Paris Agreement: UNFCCC opens Talanoa Dialogue portal

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat on Friday January 26, 2018 launched a new portal to support the Talanoa Diaologue, an important international conversation in which countries will check progress and seek to increase global ambition to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
Through the portal, all countries and other stakeholders, including business, investors, cities, regions and civil society, are invited to make submissions into the Talanoa Dialogue around three central questions: Where are we? Where do we want to go? How do we get there?
Countries and non-Party stakeholders will be contributing ideas, recommendations and information that can assist the world in taking climate action to the next level in order to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement and support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Dialogue was launched at the UN Climate Change Conference COP23 in Bonn in November 2017 and will run throughout 2018. The Paris Agreement’s central goal is keep the global average temperature rise to below 2C degrees and as close as possible to 1.5C.
Current global ambition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to prepare societies to resist increasing climate change is not enough to achieve this under the current national climate action plans known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
“The portal is the gateway for the Talanoa Dialogue. It represents the central point for everyone to make their views heard around enhanced ambition. Additionally, it will make available other key resources for the dialogue,” said Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change.
“I very much welcome the portal because it provides transparency and broadens participation in the dialogue. I look forward to many governments and other actors making their submissions via the portal as part of world-wide efforts required for the next level of climate action and ambition”, she said.
The Pacific island concept of ‘Talanoa’ was introduced by Fiji, which held the Presidency of the COP23 UN Climate Change Conference. It aims at an inclusive, participatory and transparent dialogue.
The purpose of the concept is to share stories, build empathy and to make wise decisions for the collective good. The Talanoa method purposely avoids blame and criticism to create a safe space for the exchange of ideas and collective decision-making.
The Talanoa Dialogue will be constructive, facilitative and oriented towards providing solutions and will see both technical and political exchanges.