The United States did not send a federal government delegation to the latest round of high-level global climate negotiations in Bonn, Germany, but the current administration’s foreign and economic policy nevertheless partly shaped the talks, stirring both fear and hope.
The U.S. attack on Iran and its ripple effects across energy markets fueled concerns that climate action is increasingly being sidelined by military conflicts and economic rivalries. At the same time, the disruptions reinforced a growing view that shifting away from oil, coal and gas makes economical and environmental sense, as fossil fuels are linked to many geopolitical conflicts.
Both themes surfaced repeatedly during the 11-day session, where negotiators worked to reach funding goals for adapting to climate impacts, as well as on the implementation of existing climate agreements before the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change summit, COP31 in Antalya, Turkey, in November.
The U.S. Department of State did not respond to Inside Climate News’ requests for comments on the Bonn talks.
“We’ve seen geopolitical tensions washing through these halls,” said Simon Stiell, UNFCCC executive secretary. That resulted in some “side-stepping and stalling” on key issues like climate finance, such as funding for renewable energy in developing countries, he added during his closing remarks at the Bonn talks.
Stiell conceded that progress on climate action has been hard to come by. The bigger concern is going backward just as global warming is accelerating, he said.
Daily summaries of the talks compiled by the Earth Negotiations Bulletin documented the inertia, with descriptions of delegations arguing for hours over minutiae, such as where a block of sub-bracketed text should be placed within existing brackets.
“We cannot afford to re-open previous decisions, to renegotiate existing targets or to backslide,” Stiell said. “All parties must be comfortable and confident in restating our existing global commitments, without cherry-picking those that suit tactically in the moment.”
During the closing plenary on Thursday, a delegate from Saudi Arabia portrayed his country as a victim of climate change, citing the impact of extreme heat and drought, despite a body of peer-reviewed studies documenting the nation’s efforts to delay and obstruct international climate action over the past 30 years.
The U.S. wasn’t completely absent from the talks. Youth activist Analyah Schlaeger dos Santos from Minneapolis attended as part of a broad coalition of community, environmental and labor groups, and said it feels like the U.S. government is abandoning its global responsibilities.
“I’m going to ground us all in the continued necessary reminder that the United States is the largest historical polluter in the world, full stop,” she said during a June 16 press conference in Bonn. “That is our history. It is our reality. It’s not something that we can avoid any longer.”
Dos Santos said the multilateral process can only work if everyone participates and works toward consensus. The U.S. absence is egregious, she said, because it has “caused some of the worst of the mess, has the biggest capacity to do something, and is also making it more difficult for everyone else to do their part.”
Noting that countries have backed away from climate finance commitments by saying they need to focus on military and energy security, dos Santos said, “it’s not that we don’t have the money to meaningfully address the climate crisis, it’s that we have a serious priorities issue.”
In one example, a fund set up to pay out billions of dollars for irreplaceable loss and damage from climate impacts is languishing with only about $100 million in contributions, less than the cost of a week of war in Iran or Ukraine.
“I’m tired of having to advocate for our country to do the right thing,” she said. “I’m tired of having to come to these spaces and discuss how we, the people that care, can address the survival of everyone and everything, while in our countries, billionaires and trillionaires are making us fight for scraps.”
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Bob Berwyn is an Austria-based reporter who has covered climate science and international climate policy for more than a decade. Previously, he reported on the environment, endangered species and public lands for several Colorado newspapers, and also worked as editor and assistant editor at community newspapers in the Colorado Rockies.