Parties and chairs of the SBI and the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice have gone back into huddles to decide on the way forward with the possibility that the SB 58 conference may end without a formal agenda adopted
The Chinese delegation on the 7th day of the Bonn conference. Photo: Akshit Sangomla / CSE The second plenary meeting on the adoption of the agenda for the Subsidiary Bodies 58 (SB 58) conference on June 12 in Bonn, Germany, ended in a stalemate with no formal agenda adopted. Today is the seventh working day of the conference.
This came after repeated interventions by Nabeel Munir, the chair of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI), stating that all the work being done at the conference would come to a naught without the adoption of a formal agenda.
At one point he even said it seemed like he was dealing with a classroom of primary students and pointed out the number of hours that have been wasted in the adoption of the agenda.
Now, the Parties and the chairs of the SBI and the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) have gone back into huddles to decide on the way forward with the possibility that the SB 58 conference may end without a formal agenda adopted. The closing plenary of the conference is on June 15.
The two main contentions are the agenda item on the Sharm el-Sheikh Mitigation Ambition and Implementation Work Programme or simply Mitigation Work Programme (MWP) and the agenda item on finance based on the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities proposed by Bolivia on behalf of the Like Minded Developing Countries (LMDC) group.
Some of the developing countries, led by the LMDC, contend that the MWP cannot be on the agenda as it was already discussed and closed at the 27th Conference of Parties (COP27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Sharm El Sheikh and if that needs to be discussed, then the finance agenda item should also be put on the table.
The developed countries led by the United States and European Union contend that finance and means of implementation are already a part of the MWP and that there was no need for a different agenda item.
To this, China responded by saying that the separate agenda item on finance was required so that finance can be clearly discussed outside of the various dialogues on finance that are ongoing. China said this finance track has never been discussed before at an SB conference.
Bolivia on behalf of LMDC and Cuba on behalf of G77 and China also made a couple of interventions highlighting the same argument.
The LMDC highlighted that these dialogues on finance were simply exchanges of ideas and they need a dedicated space to move forward on finance being transferred from developed countries to developing countries.
The issue basically boils down to the fact that developing countries want the developed countries to meet their financial commitments such as the 100 billion dollar goal which haven’t been made till now, increase their commitments under the New Collective Quantified Goal and make finance and other means of implementation the centre piece of the climate negotiations going forward.
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