needed to maintain momentum and provide guidance, drawing upon technical expertise.

On the operationalisation of new funding arrangements, participants underscored that scaling up support to existing institutions and improving coordination and coherence amongst them is important. The Santiago Network on loss and damage can play a key role in this context, and many participants underlined the importance of getting it up and running as soon as possible.

Some participants believe the fund should focus on channelling support to the most vulnerable while other participants see it as a fund to which all developing countries should be equally eligible.  Many suggested that the fund will complement the existing funding arrangements by focusing on priority gaps in those arrangements. Some suggested it would be good to use regional development banks, and to build on the work of the private sector, such as the insurance sector.  Overall, participants agreed on the need for an unprecedented scale of funding to meet the challenge, including grants, innovative sources, and other approaches. 

On enhancing cooperation on mitigation, both IEA and IRENA presented the encouraging signs of the global energy transition over the last decade while emphasising the need for a major scaling up of clean energy during this decade noting the wide range of options available. Many participants recognised, on the basis of the latest research presented by international institutions, the opportunities presented by the energy transition to enhance access and support economic development, and the importance of sending a signal on the scale of effort needed to deploy renewable energy, enhance energy efficiency in order to achieve a global energy system free of unabated fossil fuels. This can only be done in a timeframe that takes into account the differences in national circumstances and that allows countries to adjust the implementation in accordance with national realities.

These differences include countries’ starting points and potential, including, geographies, grid and storage infrastructure, skills, energy poverty, and access to affordable capital. Some participants argued that promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency needs to be complemented by outcomes that recognize these differences and ensure no one is left behind.

On adaptation, the UN Foundation noted the opportunity of elevating adaptation politically in Dubai and presented several different formulations for an overarching headline global goal on adaptation noting the pros and cons of different choices. Participants expressed their commitment towards the adoption of the framework of the Global Goal on Adaptation at COP 28 while calling for the need to ensure flexibility and realism on what it can achieve. Some participants appealed for not having additional burden for developing countries. 

Many participants called for striking a balance between global and national or local level responsibility in the context of adaptation. Some participants emphasised that setting quantified targets is essential for developing countries to access financial support for adaptation, while other participants underscored the challenge of setting quantified target(s) for adaptation and suggested exploring a mix of options including goals, targets or indicators across a wide range of sectors. Many highlighted that setting global targets on adaptation should not overtake national and local responsibilities for implementation on the ground.

On climate finance, Germany informed on the implementation of the climate finance commitments and expressed confidence that the USD 100 billion mobilisation goal will be reached in 2023. Participants believe that a strong signal of progress at COP 28 is essential, as it relates to the delivery of all objectives of the Paris Agreement. Many welcomed Canada’s announcement of a CAD450 million contribution to the GCF replenishment. Many participants stressed the importance of financial support from developed countries and urged them to fulfil their existing climate commitments, i.e., the achievement of the USD 100 billion goal and the doubling of adaptation finance, as agreed in Glasgow. Many also called for progress on different elements of the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) at COP 28, knowing that final agreement will only take place at COP 29. Some participants highlighted that the NCQG should take into account the needs and priorities of developing countries and reflect equity and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities. Other participants also highlighted the need of a deep transformation of the financial system and the need to bring in new ideas on innovative finance. Some highlighted that Multilateral Development Banks should significantly improve on their record of stimulating and mobilising private sector finance for climate action. While some highlighted the importance of aligning all financial flows as one of the goals of the Paris Agreement, others appealed for a comprehensive overview of what that alignment means and its links with the provision of public climate finance.

Many participants continue to call for an improvement of access to climate finance and expect significant reforms on improved access as well as on debt relief.

Participants welcomed the opportunity that MoCA7 presented to deepen multilateral cooperation in addressing climate change and strengthening cohesion, solidarity, and collaboration on the road to Dubai. Participants and co-conveners expressed their full support to the incoming COP28 Presidency and noted their commitment to a successful COP 28. 

The three co-conveners look forward to organizing the 8th session of the MoCA in 2024, which will take place in China.