The Paris Climate Agreement is based on rich countries providing massive support to poorer ones. But the current arrangement expires next year. New negotiations are now taking place in Bonn.
(dpa) – Around 6,000 experts from almost every country in the world have been looking for a solution to the controversial issue of climate finance in Bonn since Monday. Since 2009, the goal has been for industrialized countries to provide billions in aid to poorer countries every year. This was confirmed in the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015 and extended until 2025. In 2022, the targeted amount of 100 billion dollars per year was reached for the first time.
But now the question is what will happen after 2025. The next World Climate Conference next November in Baku, Azerbaijan, is expected to make a concrete decision on this.
In his opening speech at the World Conference Center in Bonn, UN climate chief Simon Stiell called on participants to step up their efforts. “We absolutely cannot afford to stumble in the next ten days,” said the Grenadian politician. “It is clear that climate action must be taken at a much, much faster pace.”
Bonn is the seat of the UN Climate Secretariat and therefore every year in June is the venue for the ten-day interim conference to prepare for the next World Climate Conference. This year, the meeting is given particular importance because of the explosive financial issue. “Bonn is important so that the negotiating parties can at least signal where they could move,” Germanwatch climate expert David Ryfisch told the German Press Agency. “It is urgent to rebuild trust, because the fact that the annual 100 billion was only exceeded in 2022 has permanently damaged trust between industrialized and developing countries.”
The rich countries of the Global North are demanding, among other things, that not only they, but also the Gulf states, participate in the climate payments. “The challenge is that we have a huge gap between what is needed and what is actually provided,” said Ryfisch.
It is considered rather unlikely that concrete draft texts will be presented in Bonn. “But the talks will be very intensive,” expects Jan Kowalzig, climate expert at the aid organization Oxfam. “In recent years, only expert talks have been held on a technical level, but this year there will be concrete negotiations,” Kowalzig told the dpa. “Now we're really getting down to business so that there will be a draft resolution before Baku and this central question can then really be decided in Baku. This round in Bonn is very, very important for this. We can look forward with excitement to how the negotiations go.”
According to a recent UNICEF study, extreme heat and air pollution can have serious consequences, including death, especially for newborns and small children. Malnutrition, which is responsible for almost half of all deaths of children under five worldwide, is expected to increase as a result of climate change. Diseases that are often life-threatening for children, such as malaria, will also continue to spread.
