UN climate talks: ‘lack of trust’, funding stymie progress between China-backed nations and West

Negotiations in Bonn were dominated by arguments over who should be responsible for financing a ‘just transition’ to a clean energy-powered economy

Bickering over a loss-and-damage fund and mitigation work reveal ‘fundamental geopolitical fault lines’ affecting plans to accelerate climate action

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Participants pictured at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany, on June 8. Rising tensions between the parties involved have affected plans for accelerated action on climate change. Photo: AP

Published: 12:00pm, 21 Jun 2023

Rising acrimony between China-backed developing countries and rich Western nations during recent climate change talks in Germany hosted by the United Nations has dealt a significant blow to plans for accelerated action to slow the rate of global temperature increases.

Rather than giving shape to mechanisms to accelerate the reduction of carbon emissions and enhance countries’ ability to adapt to climate change, 11 days of technical talks which ended on Thursday last week were undermined by “process issues delaying action and a lack of trust between countries”, said Fernanda de Carvalho, global climate and energy policy lead of the WWF.

“This doesn’t match the urgency and the need for rapid and deep cuts in emissions highlighted by science.”

The European Union’s Copernicus climate change observatory reported on Thursday that the increase in average global temperatures since the advent of industrialisation had briefly exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) in early June.

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