The mid-year United Nations climate conference in Bonn, Germany, to lay the groundwork for this year’s climate summit in Brazil, started on a slow note as negotiators wrangled over the agenda.

Yet again, as witnessed in recent UN conferences of the parties (COPs), climate finance remains a thorny issue in Bonn, as it will certainly be in the Amazonian rainforest city of Belém, host of the 2025 climate summit (COP30).

It took more than a day and a half of wrangling on the agenda behind closed doors for the opening plenary to end. The row ensued as developing countries formally requested discussions on the implementation of Article 9.1 of the Paris Agreement, on finance provided by rich nations, and climate change-related unilateral trade measures.

Last Tuesday, in bad timing for the Bonn talks, the Brazilian government auctioned off 172 oil and gas blocks, some close to the mouth of the Amazon river and Belém, the COP30 host city. Fossil fuels join finance as contentious issues in Germany.

Though dissatisfied by the adoption of the items to be negotiated, developing countries grudgingly accepted them to move ahead after the European Union earlier opposed and later attempted to entertain the possibility of voluntary contributions from other countries, always a red flag for China.

Although they didn’t get quite what they had hoped for, the united developing countries eventually managed to get those issues onto the Bonn climate talks work agenda. The chairs of the talks will hold substantive consultations on Article 9.1 and report back on the outcomes at COP30 in Belém.

Subdued importance

Unilateral trade measures (code for carbon taxes on imports) will be discussed under other negotiating tracks including the Just Transition Work Programme. UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) Executive Secretary Simon Stiell lamented the lack of urgency on the crisis emergency at the Bonn talks.

“The past 30 hours have been hard and have not reflected the urgency that we face,” he told the subdued end-of-the-plenary session. Governments have given the UNFCC more work to do but not more money to do it with. The body has been cutting costs, Stiell said, noting that this approach is not sustainable.

The UNFCC has released a document showing which part of its work are under-funded. Particularly cash-strapped activities include communications campaigns promoting the UNFCCC process’s achievements, facilitating civil society participation in the process and enhancing the capacity of young negotiators.

“We need to demonstrate to the world that climate cooperation can deliver – now more than ever,” Stiell pleaded with member states at the Bonn talks as the UNFCC’s work balloons, but not its funding.

He warned the negotiators that the desperately needed climate action must be stepped up, saying that the acceleration still needed “will only be possible if our approach is adequately resourced”.

It feels like much of the climate energy is slipping away from the UNFCC process on the ground in Bonn. Just 7,731 people have registered to participate, a 10 per cent drop on last year, with definitely fewer journalists, according to Climate Home News, an award-winning independent digital publication reporting on the international politics of the climate crisis

Many of the COP30 Presidency’s big hitters are skipping some or all of Bonn’s second week to go to London Climate Action Week, where they will be joined by Stiell’s boss, UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who will give a special address at E3G’s State of Climate Politics Forum next Tuesday.

One of Stiell’s predecessor, Christina Figueres, wrote recently that the potential for impact is shifting from climate diplomacy to climate economics “and that shift is being staged not so much within COP venues, but at Climate Weeks in New York, London, and other cities around the world”.

London may eclipse New York City in importance this year, some are saying, as Trump’s policies threaten to scare the green crowd away. Nonetheless, Stiell asserted in Bonn that this process matters deeply in delivering real progress.

Climate Action Network (CAN), a global network of 1,900 civil society organisations in 130 countries driving collective and sustainable action to fight the climate crisis and to achieve social justice, is active in Bonn. It is continuing with its work of convening and coordinating civil society at UN climate talks and other international fora.

At Bonn, CAN is demanding bold decisions to deliver a Just Transition that supports workers, communities and countries in taking climate action. A people-first approach is essential to deliver the Paris Agreement and keep 1.5 °C within reach.

Finance goal

CAN’s Just Transition Rising unites civil society groups, trade unions, social movements, feminists and frontline communities to turn hope and solidarity into concrete strategies that secure dignity for everyone in the fight for our planet.

With the two agenda items proposed by developing countries on climate finance and unilateral trade measures that saw wide resistance from developed countries included in the agenda of the Bonn talks, focus now turns to the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) a key outcome that nations agreed on at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

NCQG offers US$300 billion per year to finance climate action for developing countries, for which developing countries take the lead in mobilisation. The new finance goal was nested with a larger goal of US$1.3 trillion by 2035, which could come from various sources including the private sector and contributions from various sources and contributions from willing developing countries.

However, the decision offered only ‘mobilisation’ of finance – using public money to crowd in private money or directing funds from other sources. Article 9.1 was neglected in the Baku decision since developed countries decided to shirk their obligations directly to provide public funds to developing countries – a source with more predictability and accountability than private finance.

A footnote to be added to the JTWP agenda reading “Related issues” will be among the issues to be discussed in relevant agenda items, including the Just Transition Work Programme has drawn the ire of developing countries.

Bolivia, on behalf of least developed countries, and India have expressed disappointment with the reluctance of developed countries to discuss their obligation to provide finance and vowed to return to the item on Article 9.1 at COP30, with Nigeria referring to it as speaking “to the blood of the UNFCCC”.

Intense negotiations, disputes and reluctant agreements have characterised the first week of the Bonn climate summit. All eyes are now on what happens next week as the negotiations enter the penultimate stage in what promises to be a defining moment for climate action as the countdown to COP30 begins.

Negotiations in Bonn are expected drive forward progress on key issues and prepare decisions for adoption in Brazil, including finalising the indicators for the Global Goal on Adaptation as people around the world struggle to adapt to the increasing impacts of climate change.

Other than seeking to advance a just transition from fossil fuels, discussions will also attempt to find a pathway to mobilising US$1.3 trillion in climate finance through the Baku-to-Belém Roadmap, and keeping mitigation efforts on track.