Government delegates, observers and various experts will gather in Bonn/Germany from 6 – 16 June to begin taking stock of where the world stands when it comes to implementing the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
The upcoming Bonn Climate Change Conference (‘56th session of the Subsidiary Bodies’) is designed to prepare for the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in November in Egypt this year. The sessions in Bonn will focus on means of implementation and policy requirements in preparation of COP27.
At the June sessions, discussions will take place on a range of important topics including greenhouse gas emission reductions, adapting to climate impacts, providing financial support for developing countries to cut emissions and adapting to climate change. This triangulation is hoped to act as a catalyst to ensure no Party remains stagnant in their climate ambition.
The Chair of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA), Tosi Mpanu Mpanu, expressed confidence that despite the particularly difficult geopolitical context this year, climate change remains very high on the agenda of governments.
“Climate change is the biggest threat to life and livelihoods we face. We need to underline that climate change is the biggest issue of our time. In the last months, we have seen a lot of eagerness from governments to get down to work in Bonn. We have seen a lot of work at workshops and other events. There is a great appetite to make progress”.
In addition to the efforts of governments to increase ambition to tackle climate change, COP26 in Glasgow marked a significant shift towards stronger non-Party stakeholder involvement, which is set to continue in Bonn. Non-Party stakeholders will be able to provide input to several streams of work launched in Glasgow, for example relating to the Global stocktake – a process that will assess progress on the implementation of the Paris Agreement – as well as the Glasgow Dialogue on loss and damage.
COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, will build on the positive outcome of last year’s UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, which finalized operational details of the Paris Agreement and identified work going forward in the key areas of mitigation, adaptation, support – particularly finance – and loss and damage.
The meeting in Bonn will take place against a backdrop of accelerating climate impacts and geopolitical tension. UN Climate Change Executive Secretary, Patricia Espinosa, called on governments not to be deterred:
“Climate change is not an agenda we can afford to push back on our global schedule. We need decisions and actions now and it is incumbent on all nations to make progress in Bonn,” she said.
Ms. Espinosa noted that to implement the commitments made to achieve the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal of the Paris Agreement, the world has a significant workload ahead, but also a great deal to build on. But ambition must urgently be raised to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, and immediate action is needed. Currently, the world is on track to more than double the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal of the Paris Agreement by the end of the century.
“COP27 in Egypt needs to focus on Implementation. There, nations must show how they will, through legislation, policies and programmes, and throughout all jurisdictions and sectors, begin putting the Paris Agreement to work in their home countries,” the UN’s top climate change official said.
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