Below is a transcript of remarks made by UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell during the Introduction to the High-Level Informal Consultative Roundtable event at the UN June Climate Meetings in Bonn, Germany, on Wednesday 17 June 2026.
Good morning friends, it's a pleasure to be joining you.
Since my appointment, I've underscored the need for our process to continue to be optimised and improved, becoming more and more equitable, effective, efficient, and timely, over time.
Particularly as global climate action enters a new era of accelerated implementation, and amid global geopolitical challenges.
The starting point of any improvement must be to recognise just how much progress climate multilateralism has already achieved.
Without it, humanity would be headed for unsurvivable levels of global heating, well over 4 degrees Celsius.
Projected warming is now in the mid-to-high 2s - although this is still a long way from 1.5 degrees Celsius this century, we have come far through climate multilateralism and national efforts.
Resilience-building is now starting to be mainstreamed in policy-making, even if much more is needed.
In the real economy, last year renewables overtook coal for the first time as the world's top electricity source.
Nonetheless, we also need to be realistic and make our assessments based on the clear science.
The world is not on track for 1.5. Meanwhile climate disasters and impacts are getting worse every year. Extreme heat led to the deaths of thousands of people in a single day, in a single country. Climate change is driving inflation through economies.
So there is a clear need for urgent, faster climate action, and more support to enable deep and sustained emission reductions, as well as more resilience.
Of course there are a lot of different causes of these ambition and implementation gaps, including a shortage of political will, finance, tools and technology and other support.
So optimisation of our process is an important piece of closing these gaps, but it is by no means the only piece.
There are also many measures we are already taking as a secretariat - particularly to find efficiencies and synergies, to deliver on all our expanding mandates.
Allow me to also note very clearly - this process is a Party-owned process, and negotiations delivering consensus outcomes will always be at its core. As they should be, as we look towards the second GST at COP33 and beyond.
But the process must also continue to advance global cooperation in other complimentary ways, and strengthen multilateralism.
It needs to move faster, and take advantage of those actors that are willing to push our efforts further.
Minister Kurum, Minister Bowen and I have all been very much aligned: complementarity is the space where we can see much faster and fairer climate actions, more implementations on the ground, more real-world benefits shared by billions more people.
This complementarity between the intergovernmental process and real-economy action is of paramount importance, and so there is need to open up spaces for conversations and new ideas on these topics.
Of course this is not the only area where our process can be improved and optimised
This is why I asked a group of dignitaries last year to look into ways our process can be optimised and deliver greater impacts.
The UNFCCC process has never been static.
Since the Convention was adopted, it has evolved in response to new political realities, scientific urgency, institutional pressures and the growing complexity of climate action.
Over time, the process has created new bodies, new work programmes, new finance arrangements, new engagement spaces for non-Party stakeholders, and new formats for political guidance and implementation.
Many of these innovations were not part of the original design.
History also shows us that evolution has often been incremental, reactive and shaped by short-term temporal challenges, rather than by a long-term perspective on what the process must become to meet the scale of the climate crisis.
This is another reason I have sought the views, wisdom and experience of senior leaders who have helped deliver climate multilateralism over decades.
Last year, I invited fifteen dignitaries to come together, and dive into all of these issues.
They were selected for their strategic thinking, high-level vision, substantive knowledge, experience, and diversity of perspectives.
The last thing I wanted was another echo chamber.
I paid attention to gender, geographic, and generational balance.
They all serve in a personal and independent capacity and contribute voluntarily and pro bono.
Their contributions are an extremely valuable input to an important set of conversations that are needed.
I'm grateful for the time and expertise they have given very generously.
So I want to take this opportunity to thank them here, publicly.
They are:
- Ajay Mathur
- Enele Sosene Sopoaga
- Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim
- Izabella Vieira Teixeira
- Johan Rockström
- Jonathan Pershing
- Kim Stanley Robinson
- Laurence Tubiana
- Manuel Pulgar Vidal
- Mary Robinson
- Racquel Moses
- Sandrine Dixson-Declève
- Wolfgang Blau
- Youba Sokona
- Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein
I invited the Roundtable members to consult on perspectives on progress to date under the UNFCCC, and to share their ideas, advice, and recommendations on how to further accelerate implementation under the Convention.
I sought these perspectives in the context of the Party-driven nature of the intergovernmental process, and the secretariat's mandates.
The participants followed a foresight-driven approach, and offered me their honest, independent and expert perspectives. So the impartiality of their recommendations is among the most important aspects of the value they offer.
They shared their views on factors that have enabled progress, and also what they see as challenges that have hindered accelerated implementation.
They forecast the current trajectory of the process.
They discussed achievements, gaps, and emerging trends.
They shared numerous recommendations on how the process can be improved, and by when; what the milestones could look like, and how to achieve them.
Throughout the discussions, several key topics have emerged as enabling preconditions for catalyzing the transformative action needed to boost implementation.
As the Roundtable members' recommendations are independent, I will pass shortly to some of them.
I am considering these inputs carefully, as they deserve.
It's important to note they are not the only inputs that are needed, that are being considered, or that will be sought.
I will also be seeking the views of Party and non-Party stakeholders, on issues relating to improvement and optimisation of the process, or indeed any perspectives on the ideas and recommendations discussed at a high level by the Roundtable members today.
We will share more details on how and when that will take place soon.
I will also continue to hear from this very valuable Roundtable, moving forward.
So now I would like to ask a few members of the Roundtable to come in to share their views.
Background note: In his statement on the closing of the SB64 June Climate Meetings, the Executive Secretary also noted the below:
The secretariat has been listening carefully and taking steps to find efficiencies, so we can keep delivering on all our growing mandates.
I also asked a group of experts to consider ways that our process could be optimised or evolve - recognising all that it has achieved, and its Party-owned nature and foundations.
This week, they shared some of their independent ideas. A summary will be made available in the weeks ahead.
The secretariat is very much in listening mode, and very clear on our mandates.
We particularly want to hear from you - the Parties - and other stakeholders, and we'll provide information soon on a process and timelines to do that.
