Highlights and images for 13 June 2022

Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary, UNFCCC, is thanked by Tasneem Essop, Climate Action Network (CAN), on behalf of all observers, for her work within the climate process over the years

Time is a strange thing at climate negotiations. From the outside, it might seem that two weeks is a fairly long time; inside, it can feel like meetings are over in a flash. Days fill up with back-to-back sessions. The line between today and yesterday blurs. Lack of sleep doesn’t help.

But how much time do you need for real progress? Discussions on some issues, such as agriculture, are notorious for overstretching their allocated time. For other issues, such as emissions from aviation and shipping fuel, agreement is out of sight no matter how many sessions get allocated. Time, as they say, is nobody’s friend.

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

A delegate during the informal consultations on gender and climate change

Time management surfaced as a tricky issue in several discussions on Monday. In discussions on arrangements for intergovernmental meetings, several delegates reaffirmed everyone’s responsibility to stick to the allotted speaking time to avoid meetings running over. Observers had expressed great frustration over the fact that, by the time they spoke during the opening plenary, it was to a largely empty room: party representatives had left for the night. The US called upon parties to give observers the courtesy of staying and listening to their statements, and the European Union supported having observer statements alternate with those by individual parties, following group statements.

Running out of time is the bugbear of tricky agenda items. Negotiators addressing reporting and transparency issues were hopeful that extra sessions would go a long way towards forwarding clean text to the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 27). The first week took steps towards ironing out the transition between reporting under the Convention and the Paris Agreement—always keeping an eye out for the need to “future proof” the process in case of a future withdrawal from the Agreement. Given some earnest engagement over bridging proposals, there is hope that additional time will in this case actually do the trick.

All ENB photos are free to use with attribution. For UNFCCC SB56, please use: Photo by IISD/ENB | Kiara Worth.

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Second Technical Expert Dialogue on Climate Finance

Delegates gather for the second Technical Expert Dialogue under the ad hoc work programme on the new collective quantified goal on climate finance

Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary, UNFCCC

Co-Chair Kishan Kumarsingh, Trinidad and Tobago

Michael Button, COP 26 Presidency

Preety Bhandari, World Resources Institute (WRI)

Zaheer Fakir, Co-Chair of the Standing Committee on Finance

Delegates during the session

Delegates break out into groups to discuss how to frame the new finance goal

Informal Consultations Throughout the Day

Informal consultations on the revision of the UNFCCC reporting guidelines on annual inventories for Annex I Parties

Informal consultations on gender and climate change

Informal consultations on the rules, modalities, and procedures for the mechanism established by Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement

Informal consultations on matters relating to the Adaptation Fund

Informal consultations on matters relating to reporting and review under Article 13 of the Paris Agreement

Delegates from the G-77/China huddle during the informal negotiations on the global goal for adaptation

Delegates huddle during the informal consultations on common metrics to calculate the carbon dioxide equivalence of greenhouse gases

Global Stocktake Dialogue

Delegates during the Global Stocktake Technical Dialogue

Three roundtables take place during the day

María José Sanz Sánchez, Basque Centre for Climate Change

Simon Cardy, South Africa

Andy Reisinger, IPCC Working Group III

Musonda Mumba, UN Development Programme (UNDP)

Mwanahamisi Salimu Singano, Women and Gender

Outi Honkatukia, Ministry of Environment, Finland

Gabriela Blatter, Switzerland

Delegates raise their placards to speak

Paris Committee on Capacity-building

Delegates gather for the 6th meeting of the Paris Committee on Capacity-building (PCCB)

PCCB Co-Chair Roberta Ianna, Italy

Kunzang, Bhutan

Hayrapet Hakobyan, Armenia

Crispin d'Auvergne, Saint Lucia

Renilde Ndayishimiye, Burundi

Hannah Lyons, US

Delegates during the session

Delegates take notes during the session

Observer Farewell for Patricia Espinosa

Family photo with Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary, UNFCCC, and observer groups

During a surprise farewell party arranged by observer delegates, Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary, UNFCCC, is thanked for her unending support for civil society

Observer delegates give Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary, UNFCCC, a standing ovation and applaud her work within the climate process

Gina Cortés Valderrama, Women and Gender

Ceris Jones, Farmers

Yunus Arikan, Local Government and Municipal Authorities

Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary, UNFCCC, thanks the observers, reminding them of their invaluable role in addressing climate change

Civil Society Action on Gender

Before the start of the Global Stocktake (GST), members of the Women and Gender constituency perform an action called 'Spot the G in GST' to highlight that gender matters for ambition, mitigation, adaptation, and finance