Bonn, Germany – The Bonn Climate Change Conference has ended with important work still to be done to progress efforts to phase-out fossil fuels, protect forests and deliver progress on climate and adaptation finance.
Jasper Inventor, Deputy Programme Director, Greenpeace International said: "Stalled talks around climate finance for developing countries and a repeated deadlock on mitigation played out in Bonn again. It's this repeated playbook that took some of the shine off the emergence of a coalition of countries supporting a transition away from fossil fuels at a time where the climate and energy crisis is set to be supercharged by the El Niño.
"Still, Bonn laid some foundations for COP31: climate finance work is on the COP31 agenda, creating a political pathway for negotiations. The negotiating text on just transition will also form a basis for further negotiations, but no conclusions were reached on mitigation, showing that while this process is still moving, it is far away from political breakthroughs.
"To bridge the 1.5°C ambition gap, governments must now sustain and strengthen international cooperation in and outside the UNFCCC. Instead of systematically trying to renegotiate 1.5°C and eliminate science from key negotiating tracks, what's required is a fair, fast and funded just transition and an end to forest destruction by 2030."
Shiva Gounden, Head of Pacific, Greenpeace Australia Pacific said: "An unrelenting war on climate science took place in Bonn as fossil fuel producing nations attempted to erode the 1.5°C mandate, cutting into the negotiation tracks meant to guarantee the dignified survival of the most vulnerable to climate change. But we refuse to let these rooms become detached from the Pacific's reality, where a breached 1.5°C will drown our history and displace our heritage, as saltwater bleeds into the Vanua (land) that has sustained us for generations."
"This crisis requires more than diplomacy; it requires Pacific courage. The COP31 Presidency must take the helm, grounded in our deeply held values of guardianship and collective survival. True leadership demands the domestic, regional and global bravery to chart a course away from fossil fuels and with moral clarity, stop every new coal, oil, and gas project in its tracks."
Emel Türker Alpay, Climate and Energy Campaigner, Greenpeace Türkiye said: "The COP31 presidency put electrification on the global agenda, showing it understands the scale of the challenge. But an electrification vision without a fossil fuel phase-out is incomplete and global leadership must be matched by action at home. COP31 can be historic if the electrification ambition is matched by clear commitments to make it real. For Türkiye that means a commitment to no new coal power plants, a coal exit date and a just transition away from fossil fuels that leaves no worker or community behind. Türkiye has the opportunity and the responsibility to make it happen."
An Lambrechts, Biodiversity Policy Expert, Greenpeace International said: "We lose one football field of forests every 2 seconds and we heard many parties recognise the need to act fast and support Brazil's forest roadmap initiative. It's now time to shift from endorsement to ownership to effectively halt forest destruction by 2030. At COP31, a group of 2030 forest target champions must make sure the roadmap doesn't get lost as yet another document that doesn't connect ambition with action and an international system that works for forests and people."
