States attending the June Climate Meetings next week in Bonn, Germany must use the talks to turn climate commitments into a concrete actionable rights-centric agenda for November’s COP31, Amnesty International said today.
What happens in Bonn matters because it will shape the negotiations, priorities and level of ambition that governments carry into COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye later this year. These meetings are an important chance for governments to show they are ready to translate climate commitments made in the recently adopted United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on last year’s ICJ Advisory Opinion on climate change into action that is rooted in human rights, equity and justice.
“Governments must now act with urgency to deliver on their legal obligations to protect humanity and to help impacted groups recover from harms caused by climate change. Climate action that ignores human rights is not only unjust, but also less effective,” said Ann Harrison, Amnesty International’s Climate Policy Advisor.
“If governments want credible outcomes in Antalya, they need to show at Bonn that they are serious about moving from rhetoric to delivery.”
In recommendations published ahead of the meeting, Amnesty International calls on governments to commit to a full, fast, fair and funded phase out of fossil fuels through a just transition, to scale up grants-based climate finance; provide full reparations for climate change related loss and damage, and to protect civic space and strengthen the participation of Indigenous Peoples, environmental human rights defenders and affected communities in climate decision-making.
