Briefing SB60

The course correction that was kicked off with the GST to align climate action with 1.5oC enters its second phase this year. The GST decision provides guidance on ambition but its impact will ultimately be decided by the available means of implementation. This is what needs to be resolved at COP29 in Azerbaijan through negotiations on the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance, and it is what forms the heavy subtext for the 60th meeting of the Subsidiary Bodies (SB60) in Bonn.

As we approach the mid-point of this critical decade to keep 1.5oC within reach, Climate Action Network (CAN) would like to stress the need to put justice at the centre of climate action and energy transition. This would require an urgent elaboration of fair shares — both in terms of the carbon budget and in effort-sharing for collective finance goals — in bringing equitable transformation of systems to ensure fair and just delivery of the outcomes decided at COP28. In this context, it is important to underline that the scale of action depends on the availability and quality of finance, especially in developing countries. The responsibility to lead adequate and fair provision of finance rests with the historic polluters, developed countries.

This year will also be crucial for the next round of Nationally Determined Contributions which are due to be finalised in 2025. At the same time, the repercussions of frequent extreme weather and increasingly intense climate impacts cannot be overstated. This makes this challenge of designing and implementing a fair, equitable and urgent transition to net-zero systems more monumental than ever before. In all likelihood, this crucial phase of action marks the last credible opportunity for the alignment of climate action with the warming limit of 1.5C without an overweight reliance on unproven and dangerous technologies. 

Another concerning development is the shrinking civic space, which now seems to have reached the grounds of the UNFCC. While the impacts of climate change are causing devastation and driving vulnerability around the world, the presence and participation of civil society observers who form the vanguard for human rights and the freedom of expression at UNFCCC events have been limited significantly in recent years. This trend must be reversed this year, both as a moral obligation as well as in accordance with the Arrangements for Intergovernmental Meetings (AIM) conclusions agreed at the 58th meeting of the Subsidiary Bodies (SB58) in 2023.

Negotiations at Bonn are set to cover the GST outcome, climate finance, adaptation, loss and damage, mitigation, just transition, cooperative approaches and NDC enhancement. Considering upcoming deadlines to complete negotiations on the NCQG for finance at COP29 and for the submission of the next iteration of NDCs ahead of COP30, as well as the commencement of pivotal cross-cutting pieces of work on the Global Goal on Adaptation and the Just Transition Work Programme, it is critical for parties convening at the SB60 to keep justice, equity and fairness at the heart of negotiations and urgently deliver significant progress on these fronts. CAN believes that climate action in this critical decade and beyond would serve as little more than a dangerous distraction, unless conscientiously informed by justice and fairness.

To this end, CAN’s main demands and recommendations from the SB60 are listed below.

On the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance                           

• The goal must be based on climate justice and science and be responsive to the evolving needs and priorities of developing countries.
• Climate finance through the NCQG must be additional to ODA and not divert scarce funds from pressing development and humanitarian needs.
• Finance mobilisation under the NCQG must not worsen or exacerbate the debt burden of developing countries. 
• The NCQG must as a core element include a clearly-differentiated target for public finance – measured and accounted for on the basis of grant-equivalents, and encompassing sub-goals for the provision of public finance for the three pillars of climate action: mitigation, adaptation, and loss & damage.
• Transparency and accountability measures must be baked into the framework in order to avoid double- and triple-counting of finance, as well as other necessary improvements. 
• A burden sharing mechanism between developed countries to meet unpaid “arrears” within a maximum of two years.
• Acknowledging the need and imperative for massive scale up of genuinely new and additional public funds for international grant finance through fair and progressive e taxation, including wealth taxes and taxation based on the ‘polluters-pay’ principle, which should be explored in detail under Article 2.1c.

On the UAE Work Programme on Just Transition Pathways (JTWP)

• The JTWP must go beyond sharing practices, and serve as a space to identify common ground and opportunities for speeding and scaling up Just Transition, working towards delivering real-world impact for workers and communities.
• Agree on better modalities for inclusion of rights holders in the JTWP, including at the national level, beyond sending submissions and having limited participation in the dialogues and negotiations. 
• Establish a Joint Party-Observers Advisory Body, designed to ensure a balanced representation of constituency observers and other stakeholders. This body will ensure analysis and sufficient preparation is done before JTWP sessions, and will aim to infuse the JTWP with diverse perspectives. It will help ensure that strategies and actions it endorses are genuinely inclusive and reflective of all stakeholders’ needs.
• Agree that intersessional time is required to respond to the scale and urgency of the discussions, and so agree that the Advisory Body, as a group of experts, can steer the work in between sessions.

On Adaptation

• Establishing a clear roadmap for the UAE-Belem Work Programme detailing the criteria for indicator development to ensure progress in adaptation efforts
• Addressing the woeful inadequacy of adaptation finance and deliberate on its delivery through locally-led approaches of planning and implementation
• Accelerating access to new and additional grant-based finance for developing countries on the basis of equity and CBDR-RC to meet the targets of country-driven, gender-responsive, participatory, and transparent National Adaptation Plans.
• Evaluating how current NAPs align with the eleven targets under the GGA Framework and fast-tracking the update of technical guidelines in accordance with the provisions of decision 2/CMA5 para 47.
• Establishing a system to track financial resources from developed to developing countries, assessing the adequacy and effectiveness of support for NAPs, including developing specific indicators that can assess the adequacy and effectiveness of financial support provided.

On Loss and Damage

• The Glasgow Dialogue should be used to discuss operationalisation of the fund and supporting the work of the Loss & Damage Fund (LDF) Board.
• The LDF Board must prepare both an initial capitalization effort as well as a long-term fundraising and replenishment strategy.
• L&D finance must be included in the NCQG with a clear sub-goal articulated on the basis of grants.

On the Annual Global Stocktake (GST) Dialogue

• The Dialogue must be conducted in an inclusive manner allowing observers to participate with the same possibilities as Parties, including virtual and live-streaming possibilities.
• It must focus on implementation through a possible identification of tools and methodologies to use in Parties’ nationally determined quantifications of their contributions to the global effort to limit warming to 1.5°C based on equity and CBDR-RC.
• It should provide guidance on  how NDCs should respond to the GST outcomes, specially from a sectoral perspective.
• The dialogue must also include a session dedicated to challenges countries face in ending the expansion of fossil fuels .
• It must enable the exploration of all non-Mitigation elements, including potential percentages of countries’ equitable contributions to an agreed NCQG.