Six months before COP29 in Azerbaijan, the United Nations climate change conference kicked off in Bonn, Germany, on Monday 3 June, to outline the conclusions of the forthcoming COP, which will focus on financing.
“We can’t afford to go to Baku with so much still to do. Let’s make every hour spent here count”, appealed Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), at the opening plenary session of the Bonn Conference.
The conference brings together delegations from 198 countries to advance discussions on the most pressing environmental issues and draw up draft conclusions, due on 13 June, which will be submitted as formal recommendations at the next COP.
Target on climate financing
The most important focus of COP29 will be the establishment of a target for financing climate change mitigation and adaptation.
It dates back to the 2015 COP21 decision in Paris to negotiate a “new collective quantified goal” (NCQG) on climate finance to replace the $100 billion per year target pledged at COP15 in 2009.
As far as the source of funding is concerned, the discussions in Bonn will focus on the provision of public funds by developed countries to developing countries.
However, the EU and a number of developed countries have emphasised the need to diversify funding sources, so that they are public and private, international and national.
“Public resources will not be enough. We must ensure that we send out a strong signal in favour of a major reorientation of the world economy. The international financial architecture, financial markets and investments must integrate climate change into economic and financial decisions at national and global level, as well as into national budgets and the development financing system”, said a representative of the EU delegation at the opening session.
The parties will also discuss the ‘loss and damage’ fund discussed at the previous COP28 in Dubai in December 2023 (see EUROPE 13313/16).
In addition, the conference will host the third and final session of the Glasgow Dialogues. This is a series of dialogues initiated at COP26 in Glasgow in 2022, with the specific aim of discussing how to finance activities aimed at preventing, minimising and dealing with the loss and damage associated with climate change.
National adaptation plans
The Bonn conference is also an opportunity to carry out a global mini-review of the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) process. One of its aims is to draw up recommendations on how to formulate and implement these plans, which will be examined and adopted at COP29.
“Only 57 parties drew up a plan. Between now and our meeting in Baku, this number should increase substantially. We need all countries to have a plan in place by 2025 and to be making progress in implementing it by 2030”, said Simon Stiell.
Moving away from fossil fuels
Lastly, the parties will discuss the third generation of 'Nationally Determined Contributions' (NDCs) aimed at achieving the phase-out of fossil fuels, as agreed at COP28.
Countries must submit these new NDCs by early 2025. The Bonn conference is therefore an opportunity to continue discussions on the integration of the fossil fuel commitment into these ‘Contributions’, before they are finalised.
The EU has announced that it has already started work on its new NDC, taking into account the preliminary discussions on the 2040 climate target proposed by the European Commission last February (see EUROPE 13344/1).
To see the programme for the Bonn Conference: https://aeur.eu/f/chy (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)