The 23rd Conference of the Parties, better known as COP23, is underway in the city of Bonn in Germany. Over the next two weeks, 23,000 delegates and 500 nongovernmental organizations from 196 countries will try to clarify a "rulebook" for the Paris Agreement on climate change negotiated at the conference two years ago.

It is clear that individual countries’ efforts up until now have not been enough. The Paris Agreement mandates that we become ever more ambitious and assess how we can improve further every five years.

In Paris, we agreed to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius. That’s a compulsory goal. Lower, however, is preferable. All countries in the world have to step up their efforts to reach the agreed national targets and to increase the ambition of these targets.

There is a point of no return for humanity, and we will reach this point if we disregard the upper-temperature limit agreed at COP21 in Paris.

Read the full article on success at COP23 by Benjamin Bathke at Devex International Development