SB58 Cryosphere Pre-sessional Technical Workshop

Friday 2 June 2023

Location: Bonn, Germany
This event has now ended and is archived

Our Dr Helen Findlay, an acknowledged Polar Oceans expert, is an invited participant to the June Climate Change meeting of the UN, SB58, Pre-sessional Technical Workshop on the Cryosphere, 9AM-3PM Friday, June 2, at the Maritim Hotel in Bonn, Germany.

This one-day SB58 Pre-sessional technical Workshop, taking place at the proposal of the Ambition on Melting Ice (AMI) high-level group founded at COP27, will examine five key elements of the Cryosphere Earth system both where the science has evolved most rapidly, and which have key implications for UNFCCC adaptation, loss and damage, and mitigation processes: ice sheet loss and resulting new estimates for sea-level rise; land glacier and snow loss and related water resource loss; the contribution of permafrost thaw emissions to anthropogenic sourced emissions; acidification of polar oceans and some near-polar oceans; and Arctic sea ice loss and related impacts, particularly on weather systems; and the environmental, economic and social impacts at local, regional and global levels.

If the Cryosphere responds at lower temperatures, faster rates and more irreversibly than could be foreseen at the 2015 signing of the Paris Agreement, this has global implications for hard limits and planning on adaptation; financing of higher levels of loss and damage; and as a result, economically acceptable levels of mitigation, resulting peak temperature and CO2 levels (the latter determining polar and sub-polar ocean acidification). Nevertheless, updated inputs from the Cryosphere science community have been limited to single or occasional presentations at Research Dialogues or side events, without the opportunity for Parties to receive a complete and integrated look at the entirety of Cryosphere developments of relevance to the various UNFCCC negotiation tracks.

The Workshop will explore the policy connection, especially as regards the Global Stocktake but also tracks such as the Nairobi Work Programme and Loss and Damage, of the most recent developments in cryosphere science. These have critical implications for future negotiations and COP28, especially in relation to future sealevel rise, and impacts in mountain and mountain water-dependent nations.

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Please note: ​Registration for this June 2, 2023 Technical Workshop is limited to Parties and designated representatives of Observer Constituencies, as well as invited speakers.

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