The division of countries in Bonn makes it impossible to comply with science and climate justice

The division of countries in Bonn makes it impossible to comply with science and climate justice

• The tension throughout the summit reflects a clear loss of trust between the countries.
• Hours and human resources have been wasted, and no clear progress has been made on mitigation and financing.
• The Global Balance, Adaptation, Financing and Loss and Damage packages make timid progress, far from the necessary ambition.
• Ecologists in Action joins the global call to put a quick, fair and definitive end to fossil fuels.

After two weeks of meeting at the SB58 in Bonn, the climate summit has closed this period of negotiations. They were expected to significantly advance the documents that have to be discussed at the highest political level at the next COP28 that will take place in Dubai. However, tense discussions around the inclusion of the Mitigation Program and new agenda items on increasing support from the north to the south have resulted in wasted valuable time. Until the penultimate day of the negotiations, the governments have not been able to agree on an agenda despite the risk of wasting what little was achieved during the two weeks of work.

It is the first time that an in-extremis approval of the agenda has occurred in these intersessional meetings. The Presidency of the working groups even declared that this fight over the agenda represents “a bad precedent” that they hope will not be repeated. For its part, Ecologistas en Acción has pointed out that this attitude shows how the distance between countries has increased, which was already evident in the last COP27.

The failure of the global north to assume previous commitments on financing for mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage has been a constant criticism expressed by many countries in the global south. For example, the commitment signed in Glasgow to double adaptation funding has not yet been formalised.

Meanwhile, the hypocrisy of actors from the global north – such as the US or the EU – continues, who continue to talk about including private financing or changing investment flows, without having bothered to give clear signals about their contribution to additional and stable public financing. for the most vulnerable countries in order to repair a small part of the historical carbon debt they accumulate.

On the other hand, the conclusion of the dialogue on the Global Stocktake, agreed at the Katowice summit in 2018, was undoubtedly the most anticipated document of the negotiations. A process in which successive meetings have been held for more than three years to share good practices and measures to increase the global response in terms of mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage. The Bonn summit was supposed to be able to close these dialogues with the development of a draft structure that should include guidelines on the content to be discussed in future meetings.

However, the Bonn result advances a merely indicative structure without relevant content. The final document lowers the ambition due to pressure from Saudi Arabia, China and other allies in the last Global Balance negotiation. Thus, instead of ending with a clear order of issues to be decided at COP28, we find a cumbersome text with four options to choose from. As a consequence, the credibility crisis of these international meetings continues to deepen, as they appear incapable of fulfilling their mandate.

According to Ecologistas en Acción, the constant blockade of some countries on mitigation issues, trust in markets or the determination to maintain false solutions, such as carbon capture and storage, are some of the worst news for the climate. The latest IPCC report has been clear in pointing out that an increase in global temperature of more than 1.5 ºC is close to being exceeded and that immediate action is required capable of reducing global emissions by at least 43 % to 2030. Despite this, many countries continue to refuse to set an end date for fossil fuels, provide the necessary financing and technologies, assume debts from the global north to the global south or accept the divestment of fossil fuels included in the Paris Agreement. .

In the final plenary session of the negotiations, the Secretary General of the United Nations Climate Change Framework, Simon Stiell, stated that “all countries reached an Agreement in Paris that must be respected and it is not possible to choose which part of that agreement is better for each one.” In addition, it launched its commitment to make public the mandatory differentiation of all attendees, whether they are governments, industry or NGOs.

Even the chairman of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation, Nabeel Munir, concluded the final plenary session with these words: “We have wasted a lot of human hours. We don't have any positive issues to take home today. From now on we must work to restore trust. Let's keep the big picture in mind."

Faced with the inability of world governments to accept the need for system change, one that leaves fossil fuels in the ground and complies with climate justice, civil society has not remained silent. Once again, it has demonstrated its strength in actions and demonstrations at the site of the negotiations.

The presence of the next COP28 Presidency, which has been rejected on numerous occasions, has found a response from social organizations – among them Ecologists in Action – who demand a regime of incompatibilities capable of kicking out fossil fuel companies and large companies. contaminants of the negotiations.

During the last hours of the meeting, environmental, youth, gender and indigenous organizations made public their intention to increase the response to the expansion of new oil, gas and extractive projects until putting an end to fossil fuels in a quick, fair way. and definitive. For this reason, they announced that on September 15, a global action will begin to demand “an end date for all fossil fuels that must be clearly included among the decisions of the next COP28 summit.”

Ecologists in Action has once again pointed out in Bonn that governments are too far from effectively confronting the climate fight and that, in the face of their inaction, they will continue to “work tirelessly to change the extractivist, capitalist, patriarchal and fossil fuel-based system in these international summits, in the streets and wherever necessary.”