Government representatives from all over the world met in Bonn from 30 April to 10 May.
Discussions at working level were held to prepare the climate change conference in Katowice, Poland at the end of the year. The aim was to develop detailed rules for the Paris Agreement and initiate more effective climate action in the various countries.
Representatives from the almost 200 Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change used the negotiations for intensive work on the text and specified and shortened the formulation proposals drawn up during the climate change conference in Bonn (COP 23) in November 2017. This lays the groundwork for the next round of political negotiations at ministerial level (COP 24) in Katowice in December. The objective of COP 24 is to adopt detailed implementation rules for the Paris Agreement. In order to make the political options clearer, delegates decided to hold an additional round of negotiations in Bangkok in the first week of September.
State Secretary Jochen Flasbarth commented: "The process is on the right track, but it has to pick up much more speed to allow us to finalise the rules in Katowice. The additional week of negotiations in September will help us achieve this. A coalition of ambitious countries is currently forming, as was the case before the Paris conference in 2015. Although we still have a lot of work to do, I am confident that the experienced team of the Polish Presidency will lead us successfully through the negotiations in December."
The negotiations deal with issues such as: What information do countries have to supply to make climate action efforts transparent and comparable? What level of flexibility will apply to countries which do not have sufficient staff or technical capacities to set up and maintain the necessary data bases? How specific do countries’ NDCs have to be? How exactly does the global stocktake, to take place every five years, work?
In addition to implementation rules, discussions also focussed on options for improving international climate action. Under the Talanoa Dialogue, countries discussed where the international community stands with climate action, what it wants to achieve and how it can get there. Talanoa is a word used in Fiji and across the Pacific to reflect a process of decision-making oriented towards the collective good and building consensus. The Talanoa Dialogue will continue until the Katowice climate summit. It is intended to encourage countries to review and, if possible, step up their targets.
An initial expert dialogue was held at the Bonn meeting. Countries and non-governmental organisations were invited to submit written statements and discuss them in small groups in an atmosphere of trust. The statements clearly showed that people in many regions are already suffering from the impacts of climate change, and that while measures are being taken, there are also many untapped opportunities for more resolute action.
Following the working level discussions on technical issues in Bonn, the German Government will advance the international political debate on the implementation of the Paris Agreement with the Petersberg Climate Dialogue. Together with designated COP24 President Kurtyka, Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze will invite a representative group of ministers to the Dialogue, which will be held in Berlin from 17 to 19 June.