中国气候变化信息网 China Climate Change Info-Net

Discussions to center on putting accord into action

With the direst warnings yet of impending environmental disaster still ringing in their ears, representatives from nearly 200 nations gather Sunday in Poland to firm up their plan to prevent catastrophic climate change.

The first plenary meeting of the 24th Conference of the Parties (COP24) kicked off on Sunday noon, which marked the opening of the whole conference.

During the opening ceremony,  Poland's Secretary of State in the Ministry of Environment Micha? Kurtyka, who was selected as the president of COP 24 after Fiji's Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, introduced the rules and schedules of the event.

On Sunday morning, Spodek, the venue of the conference, was crowded with participants. The venue was decorated with elements of COP 24 with the slogan of the theme "Changing together."

The UN climate summit comes at a crucial juncture in mankind's response to planetary warming. The smaller, poorer nations that will bear its devastating brunt are pushing for richer states to make good on the promises they made in the 2015 Paris agreement.

In Paris three years ago, countries committed to limiting global temperature rises to well below 2 C, and to the safer cap of 1.5 C if at all possible. 

But with only a single degree Celsius of warming so far, the world has already seen a crescendo of deadly wildfires, heatwaves and hurricanes made more destructive by rising seas.

Johan Rockstrom, designated director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said the talks in the Silesian mining city of Katowice were crucial in nailing down how the Paris promises will work in practice.

Delegates at the COP24 talks "cannot and will not discuss if governments worldwide must achieve rapid greenhouse gas emission reductions to limit climate risks - but how they can do this," he said.

In Katowice, nations must agree to a rulebook palatable to all 183 states who have ratified the Paris deal. 

This is far from a given: the dust is still settling from US President Donald Trump's decision to ditch the Paris accord.