The Least Developed Countries Group has expressed disappointment over limited progress at the Bonn climate talks, warning that negotiations are failing to match the escalating climate crisis and urging stronger action on finance, adaptation and emissions cuts before COP31.
The Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group on Climate Change has voiced concern that international climate negotiations are failing to keep pace with the worsening impacts of climate change, as the UN mid-year climate talks (SB64) concluded in Bonn on Thursday night with key issues still unresolved.
The group said the outcomes of the June meetings highlighted a widening gap between growing climate risks and the pace of global action, increasing pressure on governments to deliver meaningful results at COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye.
“We are deeply concerned that as climate impacts accelerate, our response remains dangerously short. We are disappointed by the lack of progress across key agenda items at SB64, particularly on adaptation and mitigation. We must show that multilateralism can deliver,” said Ambassador Adao Soares Barbosa, Chair of the Least Developed Countries Group on Climate Change.
The LDC Group also pushed back against efforts to challenge or weaken the role of science in climate negotiations, stressing that scientific evidence remains the foundation of effective climate action and essential for protecting vulnerable nations from escalating impacts.
For the world’s poorest and most climate-vulnerable countries, limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is not a political choice but a matter of survival, the group said.
According to the LDC Group, the Bonn talks demonstrated that considerably more work is required before COP31 to transform existing commitments into concrete implementation.
Climate finance remained the group’s foremost concern throughout the negotiations. The LDCs said the discussions underscored that trust between developed and developing countries depends on the delivery of promised support.
The group called on COP31 to resolve outstanding issues surrounding the Adaptation Fund, including its transition to exclusively serve the Paris Agreement, describing the fund as a critical mechanism for supporting adaptation efforts in vulnerable countries.
It also urged governments to simplify access to climate finance, particularly for the most vulnerable nations, while advancing commitments to triple adaptation finance and strengthen the Climate Finance Work Programme in line with Article 9.1 of the Paris Agreement and existing commitments to provide finance at the scale required.
The LDCs further called for accelerated implementation of the Global Goal on Adaptation, including the operationalisation of the Belém adaptation indicators and progress on the Belém-Addis Vision agreed at COP30.
The group said it was “extremely disappointing” that negotiators were unable to make progress on those issues during the Bonn session.
On mitigation, the LDCs urged countries to strengthen the Mitigation Work Programme and accelerate emissions reductions during what they described as a critical decade for climate action.
The group warned that any overshoot of the 1.5C temperature limit would expose vulnerable communities, economies and ecosystems to increasingly severe and potentially irreversible impacts. It also expressed concern that the Bonn talks failed to produce a substantive outcome on mitigation.
Despite frustrations in several negotiating tracks, the LDC Group welcomed progress on the Just Transition agenda that will now move forward to COP31.
It described the development as an important step toward operationalising the Just Transition Mechanism, while stressing that the mechanism must respond to the needs and realities of least developed countries.
“Our communities cannot postpone the next drought, delay the next flood or negotiate with the next cyclone. They expect leadership, solidarity and delivery,” the group said.
The LDCs urged all parties to approach the road to COP31 with greater urgency, calling for decisions guided by science and focused on delivering meaningful outcomes for the countries and communities most vulnerable to climate change.
