Arthur Lee, Chevron Fellow and Principal Advisor gives an overview of the key accomplishments of SB56 in Bonn, Germany.
The road to COP27 Sharm El Sheik ran through the SB56 sessions at Bonn, the seat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It was a winding road with some issues that saw paths forward; some issues reached a dead end and have to be taken up again.
- Article 6 detailing decisions moved forward. So did the decision to begin outlining a further technical dialogue on the global stocktake(Article 14 of the Paris Agreement). The decision to set out a 'work programme' to enhance ambition from now to 2030 also moved forward. A governance framework and funding model for the Santiago Network on Loss and Damage could not be worked out, but the amount of work done at Bonn could at least move forward to SB57, which is the first week of COP27.
- The Global Goal on Adaptation saw an IPCC Working Group II workshop at Bonn which helped to inform the need for a series of subsequent workshops to explore multiple aspects of adaptation. The decision went forward with calling for this series of workshops, and a request to the Chairs of both SBSTA and SBI, with secretariat support, to write a concept note for these workshops, complete with guiding questions for the workshops
- Issues that have any climate finance linkage failed, including the issue about linking more closely the Technology Mechanism and the Financial Mechanism, which failed to achieve any progress. Rule 16 was applied and this issue has to start from the beginning again, no work or any partially agreed aspects of the issue could be saved.
- Also, for example, talk of climate finance for the Glasgow Dialogue on Loss and Damage failed. These climate finance issues will need political negotiations at COP27 Sharm El Sheik, which are beyond the scope and remit of most of the technical negotiators at Bonn.