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Pictured: Patricia Espinosaaction before 2020 and beyond between civil society, the scientific community, the private sector and all levels of government, including cities and regions.The conference format itself reflects the two essential tracks of work required to achieve the coherent national and international response to climate change that is now required.The UN intergovernmental negotiations take place in Zone Bula, a Fijian word expressing warm welcome.Here, government teams will want to make noticeable progress so that next year they will complete the full set of practical ways and means which help all actors – government and non-government alike – to meet the goals of Paris to the best of their ability.The need for such an operating system reflects the nature of the Agreement, which is founded on the almost universal set of national climate action plans which countries have submitted to the UN. If that is all there was – a set of diverse promises to act – it would be impossible to assess or even understand whether the world was on track to meet the Paris Agreement’s goals.The operating system must, therefore, deliver clear, consistent and comprehensive guidance, under which countries account transparently for their emissions reductions, adaptation action, flows of climate finance and technology development and transfer.Details of the task are complex but the principle is simple: transparency builds mutual trust not only that everyone is delivering on pledges made, but that everyone can safely act and profit by increasing cooperative ambition.Meanwhile, just along the river Rhine in Zone Bonn, governments, cities, states, business and civil society will be announcing many new climate action initiatives, reporting on progress already made but also working out new ways to coordinate effort.GREAT CLIMATE ACTION ADVANCES CONTINUEGreat advances continue to be made. In the past few months alone, these are just a few of many, many examples.■ China announces five pilot zones for ‘green finance’ where financial institutions will provide incentives to fast track environmentally-friendly industries and new financing mechanisms such as emissions trading will be deployed.■ The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) issues disclosure requirements for the issuing and listing of green debt securities.■ Several countries including France and the UK announce dates when fossil fuel cars will be gone in favour of new electric vehicles.■ Over 100 multinational companies pledge to source 100 per cent renewable energy for their operations under an initiative called RE100 by The Climate Group.■ Over 250 US mayors commit to procure 100 per cent renewable energy for their cities by 2035.■ Moody’s reports green bond issuance worldwide could cross US$200 billion in 2017, doubling the 2016 record.■ The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) develops green bond listing requirements in line with international best practice.■ More companies join an initiative under the post-Paris action agenda to ensure sustainable forest supply chains, including McDonald’s Latin American franchise Arcos Dorados, Swiss fragrance and flavor company Firmenich, Brazilian meatpacker JBS, American healthcare company Johnson & Johnson, Brazilian paper producer Klabin and Canada’s Restaurant Brands International.Such action shows that the Paris Agreement is not a chain that can be broken by any weak link, but an ever deepening and widening web of influence and agreement.Many of the next steps in climate action that have the greatest long-term impact will be ones that link up individual initiatives into more effective models of coordinated and coherent action that unlock new areas of low emissions and sustainable development.This year’s hurricane hits provide a good example of an important sector – insurance – where individual, uncoordinated climate action will never work because the model itself demands that aggregated risk is dispersed amongst all.First steps have been made with special sovereign insurance risk facilities for vulnerable developing countries to help get countries back on their feet in the few months after a disaster. These now exist in the Pacific, Caribbean and Africa with funding support from many developed countries and multilateral development banks.Last month, the Caribbean’s CCRIF said its payouts had exceeded US$100 million due FOREWORD 015