Representing Pacific Island Countries at the Bonn Climate Change Conference

This week sees the conclusion of the Bonn Climate Change Conference (also known as SB48) which continues work on progressing the Paris Agreement Work Plan. The Forum Secretariat is at this meeting to support Pacific island delegations at the negotiations in the thematic area of Finance.
Finance is a critical area to the operationalization of the Paris Agreement, with specific text needing to be developed to enable negotiations to progress amongst the Parties. To date the progress has been slow as Parties struggle to define the specific issues to be covered in the resourcing issues, such as the Adaptation Fund serving the Paris Agreement.
There are several additional official side events happening at the meeting to support our work. The Forum Secretariat attended and participated at the Suva Expert Dialogue that discussed aspects of risk pooling and financial mechanisms to deal with the effects of extreme weather and slow onset events. The Forum Secretariat made several interventions and parties and observers heard about decisions to support resilience in the region, such as the Framework for Resilient Development in the Pacific, the Pacific Resilience Facility, and the Pacific Islands Climate Change Insurance Facility.
During the weekend, Parties and non-Parties participated in the Talanoa Dialogue that was designed by Fiji as COP23 Chair to enable an exchange of views and experiences that seek to accelerate action on climate change by Party and non-Party stakeholders.
This week also sees a workshop on experience of climate change finance access, where again the Forum’s work in the various national studies conducted using the Pacific Climate Change Finance Assessment Framework has been provided to members.
The meeting commenced on April 30 and ends on May 10.