By Bunmi Yekini
Developing nations left this week’s UN climate talks in Bonn frustrated and largely empty-handed on adaptation finance, with advocates accusing wealthy countries of quietly abandoning a pledge made only six months ago to dramatically scale up funding for climate-vulnerable communities.
The two-week session of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change subsidiary bodies, known as SB64, ended with negotiators failing to find agreement in numerous areas, including scaling up global emissions cuts and funding for climate adaptation, with many diplomats in the closing plenary lamenting weakened trust in the UN climate process.
ActionAid’s Global Lead on Climate Justice, Teresa Anderson, said developing countries were being met with stonewalling as they sought a concrete plan to deliver on adaptation commitments agreed at the COP30 summit in Belém, Brazil in December.
“Developing countries are furious at rich countries’ efforts to break a historic promise on adaptation finance,” Anderson said. “Only six months ago, governments at COP30 in Belém agreed to triple finance to help climate-hit countries cope with the impacts of a changing climate. It seems that wealthy countries want to quietly forget their promise to help vulnerable countries survive the escalating climate impacts that will otherwise devastate millions of lives.”
The June talks closed in Bonn with familiar frustration over slow-moving negotiations, though across the conference a stronger signal broke through, countries are shifting the centre of gravity from talks to implementation.
Finance remained one of the greatest sources of tension between developed and developing countries, influencing debate around adaptation and trade throughout the talks.
WWF warned that the unfinished business in Bonn would create pressure at the next major summit. “For COP31, developed countries have a clear opportunity to turn finance promises into delivery, by upholding the commitment to triple adaptation finance,” said Marianne Lotz, WWF-Germany Climate and Energy Policy Advisor.
African negotiators in particular pushed back against what they described as inadequate urgency on adaptation. The African Group of Negotiators chair raised concerns over the absence of agenda items on Loss and Damage and National Adaptation Plans, describing the omissions as inconsistent with the urgency often emphasised in climate negotiations. He also warned that worsening climate conditions could have significant implications for livelihoods, food security and development across Africa, citing World Meteorological Organisation projections of an 80 percent likelihood of El Niño conditions persisting beyond the June-August period.
Greenpeace International described the talks as another iteration of a familiar and damaging pattern. “Stalled talks around climate finance for developing countries and a repeated deadlock on mitigation played out in Bonn again,” said Jasper Inventor, Deputy Programme Director at Greenpeace International, adding that “while this process is still moving, it is far away from political breakthroughs.”
Not all outcomes were negative. Anderson said the talks made meaningful headway on how to reshape energy and food systems fairly. One key topic that advanced more calmly and even achieved some promising consensus was just transition, how to achieve a green economic and social shift that is fair from the global to the local level.
Some delegates saw progress on a just transition mechanism to support communities through decarbonisation as a positive outcome, with a package of texts agreed for the COP31 climate summit in Antalya, Turkey.
Anderson said that progress, if consolidated at COP31, could prove decisive. “If COP31 succeeds in setting up a just transition mechanism to support countries and communities to navigate the many challenges of climate transitions, this could be a vital key to unlocking and speeding up climate action and justice everywhere,” she said.
COP31 is scheduled for Antalya, Turkey later this year. WWF’s Mark Lutes cautioned that “the COP cannot be a clean-up job for unfinished business” and that “countries will have to arrive in Antalya ready to land decisions that keep 1.5°C, adaptation finance, mitigation and a just transition on track.”