2023 UN CLIMATE CONFERENCES

This year, at the United Nations climate conference (COP 28) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, representatives from nearly 200 countries will seek to raise global ambition and accelerate national action on climate change to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. Leading up to the summit, the mid-year climate conference taking place in Bonn, Germany in June is an important opportunity for building momentum with international stakeholders and negotiators.

» The mid-year climate conference will take place from June 5 to June 15, 2023 in Bonn, Germany

» The 28th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP 28) will be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from November 30 to December 12, 2023

At the mid-year climate conference in Bonn, Conservation International will engage with key decision makers and global stakeholders to advance discussions and implement commitments made in previous climate conferences — and help set the groundwork for COP 28 to accelerate climate action by governments and the private sector.

Conservation International’s engagement focuses on elevating the role of nature-based solutions to climate change — such as protecting forests, mangroves and peatlands — to both limit global warming and help communities adapt to climate change.

Conservation International and its partners, including BirdLife International and Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU), will co-host an event on the importance of the Global Stocktake process to increase climate action through nature-based solutions. The Global Stocktake process is a central element of the Paris Agreement, which is currently evaluating progress toward the Paris Agreement’s goals to inform the next iteration of climate action through Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) – or national climate plans under the Paris Agreement – and international financing commitments. Therefore, it is critical that the role of nature is elevated and highlighted among the Global Stocktake outcomes to advance political momentum for increased commitments. Conservation International and partners will also co-host an event on how to include the conservation and management of blue carbon ecosystems (e.g., mangroves or salt marshes) in countries’ NDCs.

During formal negotiations under the Paris Agreement at both the mid-year talks in Bonn and the upcoming COP in Dubai, Conservation International will advise countries on the need to ensure that support and incentives for accelerating nature-based climate action are delivered. To incentivize ambitious action in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the Paris Agreement’s cooperative mechanisms should accelerate the protection of nature, and nature’s key role should be reflected in discussions on agriculture, climate finance and the ocean’s role in addressing climate change, among others. We will also advise on how to capture the critical role of nature in Global Stocktake, which will culminate at COP 28.

The session in Bonn also sets the stage for critical discussions on climate adaptation, justice, and accountability. Conservation International coordinates with partners representing diverse sectors to galvanize action on these issues — both in and outside of the negotiation rooms. Continuing these conversations throughout the year is imperative to achieving success at COP 28.

Natural climate solutions, which are essential to the Paris Agreement’s goals, provide opportunities for countries to increase their climate ambition; they must be part of countries’ NDCs and complementary Paris Agreement mechanisms. Harnessing the full potential of nature to mitigate climate change — and help communities adapt to its impacts — is critical to the success of the Paris Agreement.

Our approach

Conserving nature is critical to achieving the Paris Agreement’s goals. Protecting, sustainably managing and restoring natural ecosystems, such as forests and wetlands, can provide at least 30 percent of the global action needed to limit average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). Yet, nature conservation currently receives only 3 percent of global climate finance.

Nature remains among the most effective — and cost-effective — climate solutions. U.N. research shows that three actions — reducing the destruction of forests and other ecosystems, restoring ecosystems, and improving the management of working lands — such as farms — are among the top five most effective strategies for cutting climate-warming carbon. Protecting and restoring nature is also necessary to achieve most of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 17 global goals established in 2015 to end poverty, protect the planet and improve the lives of people everywhere. Nature conservation can directly and materially improve the lives of billions of people around the world. As stewards of lands that contain almost a quarter of the world’s land-based carbon, Indigenous peoples and local communities are on the front lines of climate change. To recognize the importance of these stakeholders, Conservation International works to connect Indigenous peoples and local communities to funding, training and technology — helping to secure their land rights so that protecting nature also protects their livelihoods.

Conservation International helps countries achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement by providing policy recommendations, scientific models, tools, and funding platforms for implementing natural climate solutions at scale. We envision a world where nature’s contribution to addressing climate change is maximized — meaning natural climate solutions are implemented to their fullest potential for mitigating climate change and are also fully deployed in places where ecosystems can help vulnerable populations adapt to the already-present and future effects of climate change.

Our Policy Objectives for the 2023 Mid-Year Climate Negotiations

Conservation International works to equip decision makers with accessible, policy-relevant science to restore and protect critical ecosystems as part of global climate action.

At the U.N.’s mid-year climate conference in Bonn, Conservation International will strive to advance the role of nature in implementing the Paris Agreement by calling on countries to:

Ensure that the Global Stocktake fully reflects nature’s critical role in realizing the Paris Agreement’s goals:

• The Global Stocktake is a process for assessing the world’s progress toward achieving the Paris Agreement’s goals. Countries should focus on key gaps in climate action and solutions to close them, as well as drive the implementation of nature-based solutions to reduce greenhouse gases and adapt to climate change. This includes considering solutions such as access to finance, capacity building and transferring of key climate technologies.
• Countries should begin substantive discussions to fully mobilize nature-based activities within the Global Stocktake’s decisions, which should capture political and technical guidance given by participants and develop a comprehensive list of outcomes to consider going forward.

Increase efficiency of delivering climate goals and finance through cooperative mechanisms:

• Negotiations should focus on the major outstanding issues needed to fully launch cooperative mechanisms under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, as well as ensure that further discussions do not undermine the role of nature-based solutions in climate action or go beyond the mandate of the Paris Agreement.
• Countries should engage a broad range of stakeholders, including Indigenous peoples and local communities, in both discussions about how Article 6 mechanisms will function and their relationship with the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform.

Effectively structure the new Sharm el-Sheikh Joint Work on Implementation of Climate Action on Agriculture and Food Security (SJWA) to accelerate nature-positive action in the agriculture sector:

• Countries should ensure the SJWA workshop topics enable a pivot to accelerating climate action on agriculture and food security, including by focusing on how countries will collectively work in the long term on these issues.
• The SJWA workshops should also allow significant time for dialogue between both countries and civil society stakeholders, so that different voices can be heard.

Strengthen inclusion of Indigenous peoples and local communities in climate policy processes:

• The negotiations should serve to increase meaningful engagement of government stakeholders in the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform (LCIPP), especially to support Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ participation in national climate policy planning processes, UNFCCC processes and other related opportunities.
• The negotiations should ensure the lessons and results from the LCIPP regional exchanges are distributed broadly — and that they inform UNFCCC agenda items and linkages with other UN conventions.

Continue building and enhancing urgent action on the ocean-climate nexus:

• Countries should call for increased technical support, knowledge exchanges and financing to include coastal and marine nature-based solutions in updated Nationally Determined Contributions. This may include the Ocean and Climate Change Dialogues, working groups on oceans under the UNFCCC’s Nairobi Work Programme, or other UNFCCC-linked bodies and events.
• The negotiations should serve to help increase financial flows towards coastal and marine nature-based solutions within UNFCCC processes related to climate finance.
• Countries should strengthen synergies for ocean-climate action across international policy processes, including the Convention on Biological Biodiversity, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, and the 2030 agenda and related Sustainable Development Goals.

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