The Call for Adaptation Gets Louder at the Bonn Climate Conference
The Bonn Climate Change Conference, held in Bonn, Germany from 6 to 16 June 2022, was an important stepping stone between COP26 in Glasgow and COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh. During an intense two weeks of meetings, Parties to the UNFCCC discussed progress on the Glasgow Climate Pact and prepared decisions for COP27.
Throughout the conference, adaptation was higher on the agenda than it has ever been. Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States in particular made demands for increased adaptation support. This is in line with previous statements, but the calls for action are getting louder.
As one party noted during the Global Stocktake (GST) Technical Dialogue on Adaptation: "We are moving forward and already adapting on our own without your support," but reminded delegates that this is extremely unjust since those who are already being forced to adapt are the ones who did the least to cause this crisis.
This was echoed in the GST expert presentation on the current state of adaptation action, which noted that, to date, the bulk of adaptation activities are taking place at the household level which places an undue burden on individuals.
While adaptation was prominently featured, there seemed to be confusion on the part of the Parties about the way forward on further refining how to assess progress on the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), which is mandated in Article 7 of the Paris Agreement to "enhance adaptive capacity, strengthen resilience, and reduce vulnerability with a view to contributing to sustainable development and ensuring that the adaptation response is 'adequate' in the context of rising temperatures." The GGA workshop consisted mostly of prepared statements and little consensus was achieved. This leaves more work for COP27.
The idea of "transformational" or "systemic" adaptation and resilience solutions was frequently mentioned, but few successful examples were given. AGWA highlighted the work of the Water Tracker for National Climate Planning as one such solution that transforms the way we manage water resources, taking a systemic, integrated approach to climate-resilient water management.
The Water Tracker was presented at a side event “Accelerating Adaptation: Water for a climate-resilient Africa” where speakers from Egypt, Somali and Malawi shared experiences of integrating water resilience into their national climate planning.
Watch the replay of the side event “Accelerating Adaptation: Water for a climate-resilient Africa”
It is clear that water will feature prominently at COP27. During the Bonn Climate Change Conference, Egypt launched the Action for Water Adaptation and Resilience (AWARE) initiative to promote cooperative water-centric adaptation activities around information sharing, capacity development, water governance, and joint investments. AWARE will ramp up in the lead-up to the COP, as will the momentum coming from Cairo Water Week (mid-October). Within the official COP27 program, there will be an official Water Day, a high-level Marrakech Partnership Water Action Event, and a dedicated Water Pavilion delivering dozens of its own events across a range of themes.
We will need to be strategic in our approach to water at the upcoming COP. We need to ensure that we are collaborating strongly with other groups working on energy, food systems, and nature to ensure we are not re-siloing ourselves in the climate space.
The Bonn Climate Change Conference offered a positive model to be built upon in Sharm el-Sheikh. Civil society actors were highly present throughout the two-week conference and had unprecedented access to and engagement with the formal and informal events.
Marianne Karlsen, the co-chair of the Scientific Body for Implementation (SBI) of the Paris Agreement noted in her closing statement: "We have seen unprecedented engagement on the part of non-Party stakeholders who have a key role to play in helping governments achieve their climate goals." This is an encouraging sign and one we will continue to take advantage of moving forward.
Ingrid Timboe, AGWA Policy Director