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PIANC’s ‘Think Climate’ coalitionUN FCCC COP 21 Paris

Date

30 November - 06 December 2015

UN FCCC COP 21

The UN Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted under the ‘Rio Convention’ during the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. The UNFCCC which entered into force on 21 March 1994, now has a near-universal membership of 195 parties. The ‘Rio Convention’ set out a framework for action aimed at stabilising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to avoid “dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.”

The main objective of the annual Conference of Parties (COP) is to review the Convention’s implementation. The first COP took place in Berlin in 1995 and significant meetings since then have included COP3 where the Kyoto Protocol was adopted, COP11 where the Montreal Action Plan was produced, COP15 in Copenhagen where an agreement to success Kyoto Protocol was unfortunately not realised and COP17 in Durban where the Green Climate Fund was created.

In 2015 COP21, also known as the 2015 Paris Climate Conference, will, for the first time in over 20 years of UN negotiations, aim to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2°C.

France will play a leading international role in hosting this seminal conference, and COP21 will be one of the largest international conferences ever held in the country. The conference is expected to attract close to 50,000 participants including 25,000 official delegates from government, intergovernmental organisations, UN agencies, NGOs and civil society.

PIANC’s ‘Think Climate’

In this context, PIANC established a ‘Think Climate’ coalition, currently comprising the following international Associations and organisations:

The World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure (PIANC)
International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH)
International Harbour Masters’ Association (IHMA)
International Maritime Pilots’ Association (IMPA)
International Bulk Terminals Association (IBTA) a coalition of the International Dry Bulk Terminals Group and the Coal Export Terminal Operators Association
European Dredging Association (EuDA)
Smart Freight Centre (SFC)

The Think Climate coalition partners are collaborating on an initiative entitled NAVIGATING A CHANGING CLIMATE.

The Navigating a Changing Climate initiative has three main themes:

  • encouraging owners, operators and users to take steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with waterborne transport infrastructure, and to shift to low carbon waterborne transport infrastructure and operations, wherever this is practicable and not disproportionately costly
  • building adaptation capacity and supporting the owners, operators and users of inland and maritime navigation infrastructure as they strengthen resilience and prepare to adapt to changes in sea level, flooding extent or frequency, flow conditions, storminess, precipitation, temperature, extreme wind or waves or fog amongst others
  • encouraging new ways of thinking about waterborne transport infrastructure with an emphasis on Working with Nature and on identifying sustainable, integrated solutions.

The latest version of the Position Paper, which sets out the objectives of the Navigating a Changing Climate initiative and summarises the activities proposed in the Action Plan, can be found here. The detail of the Action Plan can be found here.

More details about the activities of PIANC’s ‘Think Climate’ coalition can be found here.