🛣️ From Baku to Belém, via Bonn

COP WATCH

Bonn meetings show that Baku-Belém roadmap is possible, but challenging

If November’s United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belém can be compared to the opening week of a star-studded Broadway show, then this week’s annual UN climate meetings (SB62) in Bonn, Germany was the dress rehearsal.

Climate negotiators from around the world gather each year in the city on the Rhine River for two weeks of talks that help set the stage for the COP to come months later. It offers countries the chance to test their arguments and collectively try to tie up as many loose ends as possible ahead of the main conference in November.

This week’s edition came to an end today, and speaking to The Brazilian Report, Natalie Unterstell, founder of climate policy think tank Talanoa Institute, gave the meetings a passing grade. “I’d say it has been a six out of 10. It hasn’t been an excellent event, but it hasn’t been a failure either.”

Though given much less coverage, the Bonn meetings are crucial to a successful COP, as 2024 clearly showed. “If talks don’t progress in Bonn, there’s a much higher chance of an impasse in Belém,” said Unterstell… 

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