Foreign Ministry’s climate negotiators: UN Climate Change Conference COP28 is the most important milestone since the Paris Agreement

Finland’s delegation at the UN Climate Change Conference COP28 has 14 negotiators, four from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The Foreign Ministry’s negotiating team is headed by Anna Merrifield, Director of the Unit for Climate and Environmental Diplomacy.

Saana Ahonen, part of Finland's delegation and Senior Adviser on Development Policy, says that negotiators in international talks must be adaptable and flexible as the final schedule for the day is often revealed only the evening before.

Other members of the Foreign Ministry’s team are Kerstin Stendahl, Special Envoy on Climate and Environment, and Roosa Käsmä, Special Adviser on Development Policy. Finland’s climate negotiators believe that the UN Climate Change Conference COP28 is the most important milestone since the Paris Agreement. COP28 will take stock on the progress made towards the emission reduction targets set out by the Paris Agreement.

“This global stocktake is kind of a five-year review of the Paris Agreement where the world gets valuable and hopefully politically impactful information on our progress towards achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement. The outcome of COP28 should be a strong political signal of the necessity and urgency of climate change mitigation and adaptation,” Ahonen says.

Foreign Ministry’s negotiators represent Finland in climate change adaptation negotiations

“The Foreign Ministry’s negotiators are responsible for representing Finland in the negotiations on climate change adaptation, which is an important development policy question. One of the financial questions of importance to us was resolved already on the first day of the conference when the delegates agreed to establish a new fund for loss and damage,” Anna Merrifield says.

The global political situation and ongoing conflicts are reflected in many ways on the climate talk both behind the scenes and at the negotiating tables. The level of climate finance must be scaled up significantly to meet the needs of international climate action. The European Union emphasises the importance of having private finance alongside public finance.

“In the long run, it would be important to expand the financing base for climate action. The definition, dating back to the 1990s, of countries obligated to provide climate finance does not in any way correspond to the current global economy or the sources of emissions, and it is not a sufficient way to address the needs of today,” Merrifield sums up the challenges of climate finance.