The 24th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP) convened at the beginning of December 2018 in Katowice, a city in the heart of Poland’s coal region. COP24 marked a deadline to produce a rulebook on how to implement the provisions of the Paris Agreement that will apply from 2020 onwards. 

An old coal mine that lent the backdrop to the COP venue and the scent of coal in the air provided the right setting to remind negotiators of the urgency of action. With some considerable hiccups at the start of the two-week conference, including a heated political discussion on whether to ‘welcome’ or simply ‘note’ the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C, the Polish Presidency managed to deliver an almost complete Paris Rulebook. 

In this Climate Focus Briefing Note you can find our assessment of the overall conference and our analysis of a number of topics as well as an outlook on the future.