BERLIN – Diplomats pushing for stronger climate action walked away from a two-week preparatory meeting for COP28 climate summit disappointed by inter-country bickering and what some said was a lack of ambition from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), 2023’s host nation. 

Negotiators from Europe and climate-vulnerable nations were looking for two things at the Bonn Climate Change Conference in Germany: A spot on the agenda to discuss accelerating emissions cuts and a clear message from the UAE on how it would go beyond promises made at past COP gatherings. The outcome of the talks, which ended on Thursday, raised concerns that efforts to slash carbon emissions and boost financing for developing nations will fail to progress in 2023, according to interviews with more than a dozen delegates. 

The event began on a promising note when Sultan Al Jaber, the COP28 president who has faced a barrage of criticism for his other role as chief of state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil, told participants that the phase-down of fossil fuels was “inevitable”. But nearly two weeks of negotiations did not yield concrete results that would set the stage for a strong outcome at November’s summit in Dubai.

“We’re supposed to have leadership for a clear conversation, but we do not have a clear roadmap to have those complex conversations,” said Mr Sebastian Carranza Tovar, head of Colombia’s delegation. “The COP28 presidency should create good conditions to reflect all views.”

The annual Bonn meetings are an important halfway point in the climate diplomacy calendar, and past COP presidencies have used the gathering to set out their agenda. Two years ago, for example, Britain made clear at Bonn that it would push for strong language on ending support for fossil fuels at COP26, paving the way for a landmark deal on phasing down the use of coal. Egypt, 2022’s host for COP27, made finance a priority and ultimately delivered an agreement to start a fund to address damages caused by extreme weather.

Part of the proceedings at COP28 will include all participating nations publicly tallying their progress in meeting climate goals. The result of this global stocktake is not in doubt – it will show almost every nation is behind on their commitments to cut emissions in line with the Paris Agreement. But the national self-assessments are only a preliminary step meant to set up a consensus-building statement that reflects an official global response to continuing carbon pollution.

The fear now coming out of Bonn is that there would not be time left before COP28 to set up a clear framework and arrive at an ambitious agreement. Because COPs are run by consensus, any single country can derail the final outcome. That is why carefully setting priorities ahead of time is crucial to push more than 190 countries in one direction.

“The COP28 presidency should have a stronger leadership,” said Ms Camila Zepeda, head of Mexico’s delegation. “Yes, this is a party-driven process. But over and over again we’re shown that if it’s just left to us parties, we can never agree on things.” Ms Zepeda said she was still looking for the UAE to produce “a roadmap”.

Pushback against Dr Al Jaber has been a constant since his appointment to lead 2023’s climate talks. In the weeks before the Bonn summit, more than 100 United States and European lawmakers called for him to be removed as president. Outside Bonn’s World Congress Centre, where the meeting took place, environmental activists plastered mugshots of Dr Al Jaber that dubbed him the “Fossil Fuel King”.

Dr Al Jaber has so far retained the public support of COP heavyweights from developed nations, including US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and his European Union counterpart Frans Timmermans. But there have recently been some signs of unease. Two European delegation heads earlier privately expressed concerns over the host nation’s handling of the talks, and Mr Kerry has objected to the UAE’s invitation to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to attend COP28. 

Some observers have been hoping to see the UAE mobilise oil and gas companies to commit to more aggressive emissions cut or activate billions of dollars of climate financing via its sovereign wealth fund. So far, however, no formal initiatives have been announced. A previous attempt to corral oil and gas companies, under the so-called Global Decarbonisation Alliance, came under criticism after its plans leaked for missing more than 80 per cent of the emissions the industry is responsible for.

In the aftermath of Bonn, a senior developed country official said what UAE wants to achieve within the United Nations process to bring the oil and gas sector along for the transition remains vague.

Infighting is common at Bonn meetings, but this one ended with a particularly unusual twist: Countries only managed to agree on an agenda for the two-week talks on the second-to-last day.

The most noticeable omission was the “mitigation work programme”, which would have opened discussions on how best to speed up emissions cuts and raise money to help developing countries deploy clean energy. A group including China, India and Saudi Arabia would only agree to the item after the issue of scaling up funding from rich nations to achieve those goals was also added to the agenda. 

The COP presidency acknowledged that there had been divergent views on the emissions mitigation programme, but urged all parties to come together.

“We must move past our differences, look beyond narrow interests and deliver for those who face ever-increasing risks with every fraction of a degree of warming,” said Mr Adnan Amin, chief executive of COP28. “Failing to do so will undermine the credibility of our collective response.”

As the Bonn talks wrapped up, even 2022’s Egyptian hosts, who are expected to support the incoming presidency throughout the year, admitted that things could have gone better.

“The UAE are excellent at organising events, but our advice to them is always to remain cognizant of the reality that this is a party-driven process,” said Mr Wael Aboulmagd, special representative for Egypt’s COP27 presidency. “Try to get 190 of your friends in one room and tell me how easy it is to decide where we’re going to dinner.” BLOOMBERG