EcoMotion salutes those governmental and non-governmental parties that descended on Bonn, Germany from November 6 – 17 for COP23. More so, we salute those leaders and delegates that have come year after year to the Conference of Parties to hammer out the rules of the road for global climate protection. This is hard and important work.

The business of global climate protection is complex, sensitive and critical. As Jerry Brown said in Bonn, “We have time, but not much time.” Fiji was the first island nation to preside over a COP, a country that “brings a powerful moral authority to the role after being forced to relocate whole village due to sea level rise.”

Officials and others from nearly 200 countries convened in Bonn, the birthplace of Ludwig van Beethoven, with the clear objective of “making progress for a successful, inclusive, and ambitious implementation” of the legally-binding Paris Agreement.

 The Fiji Pavilion in Bonn

Syria announced last week that it would commit to the Paris climate agreement, leaving only the U.S. out of the accord. Even North Korea has signed on. Many U.S. state, regional, and city leaders are working overtime to make up for U.S. federal recalcitrance, and to more than counterbalance the administration’s “fossil fuel puppets,” including Rex Tillerson and Scott Pruitt, two men accused of “trying to bully the world with their oily agenda.”

Just as nations are key; local governments are foundational. Regional and city leaders came for the “Climate Summit of Local and Regional Leaders.” At the Summit, a major side event to COP23, the Bonn-Fiji Commitment was approved by acclamation “to deliver the Paris Agreement at all levels.” The Summit was attended by more than 330 political leaders and 1,000 delegates.

EcoMotion thanks all those in Bonn for moving the full-scale implementation of climate protection forward. We appreciate national actions. And we thank local governments for promoting the power of location actions – eco-motions – to the international level. Then there are citizens of all stripes making their voices heard in Bonn. They are singing from the heart. And we thank all officials and delegates at COP23 for their leadership and dedication to global collaboration.