On World Environment Day at the Bonn Climate Conference, Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, the UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP28, emphasized the urgency of nature conservation and restoration in her speech at the Bonn Climate Conference. Highlighting the necessity of an equitable, net-zero, and nature-positive future, she underscored the foundational role of the UAE Consensus from COP28.

The Bonn Conference, a key preparatory event for the upcoming COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, serves as a platform for vital discussions that will shape the global climate policy agenda. During her keynote, Ms. Al Mubarak showcased progress on commitments such as ending deforestation and integrating biodiversity into climate strategies.

She introduced the 2030 Climate Solutions, a strategic plan setting ambitious goals in areas including natural habitats, land use, and water management to enhance ecosystem resilience and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Ms. Al Mubarak called for stronger governance to embed nature-based solutions in regional climate action plans, highlighting their critical role in effective climate mitigation.

Ms. Al Mubarak’s leadership continues to inspire global cooperation towards the Paris Agreement goals, emphasizing the importance of inclusive and sustainable approaches to environmental challenges. The outcomes of the Bonn Conference are expected to significantly influence the agenda at COP29, shaping the future of global climate action.

Learn more about Razan Al Mubarak at the Bonn Climate Conference here.

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (3 June 2024) - Her Excellency Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, the UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP28, is campaigning for an equitable, net-zero, resilient and nature-positive world at the Bonn Climate Change Conference this week.

The ten-day event which starts in the German city today is an important halfway point between COP28, which was held in the UAE last year, and COP29 which is taking place in Azerbaijan this November. 

Typically, the conference in Bonn features meetings of the two subsidiary bodies – the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation - which support the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The negotiations held within the subsidiary bodies usually set the agenda for COP climate meetings later in the year and significantly influence their outcome.

The Bonn conference is also the only opportunity for in-person interaction (outside of the COP climate meetings) between the governments, the high-level climate champions, and stakeholders such as regions, cities, Indigenous Peoples groups, and financing institutions, collectively known as ‘non-state actors.’ 

As the UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP28, Ms. Al Mubarak is responsible for mobilising non-state actors around the goals of the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit levels of greenhouse gasses, and the UAE Consensus agreed to in Dubai last year.

“The UAE Consensus represents an historic breakthrough with nations agreeing to transition away from fossil fuels, tripling renewable energy capacity and focusing on energy efficiency, nature restoration, equitable finance for climate solutions, and halting deforestation by 2030,” said Ms. Al Mubarak. “These goals are ambitious and require the active engagement and commitment from all sectors of society.”

In Bonn, Ms. Al Mubarak’s key objectives will be to help strengthen the collaboration between states and non-state actors and to showcase the climate leadership of regions, cities, and civil society.

“As serious as the challenge in front of us is, there are many positive examples of non-state actors who are taking bold steps towards an equitable, climate-friendly and nature-positive world,” said Ms. Al Mubarak. “I believe these success stories deserve attention as they will inspire others to act, too.”

In addition, accelerating the leadership of cities, regions, businesses, Indigenous Peoples and civil society will give governments the confidence to set the enabling conditions for the next round of National Climate Commitments (NDCs) at COP29, said Ms. Al Mubarak. The NDCs are action plans with specific targets for reducing greenhouse emissions. The Paris Agreement obliges countries to update these climate plans every five years. The next round of NDCs are due early next year, ahead of COP30 in Belem, Brazil.

Razan Al Mubarak urged decisive climate action by the private sector, local governments and civil society at the Bonn Climate Change Conference this week. Held from 5-15 June, the event is part of the formal United Nations negotiations on climate and marks an important stop on the road to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) which will take place in the UAE this December. 

As the UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP28, Ms. Al Mubarak is working to inspire and unite non-state actors to do their part. Ms. Al Mubarak said:

“This is a decisive decade for tackling climate change. It is about asking ourselves how much we are prepared to do now to secure a safe, healthy, prosperous future for ourselves and our children. To avoid the most painful and costly climate change impacts, we must halve global emissions by 2030. We are far off track but it is still not too late to act in a meaningful way.”

Coming out ahead of COP28, the Global Stocktake report is expected to show that the world is lagging in implementing the Paris Agreement and achieving its goal to limit human-induced warming to 1.5˚C above pre-industrial levels.

As President of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Ms. Al Mubarak highlighted the importance of nature-based solutions, saying that “there will be no resilient, net-zero future without halting and restoring nature loss.” She also mentioned that all efforts to protect nature and biodiversity and boost climate resilience need to be inclusive, saying:

“An emergency of this kind requires a solution that embraces and uses talent from the whole of society. Alongside government action, we need a groundswell of action by businesses, cities, non-governmental organizations, indigenous peoples, youth and women.”

Read more about the work of the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions at the Bonn Climate Change Conference.