Wednesday, 8 July 2026

The Bonn climate talks ended in gridlock, with countries unable to agree conclusions on at least three major areas of climate action, including adaptation and mitigation, according to Climate Home News. Negotiators invoked Rule 16, pushing the unresolved items forward.

Those issues will be taken up again at COP31 in Türkiye in November, Climate Home News reported.

UN climate chief Simon Stiell said some negotiating rooms showed a tendency towards "you-first-ism", with groups refusing to deliver commitments or allow the process to move forward unless others go first.

On the mitigation work programme, pushback primarily from fossil-fuel producing nations has prevented any meaningful progress since its creation at COP27, according to Climate Home News, as countries have been unable to agree a united vision for its scope and purpose.

COP31 host Türkiye proposed a new electrification target, aiming to raise electricity's share of final energy consumption to 35% by 2035 from about 20% today, Climate Home News reported. The target would accelerate the switch to technologies such as heat pumps, electric vehicles and electric cookers.

Alden Meyer of E3G said there was no sense of urgency at the Bonn climate talks despite mounting climate impacts and sharply higher energy and food prices.

China started construction on three coal-to-gas and coal-to-chemical projects valued at about USD 10 billion in two coal-rich regions, according to Climate Home News, as oil and gas prices climbed at the start of the Iran war.

A wider pipeline sits behind those groundbreakings. Climate Home News reported that 34 projects under active review carry more than 1 trillion yuan, or USD 150 billion, in planned investment. If built out, they would add up to 300 million tonnes of annual coal demand, Climate Home News said.

One region dominates the pipeline. Xinjiang holds more than half of all proposed modern coal chemical projects across the country, according to Climate Home News.

The track record of earlier plants is weak. Three of China's four operating coal-to-gas projects ran at a loss through much of the past decade, and several large coal chemical plants earned only marginal returns even with state backing, Climate Home News reported.

Climate Home News traced the strategy back to the start of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022, when China accelerated its use of coal as a stand-in for imported oil and gas, prompting a rethink of energy security priorities.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres criticized the fossil fuel industry over its methane record during a speech at London Climate Action Week, urging faster cuts to the gas and singling out coal, oil and gas as central to climate and energy strains, according to Climate Home News.

Methane holds roughly 80 times the heat of carbon dioxide and drives about a third of global warming, though it clears from the atmosphere within a decade or two, Guterres said, per Climate Home News.

Existing technology could remove close to 70% of methane escaping from oil and gas operations, much of it at low or no net cost, Guterres said, citing an International Energy Agency (IEA) finding.

Operators flared some 167 billion cubic metres of gas during 2025, a volume matching Africa's annual consumption, Guterres said, according to Climate Home News.

That flaring climbed for a third straight year in 2025, burning off an estimated USD 54 billion of gas, a World Bank tracker showed.

Energy accounted for 41% of global methane emissions last year, ahead of agriculture at 40% and waste at 17%, Climate Home News reported.

Under the Global Methane Pledge, signatories target a 30% reduction in methane emissions by 2030 against 2020 levels.

Every one of the 43 Indigenous communities surveyed by a Conservation International study reported facing drought, extreme weather, and other harms tied to a warming climate, according to Grist.

Among those interviewed, drought and extreme weather ranked as the leading climate pressures, Grist reported. A separate concern surfaced alongside the weather: 61 percent flagged mining, commercial agriculture, and logging as serious threats. Extractive industries such as mining and logging touch more than half of the communities covered by the survey.

Lead author Sushma Shrestha, who is Indigenous Newar from Nepal, framed the findings around what these communities protect. She said everyone depends on what Indigenous peoples offer through their lands, carbon storage, and biodiversity conservation, according to Grist.

In a forward to the report, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, Indigenous Mbororo from Chad and a former chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, wrote that Indigenous Peoples' Knowledge cannot survive apart from the people who hold it or the ecosystems they inhabit.