Bonn UNFCCC: Finance, mitigation key issues in week one

The first five days of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) talks in Bonn, Germany, concluded without parties adopting an agenda. An EU-led group of countries pushed to add the mitigation work programme to an agenda, while developing countries called for more focus on adaptation finance to achieve ambitious targets.

Parties have moved forward with discussions, and some delegates were confident the agenda would eventually be adopted.

But a failure to do so "has real consequences", non-governmental organisation (NGO) E3G senior associate Alden Meyer said today. "It could make it impossible to take note of the work that's been done here and use it as a basis for negotiations in Dubai," where the UN Cop 28 climate summit will be held in December, he said.

Any decisions made without the formal adoption of the agenda would carry no legal weight, a representative of China said earlier this week. The issue echoes the outcome of Cop 27 last year, where the topic of loss and damage ultimately overshadowed further progress on action on mitigation, despite significant support on both points.

The second Glasgow Dialogue — set up at Cop 26 to "discuss the arrangements for the funding of activities to avert, minimise and address loss and damage associated with the adverse impacts of climate change" — took place this week.

"Countries have shared good practices so far in the discussions on the Glasgow Dialogue, on loss and damage… but so far the finance and the means of implementation remains to be the key issue of contention," NGO Climate Action Network Canada's senior international policy analyst Pratishtha Singh said today.

Developing countries have urged developed countries to restore trust in the Cop process and fulfil financing promises — including a missed deadline to provide $100bn/yr in climate finance by 2020 and to double adaptation finance by 2025, from 2019 levels.

"Negotiations this week started on a very slow mode", Singh said, although the talks run until 15 June. The talks are designed to set the groundwork for Cop 28.

But there was a new shift in rhetoric on the recurring theme of fossil fuels in relation to climate action in the talks' first week, as incoming Cop president Sultan al-Jaber said that the phase down of fossil fuels was "inevitable".

By Georgia Gratton