Welcome to Bonn!
4 June 2014
ECO welcomes Party delegates to Bonn. Now get to work! We know that you fully recognise the immense responsibilities you have at this session. Coming hot on the heels of the sobering IPCC Working Group 3 report, there should be no doubt that the following urgent tasks must be delivered at this Bonn Session:
Close the Ambition Gap in the pre-2020 period: ECO is very disappointed to hear that not many Ministers will attend the high-level segment this week on the Kyoto Protocol and the ADP review. ECO suggests that those that do make the effort to come use the time here to tell us how they plan to deal with this gap in the near term. Deeper developed country emissions reductions in this KP commitment period is clearly a key element, as is their support to developing countries for enhancing their efforts to reduce emissions. All countries should use complementary concrete measures – such as scaled up implementation of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency – to close the gap.
Put the money in the Fund: Developed country Ministers present in Bonn have an ideal opportunity to signal commitment to mobilising resources for the “newly opened for business” Green Climate Fund. We have lost much time in getting actual climate action funds flowing at scale, so any delays in resource mobilisation for the GCF would be seriously unwelcome.
Ensure success in Lima for success in Paris: ECO recalls that at the last session in Bonn, every last one of you expressed your commitment and willingness to work hard for a success in Lima and in Paris. We suggest that, at this session, you set in motion the process for developing a draft text that will be ready in Lima, and that you finalise the details for the content and preparation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). This must include agreeing on the information required to be provided with these NDCs so that they are comparable, comprehensible and transparent – a precondition to any ability to ensure equity and adequacy in effort.
ECO urges you to address this now, so that countries will be prepared to make early submissions before March 2015. ECO encourages parties to see both the Climate Leaders’ Summit in September and the COP in Lima as ideal opportunities for making announcements about these commitments.
ECO also urges you to prioritise the issue of adaptation and the protection of those most vulnerable to climate impacts in these discussions, and to put this issue front and centre in any new agreement. We cannot fail the poor. We suggest that you spend time in this session to clarify the idea of an Adaptation Goal and that you also finalise the work programme towards setting up a mechanism for Loss and Damage.
ECO is confident that you, dear delegates, are up to these tasks. We look forward to witnessing such a sense of urgency these next two weeks that we feel the walls of the Maritim shake in your haste.