BONN, AGENDA APPROVED BUT POLITICAL DIVERGENCES REMAIN

The mid-year climate negotiations in Bonn, preparatory to COP31, opened on Monday with a four-hour plenary session, although strict time management by the co-chairs left Parties with unfinished statements in most cases.

The approval of the work agenda for the two technical bodies supporting the negotiations, SBI (Subsidiary Body for Implementation) and SBSTA (Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice), was swift and efficient. Two items on the SBI agenda were kept in abeyance and three items, due under the SBI and one under the SBSTA, were deferred to subsequent sessions.

These mid-year negotiations carry the pressure of serving as a crucial juncture between the outcomes of COP30 and the expectations for COP31, advancing pivotal discussions on the Global Goal on Adaptation, Just Transition, and the Global Stocktake.

In general terms, wide emphasis was placed on the need to accelerate the implementation of the Paris Agreement, engaging in active work to ensure that the era of implementation effectively materializes within the current economic, geopolitical, and social context.

Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), reiterated that dependence on fossil fuels entails continuously importing inflation and economic instability, while simultaneously exporting energy security, sovereignty, and decision-making autonomy.

Chris Bowen, the Australian President of COP31, outlined the political framework of these mid-year negotiations by explicitly referencing the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and instability in the Middle East, presenting energy vulnerability as a geopolitical rather than merely an economic risk. Consequently, renewables constitute a matter of security, sanctions, blockades, and resilience to shocks.

However, this drive for acceleration has already encountered obstacles. A notable incident was Saudi Arabia’s request to refer exclusively to the term “fuel”, avoiding “fossil” during the approval of item 11 (b) of the SBSTA agenda, which concerns emissions from fuel used for international aviation and maritime transport. This intervention, though technical, underscores the sensitivity and political tension surrounding the issue of fossil fuels, even after the well-known phrasing “transitioning away from fossil fuels” was formally inscribed at COP28 into the first global assessment of policies under the Paris Agreement, the Global Stocktake.

As anticipated at the outset, the discussion on two items of the SBI agenda was suspended, being kept “in abeyance”, namely item 2 (a) on Biennial Transparency Reports (BTR) and item 4 (a) on National communications, while three items were postponed to future sessions (“deferral”):

• item 10 (b), present on both the SBI and SBSTA agendas, concerning the review of the progress, effectiveness, and performance of the Adaptation Committee, was postponed to SB65;
• at the request of Ukraine, item 3 (b) of the SBI agenda, regarding the report on national greenhouse gas inventory data in the context of communication and review for Parties included in Annex I to the Convention;
• item 10 (b) of the SBI agenda, concerning the second review of the functions of the Standing Committee on Finance (SCF), was postponed to SB65.

Certain negotiating coalitions, including the Group of 77 and China (G77+China), the African Group of Negotiators (AGN), and the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), expressed concern over the absence of National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and the issue of Loss and Damage from the agenda items. This request does not merely concern the opportunity to submit new plans or documents, because for many developing countries, NAPs are primarily instruments to be operationalized through financial resources, technical assistance, capacity-building, and clearer modalities for accessing adaptation finance. Adaptation, however, does not disappear from the Bonn proceedings, as it will continue to be discussed chiefly through the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA).

Regarding Loss and Damage, the concern of developing countries relates primarily to the lack of a standalone agenda item. Although several related instruments and processes already exist, such as the Warsaw International Mechanism, the Santiago Network, and the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, many vulnerable countries are calling for a dedicated negotiating space to allow for a more political and comprehensive discussion on outstanding priorities, including access to resources, predictability of support, and coordination among the various mechanisms.

Concurrently, the most vulnerable countries, including the G77 and the SUR Group, which is a coalition of Latin American and Caribbean countries, drew attention to the non-fulfillment of finance commitments by developed countries. The G77+China, AGN, LDCs, and the SUR Group called upon developed nations to honor their existing pledges, denouncing insufficient contributions, difficulties in accessing funds, and delays regarding key instruments such as the Adaptation Fund. In particular, they reiterated the necessity of scaling up support for adaptation, Loss and Damage, and means of implementation, also in light of the new climate finance goal agreed upon in Baku and the commitment to strengthen adaptation finance by 2035.

Trade also returns among the issues that certain countries wish to include on the agenda, representing a requested and, in many respects, controversial topic. Following the intense discussions that emerged in previous sessions and culminated at COP30, the first-ever dialogue on green trade measures will be held on Saturday, June 13, designed to address the relationship between climate policies and international trade. The G77 group expressed its dissatisfaction in the plenary today regarding the fact that the dialogue involves the participation of various organizations rather than being restricted solely to governments.

Article by Anna Pelicci, Head of Delegation for Italian Climate Network, and Elisa Mauri, Delegate for Italian Climate Network

Cover image: photo by Elisa Mauri