Outcomes from the Bonn Climate Change Conference

The Bonn Climate Change Conference, also known as SB60 (the 60th meeting of the Subsidiary Bodies to the UNFCCC), was held from 3-14 June. This conference takes place roughly half way between the annual COP meetings and is considered a "working" conference where Parties convene to make progress on their agenda under the Paris Agreement and to hash out the details of decisions made at the previous COP.

As there were many important decisions that were made at last year's COP in Dubai, the agenda for SB60 was quite packed and expectations were high for measurable progress to be made - particularly on the implementation of the first Global Stocktake decision, also known as the "UAE Consensus", defining metrics and indicators for the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), and advancing negotiations on the new climate finance goal, which is set to be finalized at COP29 in November.

In the end, only incremental progress was recorded on all three of those big agenda items, as well as on other important topics including the operationalization of the loss and damage fund. On the mitigation work programme, it seemed as if the progress made at COP28 to "transition away" from fossil fuels has now unfortunately been reversed, with Parties sharply divided on the way forward to align 2025 NDCs with the 1.5 degree temperature goal.

AGWA was present primarily to follow discussions around the GGA and the creation of a technical working group to define indicators to measure progress under the framework goal.

Negotiations on this front went to the final day, but in the end we got a draft text which outlines a way forward. 

First, a mapping process of existing indicators and metrics for measuring adaptation will be conducted and a synthesis report subsequently will be prepared for COP29. It's likely that there will also be another workshop for Parties taking place in September, the outcomes of which will also contribute to the synthesis report. Following the mapping process, the Chairs of the UNFCCC subsidiary bodies are tasked with appointing a technical working group of experts who will work to craft the relevant indicators for the 7 themes (including water) and 4 process targets of the framework agreement.

One issue that remains to be determined is the composition of the technical working group, as developing country parties are particularly concerned by the prospect of the working group being made up of experts primarily from the Global North. It's likely this topic will be revisited in negotiations at COP29.

AGWA has been working with colleagues from SWA and WaterAid to draft a short submission to the mapping exercise, based on the previous submission that was made by SWA / UNICEF on behalf of the UN-Water Expert Group on Water and Climate Change. The deadline for submissions is quite tight, so we aim to have this document finalized by the end of July. 

AGWA also co-convened two side events at SB60. The first event focused on the water and energy nexus and was co-convened with GIZ and UN-Water. You can find more information as well as a recording on the WINZ website here. The second event was co-convened with SIWI, IWMI, SWA, and UN-Water on "Building Water-Wise NDCs and NAPs." More information here.