QUNO joined observers at the June Climate Change Conference sessions of the Subsidiary Bodies to the UNFCCC, held this year in a virtual format owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. Parties and observers met over the course of three weeks to discuss key issues relating to the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

The virtual meetings were an important step on the road to COP26 happening in Glasgow in November.  Happening across time zones, the meetings were the first-ever fully virtual session of the UNFCCC. QUNO is actively following the discussions on Common Timeframes and Article 6 specifically, in support of our ongoing work supporting urgent and fair mitigation, and human rights based approaches to climate action.  QUNO is also one of the few observers covering the Expert Committee for ‘Response Measures’, which addresses, amongst other things, just transitions for fossil fuel dependent economies.

Human Impacts of Climate Change Representative Lindsey Fielder Cook made an intervention during the observer briefing with the COP26 Presidency and SB Chairs regarding climate science. The intervention read as follows: “We are pleased to see increased engagement in how human rights and Indigenous Peoples rights language in the negotiated text would help create guidelines that would lead to more sustainable, fair and ambitious climate action. In respect that nature does not negotiate, and that many climate-related changes are happening more rapidly than predicted, do you see ways to intensify the presence or integration of the latest science findings in these negotiations spaces?”  The incoming UK Presidency responded with a call to engage, highlighting the UK desire to intensify the inclusion of the latest science in discussions at the COP in Glasgow.