Bonn Climate Meet Takeaways: Old Conflicts, Some Forward Movement

Why in News?

• Prior to the UNFCCC's COP28 in Dubai (UAE), representatives from countries around the world met in Bonn (Germany) for climate negotiations.
• This was the first full in-person meeting since COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

 

Agenda of Bonn Conference

• At Bonn, delegates were tasked with laying the groundwork ahead of a “Global Stocktake” that will see nations assessing their progress towards climate goals.
• Bonn was expected to act as the springboard for accelerated climate action.

 

Global Stocktake (GST)

• Mandated by the 2015 Paris Agreement, GST is an exercise aimed at assessing the progress in the fight against climate change, and deciding ways and means to enhance global action to bridge the adequacy gap.
• The Paris Agreement says GST must be conducted every five years, starting in 2023.

 

Consequence of the Bonn conference:

• One thing that the countries did manage to wrap up was the third and final round of technical discussions on GST.
• The technical discussions just produced a short ‘framework’ on the elements to be included in the stocktake exercise.
• The actual substance in GST would come in at COP28, the year-ending climate conference.

 

Mitigation Work Programme (MWP)

• Apart from GST, this is another mechanism set up at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021 for climate action.
• This is a temporary emergency exercise focused only on increasing emission cuts.

 

Other Outcomes of the Bonn conference:

• Discussions at the MWP ran into trouble after developing countries complained that while they were being asked to strengthen their climate actions, developed countries were yet to offer the enabling finance and technology transfers.
  • Developed countries are under an obligation to support the implementation of climate action plans of developing countries through money and tech transfers.
• Most developing countries, including India, have said they would be able to act more if international support in the form of money and technology transfer was made available.

 

Issues Between Developed and Developing Nations:

• The discussion on GST resulted into disagreement (between developed and developing countries)over provisions related to finance and technology transfer and ‘historical responsibility’ of the rich countries.

 

The Historical Responsibility:

• A bulk of the accumulated greenhouse gas emissions, the reason for global warming, have come from a group of about 40 rich and industrialised countries, usually referred to as Annex I countries in the 1992 UNFCCC.
• This historical responsibility has been the basis for the differentiated burden-sharing on developed and developing countries in the climate change framework.

 

Why Money Matters?

• According to the IPCC, global emissions have to come down by 43% from 2019 levels by 2030 to keep alive hopes of meeting the 1.5-degree target.
• For this, developing countries need as much as US$ 6 trillion between now and 2030 just to implement their climate action plans.
• The loss and damage needs of developing countries are assessed to be about US$ 400 billion every year.
• Against this, even a minuscule-looking US$ 100 billion per year that the developed countries had committed to raise from 2020 is not fully available.

 

Concerns raised by the Developed Nations:

• The historical emissions happened at a time when there was no alternative to fossil fuel-based energy sources, and when there was little understanding or consensus on the harm caused by greenhouse gases.
• Since 1992, about 57% of the carbon dioxide emissions had come from non-Annex I countries. (All Countries excluding a group of about 40 rich and industrialised countries).
• It said that 70% of the incremental warming since 1992 due to emissions from carbon dioxide, methane and sulphur dioxide had come from non-Annex I countries.
• While maintaining that developed countries would take the lead in climate action, bridging the adequacy gap was not the sole responsibility of the developed nations and that it would not agree to references to pre-2020 commitments in the GST.

 

What Lies Ahead?

• A fresh effort at raising financial resources for climate change.
• The Summit for a New Global Financial Pact is an attempt at redirecting global financial flows and raising new money to fight climate change, and dealing with associated problems like biodiversity loss and poverty.

 

Conclusion

• With current global efforts to keep rising temperatures in check abysmally inadequate, a massive and immediate scale-up in climate action is essential to keep alive any realistic chance of meeting the 1.5 degree or 2-degree Celsius targets.
• The international community’s responses are currently fragmented, partial and insufficient.
• There is a need for a fundamental overhaul of all discussions on climate change and related actions and finance.

 

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Q1) What is COP (The Conference of Parties)? 

COP is the apex decision-making authority of UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change). The COP meets every year, unless the Parties decide otherwise. The first COP meeting was held in Berlin, Germany in March 1995. The office of the COP President normally rotates among the five United Nations regional groups which are - Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe and Western Europe and Others.

 

Q2) What is UNFCCC and its primary objective? 

The UNFCCC ( United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) entered into force on 21 March 1994. Today, it has near-universal membership. The 198 countries that have ratified the Convention are called Parties to the Convention. Preventing “dangerous” human interference with the climate system is the ultimate aim of the UNFCCC.

 

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Source: The Indian Express