Bonn: New Buildings, and Renewed Optimism

A decade in the making, the recently refurbished World Conference Centre in Bonn (WCCB) opened its doors to the global community for the first time today.

In the welcoming reception in the nearby Kunstmuseum, Executive Secretary of UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Christiana Figueres, spoke of the numerous challenges encountered in the process of renewing the WCCB; legal challenges, political challenges and financial challenges. It was only through collaboration and cooperation that the local and federal government of Germany were able to come together to successfully solve these challenges. Bonn-insiders laughed at long at the all too similar situation that the negotiations find themselves in.

And it is with this spirit that the June 2015 UN climate change conference kicked off. This round of negotiations marks one of the final stepping stones on the road to Paris. The stakes are high, with only six months remaining to reach a global climate agreement.

Over the course of the next two weeks, the Ad-Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) will continue to build upon the framework text drafted in Geneva earlier this year. This ‘Geneva text’, all 4232 lines of it that runs across 89 pages, will act as an evolving document to capture negotiations until a formal text is agreed upon and adopted in Paris this December (to be implemented from 2020).

The special representative of Peru, Jorge Voto Bernales, stressed the need to finish this round of negotiations in Bonn with a shorter, clearer and more workable text. This could help parties reach a draft agreement by October, a goal set by COP21 President Laurent Fabius.

Nation states are not the only actors making pledges to reduce their carbon emissions. The last few months have seen an increased focus on the role of non-state actors including cities and the private sector. Figueres commented that Bonn is happening concurrently with remarkable progress by non-state actors – “from oil and gas companies, to ice-cream companies”.

A key area of this conference will be the Lima-Paris Action Agenda (LPAA). Manuel Pulgar Vidal, the COP20 President, was unable to be physically present in Bonn, but called for the LPAA to be taken as a formal dialogue for strengthening action and ambition between state and non-state actors. He reminded the conference of Ban Ki-moon’s plea last September at the Climate Summit for an ‘all-hands-on-deck approach’ to be adopted this year. Such an approach should foster collaboration to build a more sustainable and liveable future for us all.

Hopes are resting on Bonn to pave the way for an inclusive Paris agreement, addressing concerns of not just countries, but also companies, cities and citizens. In the words of Figueres, we must progress ‘all together now’.

The Verb will be on the ground in Bonn to cover the UN climate change conference as it unfolds over 1-11 June 2015.