Bonn Update: Climate Talks Off Track

Delegates from across the world gathered in June in Bonn, Germany to continue negotiations for a new global climate deal. Yet after two weeks of negotiations, it is becoming increasingly clear that the world is not on track to reach a just global deal in time for the December Conference of Parties in Copenhagen. A fair and effective climate treaty that helps developing countries cope with climate change is possible, but there will need to be a political earthquake to realize this goal in time.

Various issues are stalling progress. First, rich countries have so far presented woefully inadequate mitigation targets. ActionAid insists that developed countries cut their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent by 2020 (compared to 1990 levels). This is essential if global warming is to be limited to 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial levels -- the threshold after which climate change will threaten the very survival of entire coastal countries. Instead, Japan announced a target of 8 percent and Australia has declared a target of 5 percent reductions. The United States, the single biggest historic polluter, has so far put nothing on the table.


Flattened village after Cyclone Aila.

The negotiations on finance for adaptation are also moving slowly. The poorest countries and the poorest communities, which have not caused the climate crisis, are already experiencing the impacts of climate change with increasing floods, droughts, famine, and climate related diseases. New funding to compensate these communities and to help them adapt is desperately needed. ActionAid and our partners are also calling for at least $86 billion for adaptation. Yet developed countries have not put numbers on the table for the level of finance needed, nor have they come to any agreement on how to raise or channel the funding.

And finally, at the heart of the dispute lays the question of which countries are required to do what. The United States, Australia, Japan and other countries have united around the idea of ensuring that countries such as China and India also take on binding mitigation targets. Yet the developing countries, working together in a group called the G77 and China, insist that the developed world, representing less than 20 percent of the world’s population and responsible for nearly 75 percent of historic emissions, must live up to its historic responsibility and drastically reduce its emissions and provide finance for adaptation and technology transfer to developing countries. Large developing countries say they will act, but their actions will be commensurate with the level of finance and technology provided by the developed world.

The United States has not come forward with concrete mitigation targets or financial contributions. Instead, the US negotiators are saying that they can’t put forward specific numbers until Congress passes a climate bill. While a bill has been introduced, Congress is unlikely to pass a climate bill before November, which could potentially put the entire climate talks in peril.

While the news inside halls of the negotiations is grim, there is a growing movement of civil society pushing for a dramatic change of course. An ActionAid delegation is working with allies to bring messages of equity and justice to climate negotiators. Meeting with representatives of both developed and developing countries, we are pushing for:

  • Binding and ambitious mitigation targets for rich countries, noting that if ambitious mitigation does not happen, adaptation will become more difficult and, for some, impossible.
  • Substantial new resources for adaption from developed countries -- at least $86 billion a year -- to be paid to developing countries as compensation for damages done and channeled through a new financial mechanism with representative governance, access for the most vulnerable, and no conditionality.
  • Commitments that not only vulnerable countries, but also vulnerable social groups, such as women and indigenous peoples, are central new the new global climate deal.

ActionAid will continue to press national governments on these issues until and beyond Copenhagen. Time is running out, and we must vastly change the pace and the content of the negotiations. Join our list to receive updates on how you can help to push for a just conclusion in Copenhagen.