Reflections on the 2023 Bonn Climate Change Conference

I recently returned from Germany where I attended part of the UNFCCC Bonn Climate Change Conference, also known as SB58. This two-week conference takes place annually, half way between the annual Conference of the Parties, or COPs. The SB is an important working meeting of the UNFCCC, where negotiators must follow up on resolutions that were passed at the previous COP, and work to set the agenda for the next one. The next COP - COP28 - will take place in early December in Dubai, and will be focused on a number of pressing issues that kept negotiators working overtime in Bonn last month.

The Paris Agreement has been finalized for years now, so what is there for Parties to discuss at these conferences? While it's true the official negotiations over the Agreement itself have concluded, Parties must now work to implement the Agreement. And that is where things start to get difficult.

It's one thing to agree on a set of goals and targets, but it is an entirely different proposition to implement and achieve them. That is in part due to the fact that implementation is, well, hard. And also, when we talk about implementation we must inevitably talk about the elephant in the room: money. In the negotiation chambers, the thorny question of 'who pays?' is never far from the surface. Long simmering tensions begin to rise, something we saw clearly at COP27 as part of the loss and damage debate, and again last month in Bonn.

At SB58, things got off to a rocky start from day 1 when Parties could not even agree on the official conference agenda. Adopting the agenda is normally a routine procedural vote, but this time, there was no consensus due to last minute additions and the agenda remained "provisional" until the very end of the conference. 

This set an adversarial tone that carried on through the two weeks. We saw fights consume the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) discussions, where different negotiating groups squared off around the structural elements of the goal, as well as during the Global Stocktake Technical Dialogues, and in the recognition of the IPCC's AR6 report. Issues relating to historical versus current emissions trajectories found their way into discussions that, on their face, had little to do with GHG accounting. But the subtext is clear. There is a fundamental disagreement between Parties about how to implement the Paris Agreement and who is responsible for paying for that implementation.

This is not an issue that will disappear any time soon. Questions of fairness, equity, and justice all play into this conversation. Is it fair or just to ask Tuvalu to pay for a crisis its citizens did not cause? Of course not. Least developed countries can and should receive the support they need to adapt. Rich countries can and should pay. But what amount? And what are the criteria for receiving payments? What about countries like China, Brazil, or Saudi Arabia? And what is the role of the UNFCCC? These are the questions that rumble along under the surface, creating tension in unexpected areas.

Necessary conversations are happening, however, thanks to champions like Barbados' President Mia Mottley, whose Bridgetown Initiative seeks a fundamental reworking of our post-Bretton Woods global financial architecture. These discussions are ongoing - including at last week's Paris Summit on a New Global Financing Pact - but they will not be resolved in the near term.

Parties will return to the negotiating table in Dubai in November. In the meantime, consultations continue. On the GGA, for example, there will be two more workshops where Parties attempt to iron out the remaining differences related to the format and structural elements of the goal. Argentina will host the first workshop at the end of July and is taking an active role in diplomatic efforts.

Away from the formal meeting rooms of Bonn, it is often far easier for Parties to talk substance. We remain hopeful that all sides will use this opportunity to avert a larger crisis on adaptation at COP28. 

Ingrid Timboe
Portland, Oregon, USA