Bonn Climate Change Conference

• 21 Jun 2023

Recently, the Bonn climate change conference concluded, marking an anticipated opportunity for course correction in global efforts to address climate change.

• This summit seeks to redirect global financial flows and generate new funds to combat climate change and its associated challenges.
• Aims: To accelerate action and pave the way for meeting the 1.5 degree or 2 degree Celsius temperature targets.

Key Takeaways

• Global Stocktake (GST): The technical discussions on the GST, which is aimed at assessing progress in the fight against climate change, concluded with the development of a framework for the stocktake exercise.
• However, there were conflicts between developed and developing countries regarding provisions related to finance and historical responsibility.
• Historical Responsibility Debate: Developing countries were particularly riled by Australia's statement seeking to downplay the historical responsibility of developed countries in causing global warming.
• Australia argued that historical emissions occurred at a time when there were limited alternatives to fossil fuel-based energy sources and little understanding of the harm caused by greenhouse gases.
• Money Matters: Discussions at the Mitigation Work Programme (MWP) faced challenges as developing countries raised concerns about the lack of enabling finance and technology transfers from developed countries.
• International Support: Developing countries emphasized the need for international support in the form of financial resources and technology to strengthen their climate actions.
• Insufficient Financial Resources: Developing countries require significant financial resources to implement their climate action plans, estimated to be as much as US$6 trillion between now and 2030.
• The current commitment of developed countries to raise US$100 billion per year from 2020 falls short of the required amount.
• Summit for a New Global Financial Pact: A meeting in Paris aims to raise financial resources for climate change, biodiversity loss, and poverty.