Two years ago, COP 21 was a unique event in the history of environmental agreements. The conference is pivotal since it concluded with the signing of the Paris Agreement by 197 countries, including major emitting countries such as China, India and initially, USA. The Paris Agreement is regarded as the most ambitious effort to combat climate change. The agreement entered into force in November 2016 and to date, about 170 of them have ratified their claims. A major drawback was faced in August 2017 when Trump’s administration communicated its intention of withdrawing from the agreement. Given the Paris Agreement’s conditions, this would only be effective in November 2020.

The Paris Agreement’s main objective was to join the efforts of all the countries in order to keep world’s temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels by 2100. This agreement was built on the National Determined Contributions (NDC). Each country signing the Agreement had to present an NDC that expressed a target reduction in their GHG emissions, detailing the post-2020 climate action path to achieve it. The reductions agreed were presented as unconditional (reductions that the country commits to achieve solely), and conditional (more aggressive reductions conditional to certain conditions such as external financing). The main concern regarding the agreement is that the NDCs presented by all countries are not ambitious enough. When summing across all the reductions presented by the parties, the temperature rise would be around 3 degrees Celsius, exceeding the target of 2 degrees. Additionally, there are no enforcing instruments for the countries that do not comply with their pledges.

Argentina was part of the agreement since its beginning. Initially, the NDC presented by the past government in office were rated as inadequate: they only advocated for an unconditional 15% (30% conditional to financing) reduction in GHG emissions with respect to a business as usual scenario in 2030 (60% above 2010 levels). Macri’s government ratified the Paris Agreement and presented a revised version of the NDC which increases the reduction commitments to 18% and 37% respectively. Argentina’s NDC recognize as the country’s GHG emissions profile. Internationally, Argentina’s NDC were criticized for not having a long-term plan or presenting pledges that were ambitious enough. The revised NDC recognized the need for the interdisciplinary work to improve four key areas: R&D; awareness and education; institutional strengthening and reduction of vulnerability.

It is clear then that the Paris Agreement is one of the major steps that countries had taken in order to protect the environment we are all living in. To participate in a COP after this, presents many new challenges governments should face. So, the key question here is: are all these countries taking the needed actions and policies to achieve their goals? And, furthermore what is the relevance of this COP23 for Argentina?

During the past COP -number 23- that took place last November in Bonn (Germany), Argentina has showed to be moving through the right path during the past two years, since the adoption of The Paris Agreement. Apart from having presented its revised NDC on time, this year Mr. Sergio Bergman, Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development had presented a document with different actions to be taken for its accomplishment. The aforementioned document consisted on three different sectorial plans: energy & climate change, transportation & climate change and, forests & climate change. It is to highlight that these plans are intimately related to G20 next year’s agenda, in which sustainable development will be a key guideline. And, what is more, it will be presided by Argentina. So, it is clear enough that our Nation has begun to incorporate the G20 agenda in every field of work, which is somewhat encouraging.

Although Argentina represents only a 0.7% of the greenhouse emissions of the planet, all G20 governments together are the biggest contributors – producing 75% of global greenhouse emissions. This is the major reason for G20 countries to truly commit themselves and work on tackling climate change effects. But, what COP23 left us clear was that governments cannot achieve their goals alone, it is to say that the private sector and NGOs’ work is highly needed and it is a must for all stakeholders to coordinate their actions.

We cannot forget that G20 countries are now following the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in which sustainable energies and climate are two of the main objectives in order to reach energy efficiency and sustainable growth. It is highly important that the final Leaders Declaration of 2017 refers to all that, strengthening their position towards a fight against climate change that emphasizes mitigation and adaptation actions. The fact that they have all agreed on a “G20 Hamburg Climate and Energy Action Plan for Growth” is not a minor detail while thinking about the debate.

One of the main issues discussed during COP23 was the relationship between trade and climate, which involves three major topics: costs, financing and taxes. A long-term strategy should include price and markets mechanisms to internalize environmental costs and also financial mechanisms to promote a sustainable development; Investments play a major role in the needed transition to green economies; also, fiscal policies are to be taken into account. Green taxes have been applied in different countries among the recent years in order to help protecting the environment. Once more, Argentina has also followed this trend. Argentine’s government has recently announced new fiscal policies, including taxes on fuels, which must be established according to CO2 emissions.

In this context, it is to remark that the transition to a “green” economy -proposed in every COP- represents one of the biggest challenges for G20 countries. This kind of economy presents multiple benefits, leading to a sustainable development and economic stability by the creation of employment, the encouragement of innovation, the improvement of health conditions and, of course, the protection of the environment. Having to consider all these aspects is that it becomes so challenging.
Once more, for achieving all this, it is necessary to have a strong international cooperation and financing supported by multilateral development banks, mainly for middle-income and low-income economies.

A coordinated work is requested and Think Tanks play a major role in facilitating it, especially for the T20, which is known for being “the research and policy advise network for the G20”. The idea of this forum is to seek for solutions to global problems and climate change is certainly one of those. Probably, T20 is the best environment to bring all stakeholders together, so that they could think about creative policies that could transform the different realities. The challenge for the T20 is precisely to be able to create a productive and participative debate. From time to time, the protection of the environment implies that there are biased visions. There is when Think Tanks should work harder to encourage dialogue between all sectors, so they can get to know all the perspectives and have a more complete knowledge of the issue. The broader the debate is, the more enriched conclusions can be made.

It is a good practice to reach to joint conclusions after a debate and the T20 reflects them in a Proposal for G20 governments. While discussing environmental policies, both international and national instruments help to have a long-term strategy, which is a must for achieving sustainable development. Following this idea, this Proposal should be forceful enough to function as a transversal guide for all sectors of all governments.