Health Community Welcomes Bonn Deal To Monitor Climate Finance But Criticises Rich Countries’ Efforts To Shirk Duties

Bonn, 27 June 2025:- As the UN’s SB62 Climate Change Conference closed just after midnight, the Global Climate and Health Alliance welcomed a breakthrough agreement between governments to pursue monitoring of urgently needed finance for adaptation as part of tracking progress towards a Global Goal on Adaptation, but condemned attempts by rich countries to avoid discussion on their climate finance responsibilities. 
 
“With people's lives on the line, grants-based public finance must urgently be delivered to adequately protect the health and wellbeing of people most vulnerable to climate impacts - as aligned with their Paris Agreement responsibilities”, said Jess Beagley, Policy Lead at the Global Climate and Health Alliance, which brings together over 200 health professionals and health civil society organisations and networks to address climate change. “After ten hours of fighting over tracking adaptation finance today, the talks ended up in a better place than anyone had hoped”.
 
”Here in Bonn, rich countries sought to avoid engaging in discussions relating to provision of finance to developing countries impacted by climate change in line with their responsibilities under the Paris Agreement. This presents a serious barrier to progress in implementation, but also risks undermining trust in multilateralism.”
 
“However, agreement to monitor finance and other means of implementation for adaptation is a decisive step forward, and developed countries must now deliver on their commitments to ensure actions can be implemented to protect human health in the face of growing climate hazards to protect a healthy climate future”, said Beagley. The Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) is aimed at increasing global adaptation efforts, while enhancing support for the countries most vulnerable to climate change impacts.     
 
Climate Finance
During the Bonn meeting, a group of rich countries blocked the addition of an agenda item focussed on provision of finance by developed countries to developing countries. This delayed adoption of the meeting agenda until the second day, wasting valuable time. Consultations on a roadmap due at COP30 to scale climate finance to the USD 1.3 trillion requested by developing countries last year l heavily featured private finance rather than public finance. 
 
“Without sufficient grants-based public finance, developing countries will become further trapped in cycles of debt, poverty and disease”, said Beagley. “Over the coming months, rich governments can redeem themselves by demonstrating willingness to prioritise public grants from developed to developing countries. Developed countries must provide funding to prevent worsening climate change by addressing its causes; funding for countries to build resilience against the climate impacts they are already facing; and funding to recover and rebuild from destruction that they were unable to avoid.”
 
“The governments of developed countries have a moral responsibility to ensure the countries that have contributed the least to climate change but are facing its harshest impacts receive crucial international support”, said Jeni Miller, Executive Director of the Global Climate and Health Alliance. “From flooding that destroys homes and clinics and spreads cholera, to heatwaves that overwhelm hospitals with patients, to droughts and weather instability that ruin harvests, to wildfires spreading toxic smoke to communities thousands of miles away, in every country people are suffering from the impacts of climate change; low income developing countries are the most severely harmed and the least able to respond to and recover from the damages from this problem that they did not cause.” 
 
“Fossil fuels are at the root of climate change, as well as of air pollution and plastic contamination, as well as polluting our water and soil pollution. November’s COP30 must take a great leap towards ending the fossil fuel age and its devastating impact on human health”, said Miller. 
 
Fossil Fuel Phase Out
“Dependence on fossil fuels is the primary driver of health impacts from climate change, which is already straining healthcare systems around the world”, said Beagley. “Fossil fuel use is also a key air pollution culprit, causing millions of deaths annually from respiratory and cardiovascular disease, as well as developmental and cognitive issues.” 
 
“Ahead of COP30, governments must agree to pursue and support just transition pathways across countries and sectors, including to improve clean and safe renewable energy access and clean cooking, in order to protect the human right to health - especially for women and children most exposed to indoor air pollution”. 
 
Ending Fossil Fuel Industry Influence
The SB62 Bonn meeting featured no developments on addressing fossil fuel industry interference in climate negotiations, and UNFCCC has not advanced any plans to deal with this interference - despite written calls from civil society, a demonstration, press briefing and event during SB62. 

• For more on how UNFCC can eliminate the influence of the fossil fuel industry on climate negotiations this article on Climate Home: How UN climate negotiations can end fossil fuel-industry influence by Transparency International CEO Maia Martini and GCHA’s Executive Director Dr Jeni Miller. 

