Africa: Countries Urged to 'Go Further, Faster' and Deliver On Climate Commitments

The United Nations climate chief called on Monday for countries to step up action to implement existing commitments, warning that fossil fuel dependency is deepening economic instability and exposing vulnerable communities to worsening climate impacts.

Simon Stiell addressed the opening of the UN June Climate Meetings in Bonn, Germany - an important step ahead of the COP31 climate conference in Antalya, Turkiye this November.

"Tackling the global climate crisis is the hardest, but most important thing humanity has ever tried to do together," he said.

"It is worth doing, because we have no choice. Every economy and population depends on it."

The Bonn meetings take place annually in the lead-up to COP conferences, the latest of which was held in Belém, Brazil, last November.

Over the next two weeks, delegates will advance technical and political work as well as review progress on existing commitments.

The mid-year negotiations are being held against a backdrop of intensifying climate impacts and mounting pressures on countries linked to energy security, food systems and economic uncertainty.

Focus will be on issues such as adaptation, finance, the just transition to renewable energy, agriculture and food security, and follow-up to the first global stocktake towards achieving the Paris Agreement on climate change, concluded at COP28 in Dubai in December 2023.

Mr. Stiell noted that "climate action and the global economy are moving" although progress remains insufficient.

"We are not where we need to be. But we are somewhere we have never been before," he said, adding that this hard work is starting to pay off.

"People the world over need this process to keep delivering, and at increasing speed and scale," he said, adding that "we don't have time to re-open past debates or renegotiate commitments already made."

He said people who are denied the benefits of climate action are already paying the price as deadly heat, El Niño impacts and "a fossil fuel cost crisis" sparked by the war in the Middle East impact households and economies worldwide.

"It's crystal clear: continuing our fossil fuel dependency means continuing to import inflation and economic instability, while exporting energy security, sovereignty and policy autonomy, leaving economies and communities exposed to climate disasters, taking a wrecking ball to lives and prosperity everywhere," he said.

Mr. Stiell urged countries to "go further, faster" by delivering fully on obligations and plans made under the Paris Agreement, the 2015 treaty that seeks to limit global temperature rise to 1.