ICCA at COP22 – What is next?
Following the Paris Agreement entry into force, the Parties to the Agreement held their first meeting in November 2016 (Marrakesh), with the intent of opening a new chapter on global climate action.
COP22 marked the beginning of a multi-year deliberation on how best to operationalize the broad goals included in the Paris Agreement. Among the unresolved, critical issues relative to the Agreement at the international level include: identifying the role of carbon markets in meeting national commitments, establishing a process to report and update on national pledges to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and identifying how best to utilize technology innovations to meet climate policy goals, et. al. As governments navigate these thorny issues, we believe the chemical industry, and the business community as a whole, can play a constructive role in providing views and lessons learned. For instance, the business community could provide learnings on best practices and methods to calculate and track GHG emissions, including avoided emissions through the use of technologies.
In particular, the chemical industry can play an essential role in providing relevant information and examples on technological solutions that can help meet policy objectives on climate. The chemical industry has a unique role in climate change, both as an energy consumer and as a supplier of practical solutions that save energy and mitigate climate change effects. Simply put, the chemical industry uses energy to make products that enable the rest of society to save much more energy than we consume. Globally, the chemical industry is quite diverse producing a great number of different substances in numerous products that are essential to our daily lives and contribute to improving energy efficiency and reducing GHG emissions.
ICCA and its national associations are ready and willing to engage in further dialogue and cooperation on policy-makers at national, regional and international level to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement.