The Bonn Climate Change Conference was the last big milestone in climate negotiations before the first Global Stocktake under the Paris Agreement at COP28 (Conference of the Parties 28) in Dubai in December. The Global Stocktake is mandated under Article 14 (1) of the Paris Agreement to assess collective progress towards long-term global goals. This includes progress on greenhouse gas reduction, building resilience to climate impacts, and securing finance to address climate crisis. The outcome of the Global Stocktake will inform countries on how to update and enhance their actions.
In 2015, under the Paris Agreement, countries had agreed to “pursue efforts” to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C. That the Bonn Conference was held in the context of overweening emphasis on restricting global average temperature below 1.5°C as compared to pre-industrial levels was reflected in the negotiations. The two agenda items — mitigation pathways compatible with the temperature goal, and climate finance flows from developed countries to developing countries to enable them to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions (in line with Article 4.5 of the Paris Agreement) — remained points of contention between the developing countries and the Environmental Integrity Group represented by the European Union and others. The signal from the Bonn Conference was that developing countries too need to be more ambitious in their emission reduction if the world is to limit rising global average temperatures in the context of adequate finance being provided by the developed north.
