SB64 Video of the Week: ‘Friends of Science’ Press Conference

Negotiators and high-level representatives from several major negotiating groups in the UNFCCC (AOSIS, represented by Fiji; Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Nepal; the European Union, the Enivironmental Integrity Group, EIG, Switzerland; Africa Group, Sierra Leone; and Latin America, Panama) held a press conference under the ‘Friends of Science’ banner on June 17 in Bonn to reaffirm that UN climate decision-making must be grounded in the best available science. They highlighted growing concern over coordinated efforts to sideline established climate science from the negotiating process, and offered a clear signal that this will not go unopposed. For small island states and least developed countries, 1.5°C is a hard physical. limit. Ensuring the best available science is upheld, including through properly timed IPCC reports (currently in its Seventh Assessment cycle, AR7) as well as the next Global Stocktake (GST) process is of critical importance to ensure ambition and action match the scale of the climate crisis. Immediate, decisive action is required to minimize overshoot and prevent devastating impacts from climate change that would reshape coastlines, inundate cities, and deplete freshwater resources beyond the limits of adaption for many communities.

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