Africa-Press – Malawi. By Mathews Malata, contributor, in Bonn, Germany:
Malawi, as chairperson for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) Group on Climate Change, is leading 44 countries in critical climate negotiations that began yesterday at the Bonn Climate Conference.
The talks, known formally as the 62nd session of the Subsidiary Bodies (SB 62), are a milestone on the road to Conference of the Parties (CoP) 30 in Belém, Brazil.
Building on decisions made at CoP28 in Baku, Azerbaijan, the Bonn sessions are expected to set the stage for key technical and political outcomes to be tackled later this year.
The LDC Group, under the leadership of Malawi’s Evans Njewa, is calling for bold action on both negotiated and non-negotiated items.
“We can no longer afford frameworks that look good on paper but fail to deliver where it matters most,” Njewa said in a press statement released ahead of the conference.
Among the LDCs’ top priorities are the conclusion of frameworks for measuring progress under the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) and advancing the implementation of outcomes from the Global Stocktake, with the aim of aligning climate actions with the 1.5°C temperature goal.
For the first time, the LDC Group is also formally calling for a tripling of adaptation finance by 2030.
This demand comes as the current target—doubling adaptation finance by 2025—nears its deadline.
“Informed by science and the escalating impacts of climate change, the LDC Group believes the existing target is outdated and grossly inadequate,” the statement reads. “We are calling for a bold leap: triple adaptation finance by 2030 as part of an ambitious New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) to protect vulnerable communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis.”
Earlier this week, the group held internal consultations to align its negotiation strategy.
However, discussions on key topics such as the $1.3 trillion climate finance roadmap and adaptation finance scaling remain ongoing.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell met with the LDC Group representatives, assuring them of the secretariat’s continued support despite what he described as “a very complicated geopolitical landscape” that challenges multilateralism itself.
“We left Baku with many developing countries frustrated, but with a path to triple climate finance. The $1.3 trillion roadmap provides a framework to scale up support through 2035. Bonn marks the first formal consultation phase with parties and observers, and we aim to present a final roadmap by September for review at the Pre-CoP in October,” Stiell said.
On the submission of new Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), Stiell confirmed that only 22 countries have submitted their updated climate plans.
This year’s Bonn conference features 49 formal agenda items, 30 mandated events, 286 side events, 18 presidency-led events, and over 249 hours of negotiations underscoring the weight of expectations leading into CoP30.
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