The highlight of the Hamburg Sustainability Conference was the launch of the South-North Commission on Development, a new independent initiative to explore how international cooperation and multilateral institutions should evolve in an increasingly multipolar world.

Ministers of the environment, heads of UN organizations, and lead negotiators called for focusing on scaling up implementation, underscoring that complex global challenges “must be met with cooperation, compromise, and collective action.” Nine thematic roundtable sessions explored cross-cutting implementation issues at the local, regional, and global levels.

The successful end of 18 months of negotiations for the ninth replenishment of the GEF Trust Fund “represents a renewed vote of confidence in multilateralism, in the GEF partnership, and in the importance of the global environment.” Many also urged prioritizing the private sector’s involvement and participants pointed to the vast finance gap all MEAs face.

Delegates met to prepare a set of draft decisions and documents to pave the way for the smooth operationalization of the Agreement. While they reached agreement on many issues, there were disagreements on the rules of procedure, the subsidiary bodies, and the financial rules and regulations.