The Bonn Climate Change Conference (SB64) drew to a close today (18 June), laying the groundwork for COP31 in Türkiye in November.
The meetings provide a crucial space for governments who have signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to convene and make political decisions on climate action, set targets, draft agreements and assess progress towards existing commitments.
Closing the talks on Thursday, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said: “There remain significant divides, and significant work for the intersessional period ahead… But we have seen a seriousness in tackling key issues, and a determination to find solutions.”
Could a global electrification target aid a fossil fuel phaseout?
Last year’s COP30 in Brazil drew criticism when it ended with a final text that avoided any roadmap for phasing out fossil fuels.
But one fresh idea did emerge from outside the formal talks in Bonn that could act as a complement to ongoing work on national fossil fuel transition roadmaps. Türkiye, which will co-host COP31 with Australia, proposed working towards a global electrification target. It would raise the share of final energy demand met by electricity from just over 20 per cent today to 35 per cent by 2035.
Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe cautiously welcomed the idea but stressed it must be built on renewable energy and efficiency gains, “not on prolonging fossil fuel use through new infrastructure or false solutions”, in the words of the network’s Türkiye policy coordinator, Özlem Katısöz.
Stiell confirmed that the COP31 Presidency had used the talks to announce new targets “for electrification, city resilience and efficiency, and waste” under its wider Action Agenda – which he described as running in parallel with, and equally vital to, the formal negotiations.
With the talks backdropped by the Iran war-linked energy crisis, all eyes will be on COP to address not only the climate risks of fossil fuels, but also the economic and national security risks.
The Just Transition is central to delivering climate action at scale
Offering another glimmer of hope, significant progress was made on what’s known as the ‘Just Transition’.
This aims to ensure that the benefits of moving away from fossil fuels are shared fairly, and the costs do not fall hardest on the workers, communities and countries least equipped to absorb them.
Negotiators made headway on operationalising the Belém Antalya Mechanism (BAM), a framework designed to help countries build just transition principles into their national climate plans – covering everything from worker retraining and economic diversification to how climate finance gets delivered on the ground. It’s expected to be a major outcome at COP31 in November.
“Bonn showed that Just Transition is not a side issue, it is central to whether climate action can be delivered at the speed and scale required, without anyone being left behind,” says James Trinder, international climate policy coordinator at CAN Europe.
He calls on the EU to help secure a strong Just Transition mechanism at COP31, describing it not as a new climate fund, but as a way of ensuring existing finance reaches the right places.
RelatedTalks on climate adaptation finance stall
Talks on an agreement made at COP30 to triple international climate adaptation finance, meanwhile, stalled in Bonn, raising the risk of unresolved political fights spilling into COP31.
CAN Europe says that the absence of the US from the negotiating rooms appears to have emboldened other wealthy nations to scale back their own financial commitments.
“Climate finance is not an optional gesture of goodwill – it is the very foundation for global climate cooperation,” says Sven Harmeling, head of climate at CAN Europe. “Cuts to climate and development finance, as we see them happening in some EU Member States, send exactly the wrong signal.”
Stiell also pushed back against any backsliding on existing commitments, telling delegates that “all Parties must be comfortable and confident in restating our existing global commitments – without cherry-picking those that suit tactically in the moment,” pointing specifically to pledges on loss and damage, climate finance and tripling adaptation finance.
He further cautioned governments not to wait for the next round of formal talks to find common ground. “I urge you to bring in your Ministers as soon as possible, in the weeks and months ahead,” he said, “particularly on the thorniest issues.”
