06/17/2024

Bonn Climate Change Conference - in the run-up to the COP29

2 men and a woman are sitting on bar stools at a table. One of them is holding a microphone. A presenter is standing next to them.
Nicolas Schäfstoß (Federal Ministry for the Environment), Anne Vanselow (Federal Foreign Office) and Philipp Behrens (Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action) welcome the guests at the IKI Networking Event.

The International Climate Initiative (IKI) was represented at two side events in Bonn this year: On 10 June, experts met for an expert exchange on the topic of “NDCs and Industry Decarbonisation”. In the evening, the IKI hosted its traditional networking event - this time to discuss climate finance.

At the beginning of June, heavy rainfall not only caused dramatic flooding of rivers in southern Germany. The Rhine in Bonn also rose to unusually high levels for this time of year, highlighting the extent of climate change even in moderate climates.

But there were other reasons for the climate community to focus on the former German capital. Bonn is home to the Secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which organises the annual Bonn Climate Change Conference. Around 6,000 experts attended this year's event, also known as the Subsidiary Body (SB) meeting. It serves to prepare for the next World Climate Conference (COP, Conference of the Parties).

Plenum of the Bonn Climate Change Conference
Plenum of the Bonn Climate Change Conference

The discussions focussed on the question of how and to what extend global climate change mitigation measures can be funded annually from 2025. The reason: decisions on this issue are to be made at the COP29 in Baku, which begins in November 2024.

The conference will be accompanied by a number of side events organised by climate action organisations and initiatives. The IKI also used the conference in Bonn to host two of its own events on 10 June 2024.

NDCs and Industry Decarbonisation

Participants in the IKI exchange of expertise sit at tables with their laptops and look at a presentation
IKI expert exchange

In the afternoon, the IKI invited to an expert exchange on the topic of “NDCs and Industry Decarbonisation”. More than 20 participants, including representatives from IKI implementing organisations and IKI ministries, discussed about how ambitious industrial decarbonisation targets can be included in the next NDC submission round.

Interesting discussions on climate finance

3 men and 2 women sit on a stage and talk to each other. A presentation is playing in the background
Nicolas Schäfstoß (Federal Ministry for the Environment), Anne Vanselow (Federal Foreign Office), Philipp Behrens (Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action) and Dharshan Wignarajah (CPI) discuss with Katja Eisbrenner von Guidehouse.

The IKI Networking Event on climate finance, which took place later in the evening, was also in line with the content of this year's SB session. It began with a presentation by Dharshan Wignarajah, Director of the English team of the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI), entitled “Reflections on tracked Climate Finance”.

Following this keynote, representatives of the IKI implementing organisations and friends of the IKI engaged in a discussion in a fishbowl format. Participants had the opportunity to take a seat on the podium and put their questions to Philipp Behrens (Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action), Anne Vanselow (Federal Foreign Office) and Nicolas Schäfstoß (Federal Ministry for the Environment) as representatives of the IKI ministries. After this, the approximately 90 guests had more opportunities to exchange views and network in an informal setting.

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Contact

IKI Office
Zukunft – Umwelt – Gesellschaft (ZUG) gGmbH
Stresemannstraße 69-71

10963 Berlin

iki-office@z-u-g.org

Background

This year's Bonn Climate Change Conference (SB60) served as a preparatory meeting for the Baku Climate Change Conference.. The conference took place from 3 to 13 June, the location of the event was Bonn, the registered office of the UN Climate Secretariat. For further information on the SB60, please refer to the UNFCCC website.

In the past years, the IKI has established the network meeting format as an important platform to enable the exchange between the different IKI partners. These include the implementing organisations and their cooperation partners, the IKI ministries as well as Zukunft-Umwelt-Gesellschaft (ZUG) gGmbH as the project management agency of the IKI.