29 August 2013: The UNFCCC Secretariat has published the reports of the 38th sessions of the Subsidiary Bodies, which were held in Bonn, Germany, from 3-14 June 2013.

The documents released include: the report of the 38th session of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA 38) and two addenda (FCCC/SBSTA/2013/3, Add.1 and 2); and the report of the 38th session of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI 38) (FCCC/SBI/2013/10).

The meeting brought together approximately 1480 government delegates, 900 observers and 30 media representatives.

SBI 38 was characterized by an agenda dispute concerning a proposal by the Russian Federation, Belarus and Ukraine to introduce a new item on legal and procedural issues related to decision-making under the Conference of the Parties (COP) and Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP). Underlying the proposal was their dissatisfaction with the decision-making process at the UN Climate Change Conference in Doha in 2012. While recognizing the importance of the issue, other parties opposed considering it as a new SBI agenda item. Instead, a proposal was made to consider the issue as part of the SBI agenda item on arrangements for intergovernmental meetings. This was unacceptable to the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Belarus. As no solution to the dispute was found, the SBI was unable to launch substantive work in Bonn. Many were disappointed with the outcome and concerned about the implications for COP 19 and CMP 9 to be held in Warsaw in November 2013.

SBSTA 38 had a busy agenda and swiftly began working through it. The various SBSTA negotiating groups were allocated more negotiating time slots than usual given that no substantive negotiations formally took place under the SBI. SBSTA 38 achieved what many saw as good progress, inter alia, on REDD+, and several methodological issues. [Publication: SBSTA 38 Report] [Publication: Addendum to SBSTA 38 Report] [Publication: Addendum 2 to SBSTA 38 Report] [Publication: SBI 38 Report] [IISD RS Coverage of SB 38]