2023-06-15 16:35:46
Fridays for Future protest during the UN climate conference in Bonn
Photo: dpa/Henning Kaiser
A conference in preparation for the UN climate conference in December in Dubai ended in Bonn on Thursday. The nearly two-week Bonn conference was overshadowed by a dispute that was only resolved on the penultimate day. The issue at stake was whether or not a “work program to reduce emissions” should be on the agenda. The industrialized countries supported this program point, but a group of countries rejected it.
This group included China, India, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and some socialist countries in South America such as Bolivia and Venezuela. On Wednesday of the first week, these countries brought up another point for the agenda: if emissions reductions are to be negotiated, then financial support for developing countries must also be negotiated.
From the point of view of many environmental organizations, this approach was legitimate. For example, Theresa Anderson of ActionAid said: ‘Blocking the work program is not really about emission reductions. It’s the theme that underpins everything here. It’s about money.« However, this reading is not without controversy, because some developing countries wanted the work program and rejected the agenda item on climate aid. These included the small island states and the progressive countries of South America such as Colombia or Chile.
Finally, on Tuesday of the second week, Nabeel Munir, one of the chairmen of the negotiations, made an urgent appeal to the countries: “If we don’t adopt the agenda, all the work we do will be lost.” The reason is technical: without an agenda formal decisions cannot be made. Referring to the floods in his home country of Pakistan last year, Munir said: “33 million people were affected and a third of the country was flooded and I am to go back to my country and tell the people that we are on the agenda for two weeks quarreled?”
This appeal had an effect and the countries agreed on the agenda. This now includes neither the work program on emission reductions nor the agenda item on climate aid. This immediately met with criticism: “It’s crazy that in international negotiations on climate change, governments shouldn’t negotiate how the problem can be reduced,” said Wendel Trio, a long-time observer of the UN climate negotiations.
According to Trio, the calculus of the opponents of the work program worked, their strategy worked, »playing climate aid off against emission reductions. Certain countries prefer that the work program on reducing emissions receives as little attention and support as possible.« Now the presidency of the climate conference in December must ensure that the reduction of emissions and the climate funds are still given enough time.
But Trio is skeptical that this will happen: “Considering the controversy surrounding the new presidency and the events in Bonn, there are doubts about the progress that can be made at the conference in Dubai.” Al Jaber, the conference’s president-elect, is not only the industry minister of the United Arab Emirates, but also the boss of the national oil company Adnoc – a combination of offices that many consider problematic.
At the conference in Dubai, some important decisions should actually be made. On the one hand, climate protection should get a new boost, since an inventory shows that the measures taken so far are not sufficient to stop global warming at 1.5 degrees. On the other hand, the fund for losses and damage caused by the climate crisis must be set up. To this end, a decision must be made as to who pays into the fund and who can receive compensation in the event of weather disasters.
After the dispute over the agenda in Bonn, however, it is questionable whether this will succeed. At the last UN climate conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, the countries decided that there should be such a fund. This was a major concern of developing countries. In return, the industrialized countries managed to get a work program on emission reductions drawn up. But now that this program has been torpedoed by some developing countries, the industrialized countries could retaliate and wall up the fund. Then the dodge with the agenda item on climate funds would be at the expense of the most vulnerable, such as the island states: the emissions would receive too little attention and they would be left alone with the damage caused by warming.
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