“A major impediment to action on climate change is the well-documented and deliberate efforts of certain industries to block progress”, said Miller. “For years, the fossil fuel industry has deliberately sown doubt and interfered with policy deliberations, and has sent hundreds of lobbyists to COPs every year since the Paris Agreement was signed. Big agriculture is also very well organized, and increasingly attempting to slow COP action on agricultural practices that contribute to climate change. Without putting a halt to the influence of industries that have a vested interest in delaying progress on climate change, our chances are hampered from the get-go.” 

“A clamour is now developing ahead of COP30 about how UNFCCC should counter the increasing representation at climate summits from high emitting industries like fossil fuels and big agriculture”, added Miller. “Two years ago, the UNFCCC Secretariat introduced new regulations forcing delegates to disclose their affiliations, but to date, there are no restrictions on participation - as a result, polluting industries driving climate change are everywhere at COP climate summits. The UNFCCC must urgently put in place stronger measures to limit the influence of industry and conflicts of interest - and to achieve this, it can learn from how other UN bodies, such as the World Health Organization, have responded to industry pressures from tobacco and alcohol companies.”

• New research from Transparency International shows that in 2024, 339 fossil fuel lobbyists were accredited as official national negotiators at COP29, while another 867 accessed closed-door talks using government issued badges – many without disclosing their affiliations.

Brazil’s COP30 Presidency has voiced concerns over fossil fuel interference, plans to lead a “Global Ethical Stocktake” of COP processes, and has launched four “Support Circles”, including one focused on climate governance. 

“Brazil’s rare and critical opportunity to reform decision-making on global climate action should not be squandered”, said Miller.

• The World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (article 5.3) says tobacco industry should be excluded from tobacco policymaking
• The WHO Global alcohol action plan 2022-2030 states that policymaking on alcohol “should be protected from commercial and other vested interests that can interfere with and undermine public health objectives”
• The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization also has principles for private sector engagement, and works to safeguard against any conflicting interests that a private sector entity may have, or undue influence they may exert.

NDCs - Country Climate Commitments 

“Countries yet to submit their NDCs  [Nationally Determined Contributions - see notes below] must address these same priorities of mitigation, adaptation and finance at national level, including setting targets for reducing their emissions that are sufficiently ambitious to align with their fair shares towards the goals of the Paris Agreement”, said Beagley. “In their new NDCs, governments must commit to optimising health and building resilience, which will only be possible when supported by adequate domestic budget and international finance commitments, and they must commit to monitoring how those commitments are being implemented", she added. 

In 2025, all countries are required to update their "Nationally Determined Contributions" - their nationally specific set of commitments for how they will meet their fair share of achieving the targets set out in the Paris Agreement to limit warming to relatively safe levels. The NDCs are the primary mechanism by which international agreements achieved at COP are translated commitments by countries for the actions they will take. NDCs set the framework for national policies and programs that will actually deliver the climate action that is needed. Without strong NDCs, the agreements made at COP remain empty words. 

In the past, while many countries have referenced the impact of climate change on health in their NDCs, few have fully integrated health objectives and outcomes throughout their national plans, missing critical opportunities to drive more ambitious climate action. To protect health through the development and implementation of their NDC, governments should consult with national health Ministries, academic health experts, and communities to ensure:

• alignment to limiting warming to 1.5C, reflecting fair share and pace of emissions reductions according to historical responsibility and present capability with inclusion of a timeline for fossil fuel phase out to avoid catastrophic physical and mental health impacts;
• actions across sectors which optimise health benefits of climate actions, such as clean air, nutritious diets, active and zero emission travel systems, and safe living environments;
• reduction of super pollutants including methane, black carbon and tropospheric ozone to avert near-term warming and avoid millions of premature deaths from air pollution each year
• timebound targets and indicators over time for implementation and health outcomes;
• consideration of domestic and financial contributions, costings and budgetary allocations for health related actions and quantification of returns on investment from health-related savings, highlighting the health costs of action and inaction.

See also: Report by the Global Climate and Health Alliance: As Deadline Hits, Countries Must Seize Opportunity to Plug Health Gaps in National Climate Commitments

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