BULA! That’s the Fijian word for “welcome.” So, bula to Bonn and bula to our live blog of the UN Climate Change Conference, also known as COP23, which is taking place in Germany from 6 to 17 November 2017.

For the next two weeks we will be sharing highlights here from the heart of the conference.
You can watch all the proceedings live from here: https://unfccc.cloud.streamworld.de/live

Day 1: Monday, 6 November 2017
The conference kicked off with an opening ceremony that outlined the goals of the conference, presented with a certain Fiji touch. Here are some highlights of the day:

We need to do more—The world has moved on from the euphoric adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015. Rather, participants of the conference came to Bonn with a clear understanding that the global situation demanded action. With reports showing that global levels of carbon dioxide concentrations were rising at historic rates, and that commitment so far would only take us a third of the way toward keeping global temperatures below two degrees this century, participants were solidly focused on next steps. COP23 President Frank Bainimarama, the Prime Minister of Fiji, issued a collective plea to the world to stay the course set in Paris. “We need more ambitious action. This is our moment of truth.”

The Fiji touch—There is no mistaking that this COP is not taking place in Fiji, although this is the first time that a COP president has come from a small island developing state. Yet Fiji managed to infuse the COP with a South Pacific touch, starting with a Fijian sailing ship in the lobby, then with an elaborate kava ceremony where a drink from the root of the kava plant was presented to the COP leaders. This is the second kava ceremony for the UN this year—there was one during the Ocean Conference in June. More substantively, Fiji has made the “Talanoa Dialogue” the centerpiece of its presidency, named for a Fijian storytelling tradition that builds empathy and trust as the basis for decision-making.

Warming up—For those who argue, or may think that the current trend of hot years is just a blip in the historical record, Petteri Taalas, head of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), has some distressing news. The warming trend will continue for another 40 years, and will plateau then, an only then, if the world does something about curbing emissions. There is no hiatus: 2017 is among the three hottest years on record—2015 and 2016 were hotter due to the El Niño effect, but compared with the last non El Niño year—2014—it was hotter in 2017. Not all the world is affected in the same way. In fact, countries in the low latitudes and in the southern hemisphere saw their economies hurt by climate change, while some northern countries actually benefited from the warmer temperatures due to a longer growing period. Have a look at the Facebook Live with the WMO chief.

For the full report of the state of play of the world’s climate for the first nine months of 2017, see https://t.co/0jIx9rEOZA.

Scientists eager to join IPCC report—A major report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is due in December 2018 on possible pathways to stay under a 1.5°C warming this century. Working on an IPCC climate change assessment report is not a paid job, IPCC head Hoesung Lee told the COP23 opening session that the Panel had received 7,500 nominations for the next assessment, double the number from the last report. “This will allow us to draw on a superb range of talent.”