After ten days of negotiations, the United Nations Inter-sessional Conference on Climate Change (SB62) came to an end in Bonn (Germany) on the evening of Thursday 26 June, between some technical progress and stubborn inertia on more political issues, in particular financing and decarbonisation.
With less than five months to go to COP30 in Belém (Brazil), the European Union, which is expected to be the driving force behind global climate ambitions, is finding it difficult to adopt a united stance.
The meetings in Bonn were aimed at preparing the next major milestones, including the definition of the new collective quantified target on climate financing, the implementation of the cooperation mechanisms provided for in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, and the operationalisation of the global target on adaptation.
At the closing plenary session, the representative of the European Union acknowledged that insufficient progress had been made.
“The progress made on key issues here is insufficient, and we will need to redouble our efforts to deliver it at COP30”, the representative said.
The representative reiterated the EU’s commitment to finalising a new nationally determined contribution (NDC), aligned with science and the 1.5°C objective, but its adoption remains subject to an internal consensus.
The division between the Member States on the trajectory for reducing emissions between 2030 and 2040 is somewhat hampering the European position. While the European Commission is due to present a proposal on 2 July for a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, a number of countries, including France - which put the issue on the table at the European Council (see other news) - and Poland are calling for greater flexibility (see EUROPE 13668/7).
According to information posted on the United Nations website (https://aeur.eu/f/hm2 ), at the time of writing only twenty-five countries have submitted their new climate contributions.
Although the United States had initially made the contribution under President Joe Biden, the withdrawal of the country from the Paris Agreement by his successor, Donald Trump, cancels the contribution.
Similarly, the world’s other major emitters of greenhouse gases, such as China and India, have yet to submit their new ‘roadmap’.
In addition to the NDCs, the discussions in Bonn once again revealed the friction between the countries of the North and those of the South, particularly over funding.
The principle of an annual fund of $300 billion was agreed in Baku (COP29), but the countries of the South want to see more concrete commitments.
With regard to adaptation, an agreement in principle has been reached to reduce the 5,000 or so indicators identified to around 100. But the means of post-2025 funding have yet to be specified.
“I’m not going to sugar coat it - we have a lot more to do before we meet again in Belém. Much remains to be done to maintain the 1.5°C objective, as required by science”, acknowledged the UN’s Executive Secretary for Climate Change, Simon Stiell, at the closing plenary session. (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)