Coming to the end of the first week of climate negotiations in Marrakech, what have we seen so far and what can we expect?

The sun is shining, which is lifting the mood. Friday was business and industry NGO (BINGO) day at COP22, with a number of focused events on business contributions to tackling Climate change. These demonstrate the importance of business involvement and the need for increased engagement of the business community, a topic supported by many of the governments present here and that will be discussed at a BizMEF special event on Sunday, supported by BusinessEurope. There was also a side event co-organised by AFEP, Medef and BusinessEurope where BusinessEurope presented examples of how EU business adds to the circular economy.

The sessions on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement have progressed well. The discussions have included three major parts of Article 6: paragraph 6.2 on co-operative approaches, paragraph 6.4 on market-based approaches (establishing guidance for a new mechanism that furthers sustainable development) and non-market-based approaches. Governments had detailed discussions attempting to clarify how these paragraphs could work in practice, definitions for the units mentioned in these paragraphs and how they can be "created" plus how they could be used, given that countries are committed to enhancing ambition of their commitments. Much of the discussion focused on the submissions that governments had prepared prior to the meeting.

It was agreed that much more discussion was needed to enable governments to both understand the different positions expressed and to try to reach convergence and develop guidelines plus modalities and procedures in time for the Article 6 "mechanisms" to be available by 1 January 2020 and help to encourage private sector in projects and activities to tackle climate change. There was much debate on whether governments should make further detailed submissions on the specific items under discussion and whether to hold an exchange of views on a synthesis of these new submissions plus the previous submissions. At the time of writing this had not been concluded, we await with interest the outcome. Nevertheless, there will no doubt numerous other meetings, including those organized by the business community to help develop the new provisions under Article 6.

There has been considerable discussion on the existing Technology Mechanism and the Technology Framework that was established by the Paris Agreement. Some clarity has been gained on the function of the Technology Framework. The Climate Technology Center Network (CTCN) noted problems with obtaining sustainable funding from governments for its operations. A joint report of the Technology Executive Committee (TEC) and CTCN will be produced. Discussion on the mandated review of the TEC and CTCN was continuing but looked like being deferred to the next meeting.

One item of interest that has cropped up during discussions on the Paris Agreement is that of compliance and the establishment of a Compliance Committee. We await with interest the development of the Terms of Reference for its operation.

The Subsidiary Bodies for Science and Technology and Implementation conclude their work in the next  days and many government ministers arrive to take part in the first meeting of the Parties to the newly ratified, and now in force, Paris Agreement. There will be a lot of discussion on how quickly the rules and procedures for its operation can be developed and brought into force.