India ‘disappointed' after talks at Bonn
India and several developing countries have expressed disappointment after a key climate finance discussion was excluded from the Bonn Climate Talks agenda, vowing to raise the issue at November's COP30 summit in Brazil.
The dispute centred on Article 9.1 of the Paris Agreement, which mandates that developed countries provide financial resources to assist developing nations with both mitigation and adaptation efforts. The debate over the 9.1 agenda item proposal led to a 30-hour delay before talks could begin.
'We are extremely disappointed with the reluctance of developed countries to discuss their legal obligations to provide finance to developing countries,' said Amandeep Garg, additional secretary at ministry of environment, forests and climate change, who represented the Indian delegation.
The Like Minded Developing Countries (LMDC) group and the G77 and China had proposed agenda items on both the legal obligation of wealthy countries to provide climate finance and another on unilateral trade measures. However, these were not adopted after the European Union and other developed nations refused to agree.
'Without enough affordable financial support, developing countries cannot address the challenges posed by climate change,' Garg said during his intervention at the agenda adoption session, backing the LMDC position. 'This is completely unacceptable. We do not understand how this process can engage in article 9.1 without which climate action in developing countries cannot be taken in scale, scope and speed'
Garg added: 'It has been 10 years of the Paris Agreement and still the items which are required to be discussed, we are not discussing them.'
Diego Pacheco, Bolivia's negotiator and spokesperson for the LMDC group, warned that the issue would resurface at COP30. 'Public finance from developed countries is a necessary condition for implementation of the Paris Agreement,' he said. 'You can deny us the starting point but be rest assured, the LMDC will raise these items at COP30.'
The African Group also highlighted the implementation of Article 9.1 as critical to their region, emphasising the need to address resource provision for nationally determined contributions, national adaptation plans, and just transition measures.
EU negotiators said their 'positions and motivations being mischaracterised' and urged parties to respect all positions in a constructive spirit.
The agenda was finally adopted on Tuesday evening after extensive behind-closed-doors consultations. Simon Stiell, the UN climate chief, acknowledged the difficulty of the negotiations whilst urging progress on mandated items.
'The past 30 hours have been hard and have not reflected the urgency that we face,' Stiell said. 'Through cooperation and compromise, we have resolved the impasse. We must now move the work ahead.'
This year's Bonn talks agenda includes discussions on Global Goal on Adaptation indicators under the UAE–Belém Work Programme, the UAE Dialogue on implementing global stocktake outcomes, the UAE Just Transition Work Programme, and the Baku to Belem roadmap to 1.3 trillion dollars.
Avantika Goswami, programme manager at the Climate Change Centre for Science and Environment, said the European Union and its allies had blocked the G77's demand to discuss developed countries' climate finance obligations. 'The fight is not over, as the LMDC bloc and India have vowed to bring focus back to this at COP30,' she said.
The dispute comes as climate change appears to be losing prominence in some international forums. The International Institute of Sustainable Development noted that G7 statements following recent talks between leaders in Kananaskis omitted references to climate change, with only the chair's summary making a passing reference to the issue.
'The G7 sidestepped climate change in the leaders' statements, despite acknowledging increased wildfires,' said Patricia Fuller, IISD president and chief executive. 'Previous G7 commitments to action on climate change remain on the books and must be delivered.'
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