Highlights and images for 14 June 2023

On the penultimate day of the 58th session of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) and the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA), both bodies finally adopted their agendas. A compromise was struck among Heads of Delegation: the mitigation ambition and implementation work programme will not feature on the agendas, but the SB Chairs will capture discussions held at the session in an informal note issued under their own authority. This agreement paved the way for the adoption of conclusions at SB 58.

Want to dig deeper? Read the full Earth Negotiations Bulletin daily report.

It remains to be seen how substantive the conclusions on the different agenda items will be, however. Throughout the day, delegates scrambled to clean up their draft texts. Some, such as the delegates working on agriculture, only managed to agree on procedural draft conclusions. This essentially signifies parties agreed to continue discussing the relevant matter at the next meeting.

On a number of issues, delegates debated whether the continuation of negotiations at SB 59 would be “on the basis of” or “informed by” the informal notes capturing discussions held at SB 58. The former phrasing solidifies the informal notes as the starting point of discussions, while the latter opens up room to also consider other inputs, such as submissions by parties and/or observers ahead of the next meeting. 

Albeit separated on a range of aspects, delegates working on the work programme on just transition pathways were happy with progress made at the session. After all, they said, it is the first time they really engaged in such discussions.

The atmosphere was very different in the room focused on research and systematic observation. In this first UNFCCC meeting after the adoption of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report (IPCC AR6), many had hoped the SBs would welcome the latest advances in climate science and note best-available science should underpin climate policy and action. But the trenches with regard to the IPCC are deep, with some developing countries questioning the Panel’s inclusiveness and the robustness of its findings. 

The draft text on the first Global Stocktake under the Paris Agreement clearly lays out the trenches that will need to be bridged in Dubai: there are four options for how and whether to refer to “finance flows” and “means of implementation and support.”