More loss than gain

At Marrakech the task at hand was to thrash out ways to implement the Paris Agreement. While CoP22 failed to deliver groundbreaking progress on most agenda, there was little attempt to address crucial issues

Agriculture: CoP22 was expected to produce some tangible measures to protect the sector from climate change impacts. But it got muddled in the divide between developed and developing worlds. Developing countries wanted agriculture to be primarily treated as an adaptation issue so that farmers can be supported through finance and technology transfer to adapt to climate change impacts. Developed countries proposed that agriculture be considered a mitigation issue, meaning countries need to cut down emissions from agriculture. Adaptation: The Paris Agreement states that adaptation must be treated on a par with mitigation. When parties sat down to discuss ways to ensure this, utter confusion ensued. Some of the sticky points were how to report progress on adaptation, how to assess it and what should be the global goal of adaptation. However, there was one achievement. CoP22 agreed that the Adaptation Fund, set up under the Kyoto Protocol, be continued under the Paris Agreement. Loss and Damage: One of the mandates of CoP22 was to review the two-year work plan of the Executive Committee of Warsaw International Mechanism meant for addressing loss and damage due to climate change, and adopt its five-year work plan. The adoption of five-year work plan has been shifted to next year. Parties agreed to developing countries' demand of support for loss and damage, though the conclusion paper does not mention any figure for the support. Finance: Developing countries wanted a roadmap for Green Climate Fund being set up by developed parties, who have committed to mobilise $100 billion per year by 2020. Developed countries claimed that the roadmap has been published in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's October 2016 report that says they were on their way to secure $67 billion by public finances. But developing nations questioned the methodology used to prepare the report and insisted on more transparency in channelising money to the fund. Transparency framework: The Article 13 of the Paris Agreement requires an enhanced transparency framework for action and support, meaning activities related to mitigation, adaptation, finance and support provided to developing countries. At Marrakesh, parties started to discuss common reporting criteria, methods and baseline years for these activities.