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The United Nations' climate chief Patricia Espinosa is no stranger to challenges. As foreign minister of Mexico she presided over the 2010 UN climate change talks in Cancun, bringing countries back to table, rebuilding their confidence in the multilateral process after the failure in Copenhagen the year before. Now, with the United States on the brink of pulling out of the Paris Agreement, Espinosa is facing another challenging moment, this time as the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Urmi A Goswami spoke with the climate diplomat about India's efforts to address climate change, the future of the Paris Agreement and the plan to slow down global warming.
Some excerpts:
The political changes and the rise of populist inward looking politics, not just in the United States, but in even in Europe does it pose a challenge to the Paris Agreement, especially as countries negotiate the rule-book?
We do have a challenge. Not just for meeting the deadline of finalising the rulebook, but also to meet the goals we set in the Paris Agreement. Achieving these goals is essential for the deep transformation required in our economies and societies. So, we have not set any easy task for ourselves, and we have to be very conscious of that. At the same time, I will say that Paris Agreement has a certain credibility and weight, and there is a general acceptance of its historical importance. This is clearly demonstrated by the fact that governments have ratified the agreement in record time. This is a very complex agreement and we now have 147 countries that have ratified it. This gives a sense of the momentum and political support there is for the agreement. It is at the end of the day a conviction shared by the international community that progressing on the path set out in the Paris Agreement is the way forward.
The United States played an important role working with key countries like India and China on the global climate agreement. With the US withdrawing from its leadership, which countries will play the critical role of ensuring the balance achieved in Paris is protected?
There is has been a lot of attention on the role of the main emitters like United States, China, the European Union, and India. These countries are the centre of attention. But in a process like the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the participation of and commitment by each and every country is very important. This is very clear from the fact that even after the United States said it was putting its participation in the agreement under review no other country followed.
You led the climate talks in 2010 at an extremely critical juncture for the global effort, and now, you are at the helm of affairs at an equally critical juncture. As UN's climate boss, what is your plan to ensure that the countries stay on course to meet the goal of restricting temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius?
My role now is very different. In Cancun, I was the president of the conference (COP 16) so I had a lot of room to take decisions in the process. This time my role is to be helpful to the COP President that is the Prime Minister of Fiji. I am very conscious of my role of giving him the best possible advice. I will stress on one thing, as I did at that time, the conviction that it is in nobody's interest not to have an agreement. We managed to get the Paris Agreement because countries have realised that it is in their interest, for their development. During my recent visit to India, I learnt how much the government was doing to address climate change. I repeatedly heard that the reason India was taking these measures was to meet its own development goals. The climate agenda is not about meeting international commitments but it relates directly to the everyday lives of people.
So this is what I will do, I will see how the different components in the agreement can put together so that we continue to make progress. We need to be mindful that work must progress mitigation action but also on adaptation actions, and on building resilience in our societies. My focus is on finding the right balance. Understand that it is not possible to fully satisfy every country because everyone has a different idea. But if we can get a good mix, then what we have is a set of commitments that is good for everybody.
What are priorities for the year?
This is the first complete session after entry into force of the Paris Agreement. The rule book needs to be completed by 2018. Another important moment in 2018 is the facilitative dialogue that will give us a chance to make an initial assessment of the where we are in respect of the goals we have set collectively.
The next milestone moment is the facilitative dialogue in 2018. What is the UNFCCC doing to ensure this stock taking exercise is useful?
The facilitative dialogue is next year. We are supporting the presidency that is Fiji, in gathering the views of the countries on what they expect from the facilitative dialogue and how they expect this exercise to be carried forward. In this process, it is always important to listen to what parties are thinking. This helps us identify an area where we can help the Presidency guide the countries through the process. We are also gathering information about the commitments made by countries so far.
In this case also we are also gathering of the information from the commitments that countries have made so far under the convention.
