Major Themes of the first week of SB50

              I am attending the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn (SB50) as a delegate (and alum ’94) of Moravian College. As usual, there is a lot happening with plenary sessions, informal consultations, special events, technical expert meetings, side events, and exhibits. The following are some highlights of the first week.

·       IPCC’s 1.5°C Report (Report Home) – There is an active conversation carrying over from the COP24 about whether to welcome, consider or note the report.  There is a small group of countries (including, alas, the US) hesitant to welcome the report because of the implications for implementation into NDCs and otherwise.  There has been an undercurrent of the 1.5°C Report throughout the week including meetings specifically devoted to it and frequent mention of it in presentations and interventions.

·       Biodiversity protection - It is noteworthy that the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) was invited to speak at this meeting for the first time. Furthermore, their presentation was the first special event on the opening day of the Conference. Much of the attention was given to their recent report and their important contention that we must focus on the interconnections between climate change action and conservation and not attempt to address them separately. 

·       Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture – This workshop spanned several days and highlighted ways to improve soil carbon sequestration and soil productivity on grasslands and croplands.  (Agenda, see Item 5). It was noted that there is 3x more carbon in soils than in the atmosphere. Projects were highlighted that protect existing and enhance degraded organic carbon soil stocks.

·       Technical Expert Meetings on Mitigation (TEMs-M) (Agenda) – Two days were devoted to discussing the connections between food, water, and energy. Discussions have centered around decarbonizing food production (both the primary production and post-harvest phases), creating a circular economy, and implementing nature-based solutions that integrate energy and water with food production.

·       The Research Dialogue took place with the theme of Science for Transformation. This is an opportunity for Parties to the Conference to interact with the science community. There was a poster session (see photo) and two panel discussions. Through this Dialogue, I developed a few ideas to implement at home. I hope more time can be devoted to this Dialogue in the future because in-depth and meaningful conversations were still in progress when time ran out. 

Poster Session of the Research Dialogue

•  The Gender and Women Constituency has been actively promoting gender-responsive and human rights-based climate policy. Progress thus far on the Gender Action Plan has been reviewed with the goal of producing recommendations for update and renewal by the Conference of Parties (COP) in December. This constituency has noted the lack of gender consideration in the market mechanisms (e.g., who will directly benefit from development projects, who will have access to any jobs created, who will receive the training, who will make the decisions).

·       The Youth have been actively voicing their concerns through the YOUNGO constituency and otherwise. They bring hope and a productive energy to the process. Today they took part in a FridaysforFuture protest outside of the conference center (see photo). 

Youth Protest as part of FridaysforFuture

This is just a snapshot of what was discussed this week. More to come!