Background

The Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI), at its forty-sixth session in May 2017, extensively discussed “opportunities to further enhance the effective engagement of non-Party stakeholders with a view to strengthening the implementation of the provisions of decision 1/CP.21” under the agenda item arrangements for intergovernmental meetings (AIM).

FCCC/SBI/2017/7 paragraph 119(b)(i) (emphasis added)

“The SBI identified opportunities to further enhance the openness, transparency and inclusiveness of the effective engagement of non-Party stakeholders. […] Encouraging future Presidencies, subject to the availability of resources, to explore ways to enable admitted NGO constituencies to have an open dialogue with Parties, whereby agenda-setting as well as programming of the dialogue are conducted jointly among the admitted NGO constituencies, the Presidency, the Bureau and the secretariat as appropriate, on the understanding that any outcomes of such a dialogue should have persuasive value only, respecting the Party-driven nature of the UNFCCC process […]".