Steep mountain still to climb ahead of COP29

Building on the many mandates that emerged, and progress achieved, at COP28 in Dubai last year, the June UN Climate Meetings, held in Bonn, Germany, from the 3^rd–13^th June 2024, aimed to drive forward progress on key issues and prepare decisions for adoption at the upcoming COP29 UN Climate Change Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, in November of this year.

“We’ve taken modest steps forward here in Bonn,” said UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell in his closing speech. “[But] too many items are still on the table . . . We’ve left ourselves with a very steep mountain to climb to achieve ambitious outcomes in Baku.”

The environmental and development group Germanwatch gives a mainly sobering assessment of the outcome of the UN climate negotiations in Bonn. “Despite intensive discussions being held for nearly ten days, the negotiations have reached a stalemate in several areas. On the one hand, more financial support to combat climate change and adaptation to it is called for, while on the other, there are demands that significantly more countries step up their climate protection measures,” says Laura Schäfer, co-head of the Germanwatch International Climate Policy department. 

“The poor countries of the Global South need an ambitious support package to combat global warming, adapt to climate change and cope with the impacts of the climate crisis,” Schäfer adds. “The focal aspect is the new international climate finance target, which is to apply for the period after 2025.” 

However, Germanwatch does welcome the results concerning the Global Goal on Adaptation. Here, following tough negotiations, an agreement was reached. On this basis, work can now commence on indicators to measure progress made in reaching the Goal.

At a technical expert dialogue (TED10), in-depth examination of the elements of the New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance (NCQG) was enabled – including how to make sure it is: ambitious, optimally structured, transparently reported on, and improves the quality of climate finance to developing countries.

Parties also spent several days working on developing a substantive framework for a draft negotiating text for consideration at COP29.

Furthermore, Stiell noted the need for further progress on climate finance issues outside of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process, including by the G7. “Advanced economies have multiple levers to pull, including as shareholders in development banks,” he stressed. 

The Co-Chairs invited Parties to submit their consolidated and updated views on the NCQG so that they can produce a new input paper with options for TED11 and the third meeting of the ad-hoc work programme, which will be held back-to-back in October. A high-level ministerial dialogue on the NCQG will also be held in October to help pave the way for an outcome at COP29.

(UNFCCC/Germanwatch/ile)

More information:

• Website of the June UN Climate Meetings (SB 60), Bonn, Germany
• UNFCCC website
• Germanwatch website (in German)