From 3 to 14 June 2013, a major climate change conference was held in Bonn, Germany. The conference brought together the 38th sessions of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) and the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) and the resumed second session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP 2).

The different sessions of the conference, which witnessed a high turnout of about 1,480 government delegates, 900 observers and 30 media representatives, had broad and overloaded agendas.

SBSTA 38 was marked by: an assessment of progress made on the reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation mechanism in developing countries, and the role of conservation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD +); negotiations with the Agricultural sector and discussions around the issue of REDD + methodology. Participants at the end of this session, noted satisfactory progress in the conduct of the deliberations and the REDD + process.

As for ADP 2, the session focused on Workstreams 1 (the 2015 Agreement) and 2 (pre-2020 ambition). Workshops and roundtables served as platforms for exchanges between participants. At the end, they did not reach agreement on establishing one or more contact groups to which to transfer part of their work, but argued in favour of the negotiating mode to ensure progress during future sessions of the ADP.

Unlike SBSTA 38 and ADP 2, SBI 38 could not hold as scheduled due to lack of consensus on the agenda. In fact, according to the amendment to the agenda proposed by the Russian Federation, Belarus and Ukraine, the idea was to introduce the item on legal and procedural issues related to decision-making under the Conference of the Parties (COP) and the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties (COP / MOP) to the Kyoto Protocol. This proposal was not approved by the others who felt it was out of the question that the point should not be considered as a new item on the SBI agenda, but that it should be examined under the SBI agenda on rules of procedure. However this suggestion was not approved by the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Belarus, who abstained from voting for the adoption of the agenda. Hence the deadlock observed during the session and the huge disappointment of the delegates. It should be noted here that this situation will impact on the COP 19 and COP / MOP 9 scheduled to hold in Warsaw in November 2013.

At the end of this conference at which participants had mixed feelings, it was noted that significant progress was made by the SBSTA and ADP sessions. The main conclusions of the conference are available at: Here