18 May 2017: The Bonn Climate Change Conference devoted considerable time to advance efforts to operationalize the Paris Agreement through technical discussions in a balanced manner under the three subsidiary bodies.

The Bonn climate talks included the 46th sessions of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI 46), and the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA 46), and the third session of the first meeting of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement (APA 1-3).

The conference, which convened from 8-18 May 2017, in Bonn, Germany, brought together over 3900 participants, including over 2000 government officials, 1800 representatives from UN bodies and agencies, intergovernmental organizations and civil society organizations, and 70 members of the media.

The APA adopted conclusions outlining intersessional and pre-sessional work under each substantive agenda item.

Under the APA, the thorny issue of differentiation between developed and developing countries resurfaced under many agenda items, hindering agreement on the “skeletons” of the decisions on the rulebook that are expected to be adopted in 2018. However, the APA adopted conclusions outlining intersessional and pre-sessional work under each substantive agenda item.

The SBI adopted conclusions on: public registry/-ies referred to in Paris Agreement Articles 4.12 (Nationally determined contribution (NDC) registry) and 7.12 (adaptation communications); matters related to least developed countries (LDCs); national adaptation plans (NAPs); scope and modalities for the periodic assessment of the Technology Mechanism in relation to supporting the Paris Agreement; review of the functions of the Standing Committee on Finance; third review of the Adaptation Fund; matters related to capacity building; arrangements for intergovernmental meetings; and various administrative and financial matters.

The SBSTA adopted conclusions on: the Nairobi work programme; the Technology Framework under the Paris Agreement; agriculture; research and systemic observation; various methodological issues under the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol; matters relating to Article 6 (cooperative approaches) under the Paris Agreement; modalities for accounting of financial resources provided and mobilized through public interventions under Paris Agreement Article 9.7; and cooperation with other international organizations.

The SBI and SBSTA adopted joint conclusions on response measures and scope of the next periodic review of the long-term goal under the Convention and progress toward achieving it, which also contained a Conference of the Parties (COP) decision.

Various issues under the SBI and the SBSTA, such as the review of the long-term global goal, NAPs, or the the review of the Clean Development Mechanism and of the capacity-building framework were postponed for the end of 2017 or even 2018 in order to allow negotiators to focus on other related issues under the APA and COP agendas.

The work on the Paris Agreement Rulesbook advanced in incremental steps, leaving considerable work for the 23rd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 23) to the UNFCCC, scheduled to take place in November 2017. [IISD RS Coverage of SB46] [UNFCCC SB46 Webpage]