27 June 2019: Nineteen developed countries and nine developing countries presented their climate actions during the Bonn Climate Change Conference in Germany in June 2019.

During the 24-25 June Multilateral Assessment, a process to assess developed countries’ progress on their 2020 climate targets, developed countries described their targets and strategies and climate actions to meet their 2020 emission reduction targets, in line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement on climate change. Australia, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, Norway, Poland, Romania, the Russian Federation, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK were assessed during the session.

The presentations showed the ways in which climate action portfolios are expanding and actions are improving as countries integrate lessons learned from previous policy cycles. They also addressed: plans to increase ambition and strengthen climate actions; the role of the land-use sector; and drivers of any emissions increases.

Many countries outlined their goals to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. For example, Finland aims to be carbon neutral by 2035 and carbon negative soon after, and Sweden has set a net zero emission goal by 2045 with negative emissions thereafter. The UK, Ireland, Slovenia and others are legislating climate neutrality domestically.

Other actions highlighted in the presentations address:

• emissions trading and carbon and energy taxes, which are reducing emissions, raising funds and sending a price signal to businesses and consumers;
• renewable energy targets, feed-in tariffs, green energy banks and competitive tendering, with Spain, for example, aiming to achieve a 100% renewable electricity system by 2040; and
• incentives and infrastructure support for electric vehicles, including the world’s first electric vehicle ferries in Norway and the banning of petrol cars nationally by Ireland by 2030 and by the UK by 2040.

Australia explained that its Clean Energy Finance Corporation, the world’s largest green bank, provides more than AUD 1 billion in funding for domestic green technologies, including large scale solar, electric vehicles, pumped solar and hydrogen. Australia presented its new AUD 2 billion Climate Solutions Fund, which will provide funding for domestic climate actions to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Countries also emphasized the importance of building institutional and policy frameworks to meet their 2020 targets, while implementing more ambitious national climate contributions under the Paris Agreement.

During the seventh workshop for the facilitative sharing of views (FSV) on 19 June, nine developing countries presented an update on their activities to reduce emissions before 2020, namely Armenia, Brazil, Nigeria, the Republic of Korea, South Africa, Thailand, North Macedonia, Uruguay and Viet Nam.

The countries described a range of actions, such as emissions trading schemes (ETSs), efficiency measures in buildings, renewable energy production, and low-emission beef production.

For example, the Republic of Korea highlighted the Korea Emissions Trading System, the first nationwide ETS in East Asia, which covers five sectors and 26 sub-sectors. It is also supporting the development of electric vehicles and promoting the distribution of eco-friendly vehicles until 2030 through demonstration projects and subsidies.

South Africa has implemented a carbon tax, carbon offsets, Desired Emission Reduction Outcomes (DEROs) for sectors, company-level carbon budgets and regulatory standards.

North Macedonia is mainstreaming the SDGs into national planning, with SDG 13 (climate action) covered in national strategic documents in the areas of mitigation, vulnerability assessments, awareness and dissemination.

Brazil said it had benefited from sharing experiences with other countries, particularly with other Portuguese-speaking countries, to improve mutual capacities in implementing mitigation policies.

Since 2016, the FSV workshops have provided developing countries with an opportunity to showcase actions and innovations related to, inter alia: innovative approaches to support local governments in implementing national climate change policies; public-private partnerships (PPPs) and incentives that encourage more climate technologies and innovation; economic instruments to help improve ambition levels; and domestic monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems.

Both the Multilateral Assessment, which began in 2014, and the FSV aim to help countries, especially developing countries, to increase their ambition by learning from one another, reaffirming that an effective transparency framework is critical to build “trust, understanding and confidence towards delivering ambitious climate goals.” [UNFCCC News Story on Multilateral Assessment] [UNFCCC News Story on FSV] [Highlights of the Presentations During Multilateral Assessment] [Highlights of Presentations During FSV] [Multilateral Assessment Webpage] [Seventh FSV Workshop Website] [FSV Website]