Key Highlights
- More than 5,000 participants from governments, scientific communities, Indigenous representatives and NGOs gathered in Bonn, Germany on 16 June 2025.
- The event, officially the Sessions of the Subsidiary Bodies, sits beneath the UNFCCC and is the second most influential climate negotiation forum after the COP.
- Its mandate is strictly technical: to conduct expert deliberations, consolidate scientific findings, and craft actionable recommendations for the November COP.
- Decisions made in Bonn routinely become the operative language of the COP, especially concerning climate finance, adaptation strategies and technology transfer.
- This year the agenda is dominated by the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) and by mechanisms for loss‑and‑damage, NDC monitoring and mobilizing development‑sector finance.
Detailed Insights
Each year the Bonn conference functions as the “engine room” that translates high‑level COP commitments into the concrete policies that national parties can implement. The conference is co‑led by the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) and the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA). The SBI scrutinises how nations are putting the Paris‑signed targets into action and coordinates climate‑finance mechanisms, whereas SBSTA provides the scientific backbone that informs negotiators of the policy shifts required by the latest IPCC reports.
While the COP is dominated by politics and ceremony, Bonn is where the gritty, data‑driven, and legally binding groundwork is drafted. The outcomes of the Bonn sessions frequently surface in the COP text, providing a bridge between scientific assessment and diplomatic language.
This year, on top of monitoring progress toward Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the conference tackles the long‑standing challenge of loss and damage, seeking to institutionalise a global framework around the GGA that mirrors the 1.5 °C temperature ceiling set for mitigation. Attention is also given to mobilising climate‑finance for developing economies and to accelerating technology transfer to the frontline of climate action.
Key Concepts
- Subsidiary Bodies (SBs) – The technical committees that operate under the UNFCCC and prepare the groundwork for the COP.
- Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) – A unified framework aimed at scaling adaptive responses worldwide, introduced in the Paris Agreement.
- Loss and Damage – The mechanisms that recognize and respond to irreversible climate impacts that cannot be avoided or mitigated.
- Climate Finance – Funds, credit and insurance structures dedicated to supporting mitigation and adaptation, especially in developing countries.
- IPCC – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the advisory scientific body that synthesises climate research for international negotiations.