Global climate leaders call for urgent overhaul of UN climate talks process, saying it needs shift from negotiation to implementation

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

COP officials facilitating discussions about fossil fuel deals, a group of prominent scientists, advocates and policy leaders including Ban Ki-Moon, former secretary-general of the United nations, Christiana Figueres, former chief of the UN climate change body, and Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, have called for urgent overhaul of the UN climate process saying it needs “a shift from negotiation to implementation” as the existing approach is no longer fit for purpose. “28 COPs have delivered us with the policy framework to achieve this. However, its current structure simply cannot deliver the change at exponential speed and scale, which is essential to ensure a safe climate landing for humanity. This is what compels our call for a fundamental overhaul of the COP,” they said in an open letter to UN secretary-general António Guterres and executive secretary of the UN climate change secretariat, Simon Stiell.

They, while calling for “COP reform”, said the shift is needed to enable the COP to deliver on agreed commitments and ensure the urgent energy transition and phase-out of fossil energy.

Calling themselves friends of the COP (conference of parties) who believe in the important role the UNFCCC has played in ensuring ambition on climate change, they extended seven suggestions to reform the process and called for strict eligibility criteria to exclude countries who do not support the phase out/transition away from fossil energy. “Host countries must demonstrate their high level of ambition to uphold the