Anna Júlia Lopes*
The president of COP30, Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago, called on the negotiators who will take part in the meeting in Bonn, Germany, in June, to achieve “concrete results” on the issues that will be dealt with at COP30 in Belém.
“Making progress in Bonn on issues that would otherwise be left for the COP can help our process avoid the risks and stresses that have been damaging mutual trust year by year.,” Corrêa said in a new letter published on Friday (23).
According to him, the current Presidency is working together with the COP29 Presidency and the presidents of the subsidiary bodies of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) to ensure that, during the meeting in Bonn, decisions are taken that will be formally adopted at the COP in Belém.
In the document, Corrêa also states that the meeting in Bonn – which acts as a preparation for the climate conferences – is the time to focus on negotiations to build a “global infrastructure of trust” to achieve results.
The president also revisits the idea of a “Global Mutirão” (which means “global task force”), mentioned in his last letter, published on May 8. In the previous document, Corrêa appealed to the international community to come up with contributions in the form of experiences and initiatives that could help to sustainably tackle climate challenges.
In the new letter, he invites negotiators to work together in this “task force” to ensure progress at the climate meetings in June. The Presidency also asks participants to change their approach in Bonn, “from possible moments of zerosum confrontational approach to one of empathy and solidarity”.
According to Corrêa, the meeting in June will begin with a “zero day” of informal talks on the date before the official opening of the sessions. He said he expected the participating delegations to be guided by three priorities:
- To reinforce multilateralism and the climate change regime under the UNFCCC;
- To connect the climate regime to people’s real lives; and
- To accelerate the implementation of the Paris Agreement by stimulating action and structural adjustments across all institutions that can contribute to it.
For him, the measure of success for the Bonn meeting lies in the “collective ability” of delegations to communicate progress. “IIt would be highly displaced if the first formal negotiation space of the year – the SBs in June – gave way to procrastination and postponement of decisions. Failure to progress on agreed upon mandates at SB62 will further erode trust in the continued ability of multilateral process to deliver the outcomes mankind needs,” he says.
In an interview with the COP30 newsletter, Corrêa said that the aim of the letter is to call on the “whole world” to join the joint effort to combat climate change and that, for this reason, the first to participate should be the negotiators, who will have the power to approve the document to be delivered at COP30.
*Jornalista do IPAM, anna.rodrigues@ipam.org.br