World must unite at Bonn talks to deliver on climate goals despite US exit – NGO

The international community must put on a united front at the upcoming climate negotiations in Bonn to prove it can pursue effective climate policy even without the US, environmental NGO Germanwatch said. Delegates from around the world will come together on June 16 for ten days to lay the groundwork for the COP30 climate summit later in the year in Belém, Brazil.

The US announced that it would not be sending a delegate to Bonn, in the latest sign that the country under president Donald Trump is pulling back from international climate talks. "All eyes are now on the EU, the largest bloc of industrialised countries, and China, the largest emitter," said Petter Lydén, co-head of international climate policy at Germanwatch. "Progress must be made on the socially-just energy transition worldwide, an even more challenging task given the loss of US funding," he added.

The NGO called for more ambitious national climate targets, the implementation of a global adaption target, the phase out of fossil fuels and the closing of the climate financing gap.

The Bonn negotiations are the last formal preparatory conference before the next world climate conference COP in November. Many countries have still not submitted their new climate plans (NDCs), leaving the opportunity open to make them more ambitious. “In the interim negotiations, we must make progress on the question of how the expected ambition gap in the NDCs can be closed at COP 30,” said Lydén.

Concrete progress should also be made on the roadmap to increase international climate finance to 1.3 trillion dollars per year from 2035, said Ute Sudmann, head of sustainable finance at Germanwatch. “In addition to public financing commitments from industrialised countries, we need concrete recommendations for measures that enable private investment in climate protection on a large scale,” she said.