Next round of climate talks begins today

WORK on the text of the Paris 2015 universal climate agreement will continue in Bonn today, as a 10-day meeting to be opened by the Environment Minister of Peru and the Foreign Minister of France, in their respective roles of President of COP 20 and COP 21.

The UN climate change conference in Bonn June 1 to 11 is the next milestone on the road to Paris, where the new agreement is to be reached at the end of the year The meeting will also continue progress on addressing the most effective ways to raise climate action before 2020, which is when the new agreement would come into effect.

The Bonn meeting comes in the wake of a major business and climate summit held in Paris and just ahead of the meeting of the G7 in Germany.

The Paris business summit underlined the way non-state actors across the globe are already undertaking climate action, as well as rallying in support of a strong climate change agreement. 25 worldwide business networks representing over 6.5 million companies from more than 130 countries pledged to help to lead the global transition to a low-emission, climate resilient economy.

Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Christiana Figures said: “With some 200 days to the UN climate convention conference in Paris, the growing momentum for change and for action is rapidly gaining ground across countries, companies, cities and citizens.

News of yet another group of stakeholders committing to long term emission reduction targets or ambitious investments in renewable energies is emerging almost daily—building confidence and a sense of ‘can do’ among nations as we enter the final six months of 2015.”

The Bonn session includes the meeting of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP). This is the body tasked with reaching an agreement in Paris and looking at how best to raise ambition to cut greenhouse gas emissions and adapt societies to climate change ahead of 2020.

The June session is also one of the two annual meetings of the two permanent bodies of the UNFCCC: the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI).

They tackle detailed issues and decisions on the technical, scientific and implementation aspects of the Convention and provide many of the foundations on which the ADP is constructing the agreement.

At the last session of the ADP in Geneva, in February, countries produced the official text, the basis of negotiations at the upcoming session in Bonn.

The negotiating text covers the substantive content of the new agreement including mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology, capacity-building and transparency of action and support. Work on identifying ways to scale up climate ambition pre-2020 will take place in a series of Technical Expert Meetings.

These meetings will take forward similar discussions from last year focusing this time on scaling up renewable energy supply and energy efficiency in urban areas. The UNFCCC secretariat is also organizing a Climate Action Fair with partners including business and the private sector to showcase action already taking place on the ground.

The activities surrounding the Technical Expert Meetings and the Climate Action Fair are also in support of the Lima-Paris Action Agenda, which is designed to demonstrate the wealth of climate action among cities, regions, companies and investors, including those under international cooperative initiatives.