Welcome
On the road to COP27: Climate negotiations in Bonn
UN city Bonn, © picture alliance / Hartwig Lohmeyer / JOKER
COP27 will take place in Egypt this November. Some 4000 delegates are currently meeting in Bonn to prepare the conference. What are the intersessional negotiations? What is on the agenda? What role does the UN city Bonn play?
Government representatives from around the world are meeting in Bonn until 16 June to prepare the 27th Climate Change Conference (COP27) due to take place in Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt this autumn. These negotiations at working level are extremely important. For decisions are made unanimously at the Climate Change Conferences. Positions therefore have to be explored in advance in order to prepare political decisions. The aim of the negotiations in Bonn, therefore, is to agree on an ambitious agenda for the forthcoming Climate Change Conference on reducing greenhouse gases. This includes strengthening solidarity with especially vulnerable countries. Minister of State Lührmann stressed on 8 June:
The climate crisis continues to worsen. It’s high time we implemented the internationally agreed climate targets. The climate negotiations in Bonn are an important intermediate step towards this goal. We want to launch a concrete working programme for more climate protection and solidarity in climate change mitigation. After all, the people who are suffering most from the climate crisis are those who have contributed least to it.
What is on the agenda?
Far-reaching adaptations are needed to ensure that the 1.5°C temperature limit is not exceeded. To reach this goal, the working programme on reducing greenhouse gases by 2030 will be negotiated in Bonn. Another important issue is the negotiations on climate-related loss and damage. After all, poor and vulnerable groups in the least developed countries are those most affected by climate change. Given their low levels of greenhouse gas emissions, however, they are only responsible for global warming to a limited degree.
The negotiations on aligning global financial flows with the goals of the Paris Agreement is also on the agenda. Development banks in particular, but also private investment, must contribute towards a sustainable transformation of societies. What is more, the delegations are preparing the Global Stocktake. From 2023 onwards, there will be a review every five years of where the world stands with regard to climate change mitigation.
UN city Bonn
Bonn has been the seat of the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) since 1995. Its task is to provide administrative and logistical support for the Parties to COP and the Climate Change Conferences. The shared goal is to limit the emission of greenhouse gases to the extent that global warming remains at a tolerable level. To this end, a new Climate Tower - financed by the German government - was erected on the UN Campus in Bonn where UNFCCC Secretariat staff can work together on tackling the climate crisis.