AFRICA SOUNDS ALARM OVER DELAYS AND WEAKENING AMBITION AT SB64

The African Group of Negotiators (AGN) has issued a strong warning that developments at the ongoing UN Climate Change negotiations in Bonn, Germany, risk undermining both the urgency of climate action and confidence in the multilateral process.

Addressing the media at the 64th sessions of the UNFCCC Subsidiary Bodies (SB64), AGN Chair, Nana Dr. Antwi-Boasiako Amoah, expressed concern over attempts to defer substantive climate ambition until the second Global Stocktake in 2028, resistance to advancing commitments on adaptation finance, and procedural decisions that have excluded previously agreed mandates from formal agendas.

“Climate change is not a future event. It is an ongoing emergency. Africa cannot wait for ambition to be deferred to another negotiation cycle,” said Nana Dr. Amoah. “We are deeply concerned with the resistance from some partners to engage concretely on the tripling of adaptation finance agreed at COP 30; a commitment that itself built on the doubling target from Glasgow. It is unacceptable that this hard-won commitment is at risk of being erased from the conclusions of the current session. The conclusions of SB 64 must lay a clear pathway for COP 31 to formally reaffirm the Glasgow pledge and establish binding trajectories towards achieving the tripling of adaptation finance within a timeframe that is responsive to Africa’s urgent and escalating needs.”

The AGN Chair, who pledged Africa’s continued constructive engagement in the negotiations, also called for COP31 and COP32 to deliver measurable progress on adaptation finance, the operationalisation of carbon market mechanisms under Article 6.4, institutional arrangements for the Just Transition Mechanism, technology support, agriculture and food security, and implementation of the Global Goal on Adaptation.