Implementation levels of COP27 mandates will be assessed at Bonn climate change conference

President of the last year’s Conference of Parties (COP27), Sameh Shoukry, has said that the implementation of the outcomes and breakthroughs achieved in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt in 2022 will be assessed at this year’s Bonn Climate Change Conference (SB58) scheduled to hold between June 5 and 15, 2023.

According to a statement on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) website, Shoukry also said the Bonn Conference will also pave a way towards achieving remarkable progress at COP28 in the United Arab Emirates in December.

Shoukry said: “The Bonn Climate Conference is an opportune occasion to stock take the status of implementation of the outcomes and breakthroughs achieved in Sharm el-Sheikh. It also provides an opportunity to pave the way towards achieving remarkable progress at COP28 in the UAE later this year. This is most urgent given that the climate crisis is becoming the new reality and we are forced to deal with its consequences on a daily basis.

“Acknowledging this, we must seize every opportunity to renew our science-based collective resolve to adhere to the principles of the UN Framework Convention and the Paris Agreement in order to strengthen our response to ensure observing the Paris temperature goal, keeping the 1.5 degrees within reach, effectively adapting to a changing climate and sufficiently responding to the different forms of losses and damages.”

The statement added that the Bonn Conference will convene the 58th session of the UNFCCC subsidiary bodies and continue discussions on critical issues, including global stocktake, the global goal of adaptation, the just transition to sustainable societies, the mitigation work programme and loss and damage, among others.

It noted technical phase of the global stocktake will conclude at the Bonn Conference and mark the start of the political phase which will work towards a strong outcome of the first stocktake at COP28.

Another key task at SB58 will be to prepare decisions at COP28 to operationalise the new loss and damage fund and funding arrangements, along with a decision on the host for the Santiago network on loss and damage.

UN Climate Change Executive Secretary, Simon Stiell, noted: “For many people around the world, limiting warming of our planet to 1.5 degrees Celsius is a matter of survival. The global stocktake is the opportunity of a generation to correct the course we are on, to design a way forward to tackle climate change with fresh vigor and perspective.”

Stiell added: “COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh marked the shift to implementation of the Paris Agreement, resulting in several important outcomes supporting this historic new phase. Parties know what is at stake, and each country now has to deliver.”

Also quoted in the statement, COP28 President-Designate, Dr Sultan Al Jaber, said: “The upcoming Bonn sessions are critical for shaping meaningful, pragmatic, and impactful outcomes at COP28. As the incoming president, we will ensure a fair, inclusive, and transparent presidency that provides space for all parties to reach a consensus across the whole agenda.

“That includes making climate finance more available, accessible, and affordable; doubling adaptation finance, operationalising the loss and damage fund, tripling global renewable energy capacity by 2030; and putting young people, nature, and health at the heart of climate progress.

“We express our full support for the Subsidiary Body Chairs and call on all parties to ensure we make as much progress as possible across all tracks. Our aim is to build on the results of SB58 to achieve a balanced and ambitious outcome in the UAE this December.”

This report is produced in fulfilment of the UNESCO & CIJ London Climate Change in News Media project facilitated by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development.

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