AT THE JUNE CLIMATE MEETING IN BONN, WORK BEGINS ALMOST TWO DAYS LATE

It only really began on Tuesday evening, after a 30-hour stalemate during which the inclusion of two items on the agenda was discussed.

The opening plenary session, which was supposed to kick off the climate negotiations in Bonn on Monday morning with the approval of the agenda, only took place on Tuesday evening, after another day of delays and waiting.
The start of the proceedings was delayed by some differences between the parties, mainly related to two points of disagreement: proposals for trade mechanisms defined as “unilateral” and the new financial target agreed at COP29 (NCQG, New Collective Quantified Goal).

The first point is a clear reference to the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), the new trade instrument used by the European Union. It is currently in its “trial phase” and will become definitive in 2026. This instrument imposes a carbon tax on goods entering the EU to limit so-called carbon leakage, i.e. polluting industries moving their headquarters and production outside the Union to escape the rules of the European carbon market, and to prevent European companies from suffering competition from those elsewhere who do not pay for their emissions (as is the case in Europe with the ETS system). The CBAM therefore aims to give incoming goods the right “carbon” price to enable fair trade and promote cleaner industrial production in non-European countries as well.
As might be expected, many countries oppose this measure for fear of negative repercussions on their exports, and the LMDCs (Like-Minded Developing Countries) group has proposed addressing the issue here, during these climate negotiations, before it becomes effective. This discussion, as you may recall, had already been raised at COP29 and had already been able to block the approval of the agenda, but at that time it was quickly shelved. Similarly, in recent years, objections had been raised at the WTO, always ending in a stalemate. The compromise reached during Tuesday evening’s plenary session was to include the issue on this year’s agenda, within the discussion on just transition, as a footnote.

The second point of disagreement addressed by the delegations in recent days relates to Article 9.1 of the Paris Agreement, which defines the obligation of developed countries to provide financial resources to support developing countries in mitigation and adaptation. In this case too, it was the LMDCs group that requested the addition of this item to the agenda, with the aim of reopening the dialogue on public finance provided by developed countries to developing countries.

Tuesday evening’s plenary session ended with a brief speech by Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, who commented on what had happened, saying that “the last 30 hours have been difficult and have not reflected the urgency we face”.
Concluding his speech, Stiell said that “even if it is imperfect, even if no country or group gets everything it wants, climate multilateralism has made clear progress at every recent COP. But clearly more is needed, more quickly, and we need to show the world that climate cooperation can deliver results, now more than ever. And if we want COP30 to bring us further progress, we need the next eight days to bring concrete progress on all aspects of the agenda”.

Cover image: photo by Isabela Castilho | COP30 Brasil Amazonia.