Countries have started gathering in Bonn, Germany from June 5 for the UN’s mid-year climate conference, also known as the meeting of the Subsidiary Bodies (SB58). Led by two bodies within the UNFCCC, the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI), the conference will lay the groundwork for the 28th UN Conference of Parties (COP28) in December this year. Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has sent an expert team to the Bonn meet to track the negotiations.
Setting the context, CSE director general Sunita Narain said: “2023 is a critical year for the aim of driving equitable climate ambition. Countries in the Global North, which have already appropriated a giant share of the carbon budget, should not be given a free pass on the continued use of natural gas, a significant contributor to warming. The global energy transition pathway has to be for all fossil fuels.”
“We also need a global deal on renewable energy for energy access for the poorest and most vulnerable in the world,” Narain added. COP27, hosted by Egypt last year, had precipitated the establishment of a loss and damage fund. On finance, Parties had called for reform of multilateral development banks and other global financial institutions.
On adaptation to the impacts of ongoing extreme weather events and slow onset events due to climate change, Parties agreed on creating a framework for the Global Goal on Adaptation which would allow them to generate ambition and track progress under the global stocktake process.
Says Avantika Goswami, programme manager, climate change, CSE: “While the goal of phasing down fossil fuels as proposed by India did not achieve consensus, COP27 reiterated earlier calls “towards the phasedown of unabated coal power and phase-out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies” and called for a just transition to renewable energy.”
Since COP27, the IPCC has published its Synthesis Report from the Sixth Assessment Cycle which has reiterated the urgency of halving emissions by 2030, if we are to stand a chance of achieving the 1.5C goal laid out in the Paris Agreement. However, Goswami points out that the war in Ukraine has muddied the waters – energy security concerns have become prominent.
Wealthy countries have doubled down on their attachment to natural gas, particularly LNG, as evidenced by the G7 announcement at Hiroshima, Japan last month. They are also eager to capture the green supply chains of the future by unveiling large green subsidies, and trade-restricting carbon border taxes.
The large emerging economies have been at the center of discussions on the energy transition, with experts at CSE and beyond calling for the transition to be equitable so that the development goals of these countries are not compromised.
Goswami says: “Most importantly, the conversation on finance has elevated this year. The question of much-needed reforms to the global financial architecture that is disadvantageous to developing countries in many ways, has become a central priority for the climate community.”
Narain agrees, saying “this year is about money”. She adds: “For countries of the Global South, the focus should be on the lack of concessional finance to drive the energy transition. We need to find ways to ensure that countries come up with sectoral pathways for decarbonisation, and that these pathways list the financial gaps for which funding should be secured.”
Goswami adds: “The spotlight must be on finance in various concrete forms – filling up a loss and damage fund, concessional finance for the energy transition and decarbonisation in developing countries, more financing for adaptation, and progress on the NCQG towards an ambitious new goal reflective of the true needs of the developing world.”
“In Bonn, loss and damage discussions must resolve the disagreements from the two Transitional Committee meetings held after COP27 and move towards resolution so that the next two TC meetings can deliver the recommendations on the full operationalisation of the Loss and Damage Fund at COP28,” says Akshit Sangomla, correspondent at Down To Earth, who will also be reporting from the conference.
