As Cyclone Bipaljoy approaches southern Pakistan this week, Pakistan’s top negotiator, Nabeel Munir, told governments at the mid-year UN climate change talks in Bonn amid a tussle over the talks’ agenda: I felt like I was teaching an elementary school class,” he said.
A compromise was found the night before two weeks of negotiations were due to end in the German city on Thursday, avoiding diplomatic embarrassment ahead of the crucial COP28 summit in Dubai in December.
But the results in Bonn also call for addressing wealthy countries that want to focus on formal work plans to boost emissions reductions, and the lack of international funding to support the transition to clean energy. It did not resolve the obvious differences with some developing countries.
“Here in Bonn, negotiators are blaming each other, blaming each other for not doing enough,” said Tom Evans, climate diplomacy and geopolitical policy adviser at environmental consultancy E3G. said.
He said the “big prize” at COP28 will be the ambition to step up action on climate change in response to a global review that highlights how the world is failing to keep warming to the global target of 1.5 degrees Celsius. He pointed out that it would be a meaningful political deal. And we are not prepared for climate disasters.
“If the champions do not intervene to reach an agreement by COP28, there is a real risk of ending up with a lowest common denominator outcome,” Evans warned.
As the Bonn negotiations come to an end, climate policy experts are reluctant to see rich countries fulfilling their climate finance pledges or discussing more funding for poor and vulnerable countries. He said that something had soured the atmosphere on most issues during negotiations, and that it would spill over into negotiations in Bonn. COP28.
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The progress[in Bonn]has been overwhelming in almost every way, but mainly because of money. Developing countries are frustrated that the money promised to implement climate change plans has not materialized.
David Wakou, International Climate Director, World Resources Institute
Since 2020, developing countries have awaited US$100 billion in annual loans to support clean energy deployment and adaptation to global warming, but rich countries say they should finally deliver on the pledge this year. The latest estimates put the amount of such funding in 2020 at around US$83 billion.
The delay has led to a lack of trust needed for effective political negotiations, said David Wakou, international climate director at the World Resources Institute.
“The progress[in Bonn]has been overwhelming in almost every way, and the main reason is money,” he said. “Developing countries are increasingly frustrated by the lack of funding promised to implement climate change plans.”
Ripple of the fiscal impasse has left many of the key agenda items for midyear consultations, aimed at laying the groundwork for a successful COP28, bogged down in disagreements, with no further workshops or meetings later in the year. This means that it has been postponed until Final summit in Dubai.
These key areas of work range from setting global targets on adaptation, to making agriculture more climate-friendly, to planning a just transition to a low-carbon world.
Fossil fuel phasing is ‘inevitable’
In one bright spot, the UAE’s Sultan Al Jaber, president of the COP28 conference in Dubai and head of the state oil company, said phasing out fossil fuels was “inevitable”. It was a comment, a stronger word than his. I have used it before.
The speed at which that happens, he added, will depend on “how quickly we can phase in zero-carbon alternatives while ensuring energy security, accessibility and affordability.” .
“He could be the one overseeing this year’s agreement on the transition to phasing out all fossil fuels,” said Mohamed, director of Nairobi-based climate and energy think tank Power Shift Africa. Ado said.
“For the people of Africa, fossil fuel climate change is hurting us badly. Let this year’s Dubai COP28 be the starting point for our recovery.”
Advocacy groups that have lobbied to block fossil fuel industry representatives from participating in climate change talks also applauded the adoption of the first requirement of prior affiliation for all participants.
But they said the new measures the United Nations Climate Office will roll out in the next few days do not include a need to disclose funding, meaning whether individuals receive funding from the fossil fuel industry. I lamented otherwise. Participate in discussions on climate change.
A survey of last year’s Egyptian COP27, released by human rights groups, found that 636 fossil fuel lobbyists from the world’s largest private and public oil and gas companies were registered at the summit.
“There is no place for foxes in chicken coops. This important step in increasing transparency is a milestone as we move closer to getting large polluters out of this process,” said the environmental group Friends of the Earth. Earth International’s Sarah Shaw said:
Climate change activists and analysts say the Bonn outcome was disappointing, but other important meetings, such as next week’s Paris summit on global financial system reform to help debt-ridden developing countries He said there would soon be an opportunity to move the discussion forward.
They urge governments to mitigate the debt crisis affecting more than 90% of climate-vulnerable countries, and to adapt to extreme weather and sea-level rise, and to recover from climate-change losses. agreed to provide more funding in the form of subsidies. and damage.
“You can’t make money out of people’s desperation,” said Harjeet Singh, Head of Global Political Strategy at Climate Action Network International, and these challenges will be solved with lending, which now dominates climate finance. I warned you that you can’t.
“It’s immoral and unjust,” he told reporters in Bonn.
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