From 2 to 13 December 2019, the 25^th Session of the Conference of Parties (COP25) to the UN Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is being hosted by the Government of Spain under the Presidency of the Government of Chile.

COP25 is an important opportunity to progress the implementation of the Convention and the Paris Agreement. Climate change is already having a major impact on the earth and people’s lives, which will continue to worsen on current trends. Under the Paris Agreement, all countries agreed to step up efforts to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures and boost climate action financing. In 2020 many nations must submit new climate action plans, and they need to be able to consult transparent and consistent information on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, climate actions and support.

UNFCCC negotiations at COP25 are key for the work of the Global Forest Observations Initiative (GFOI). Informing climate action is one of the ultimate outcomes of the Initiative, which coordinates assistance to developing countries for enhancing forest information and meeting international and national reporting requirements. With GFOI tailored support, countries are setting up National Forest Monitoring Systems (NFMS) and Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) frameworks to produce transparent, consistent and effective information on forests.

Countries can use improved forest information for different purposes, including for tracking progress towards their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Climate Change Agreement, reducing emissions from deforestation, forest degradation and related activities (REDD+), achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, and for designing national policies and programmes for sustainable land use.

Several organizations and countries that are members of GFOI are attending COP25 and two specific GFOI activities will be held.

• GFOI Lead partner the European Space Agency (ESA) will host a dedicated space for conversations on GFOI during the Earth Information Day on 3 December.
• On 6 December ESA, together with the National Institute for Environmental Studies, the Remote Sensing Technology Center of Japan and the Wageningen University, is organizing a GFOI-related side event "Satellites in support of national Greenhouse Gases reporting and Global Stocktake" from 11:30 to 13:00 in Room 1. Speakers include representatives from space agencies, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and developing countries. The event will focus on how systematic observations from satellites allow the monitoring of GHG emission and absorption. Recent advances from IPCC 2019 GHG refinement will be presented together with new estimates and prospects for global GHG emissions and large area forest biomass estimation to support the global stocktake process under UNFCCC.

 If you want to know more on COP25, here is an interesting reading: COP25: UN climate change conference, 5 things you need to know.