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University of Leeds at SB62

Date

Each year, at the midpoint between the UN Climate Change Conferences – or, COPs – an event takes place in June to progress discussions and prepare for the upcoming COP. This two-week conference is usually held in Bonn, Germany, with the aim of preparing for the upcoming COP later in the year. It hosts sessions of the two main subsidiary bodies (SB) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. As this will be the 62nd session, this year the conference is referred to as SB62.

The University of Leeds is an official observer of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which means our experts can attend these conferences and contribute relevant research.

For the third year in a row, we will be launching an update of the Indicators of Global Climate Change, an open platform of key climate indicators developed by a group of leading climate researchers from across the world. This is an important tool that provides access to up-to-date and robust scientific evidence regarding climate change.

Read about the members of our University of Leeds delegation and find out why they are attending SB62 – some online, and some in person.

Catriona Flesher – Postgraduate Researcher, School of Law 

My PhD research focuses on the governance of Loss and Damage (L&D) from climate change – the policy area intended to recognise, address, and renumerate the impacts of climate-induced weather events. I am thrilled to attend Bonn this year as part of the University of Leeds delegation to advance my doctoral research, as SB62 offers a forum in which to observe the technical decision-making and implementation which underpins climate policy.

For my PhD, SB62 offers a particularly vital opportunity to meet L&D specialists from country delegations, non-governmental organisations, and other Higher Education institutions. These connections offer an opportunity for learning and networking, particularly at the conference's side events. More crucially, these connections at SB62 provide a fertile foundation for my qualitative legal data collection, as I hope to draw on this network to interview L&D stakeholders about the development of L&D governance.

In this way, SB62 provides a window into the interpersonal negotiations which create climate policies – the groups, motivations, priorities, and relationships through which climate law is constructed. That is a unique and essential lens for understanding the emergent legal frameworks at the UNFCCC. 

Markus Fraundorfer  Associate Professor of Global Governance, School of Politics and International Studies 

I am interested in exploring to what extent the UNFCCC negotiations focus on water-related issues. Rivers are the living veins of the Earth’s interconnected ecosystems, giving life to forests, plants, non-human animal species - and to us.  

Rivers regulate the global carbon cycle and are vital to the stability of the global water cycle. However, given the planet’s unprecedented collapse of its river systems, these global cycles are also breaking down.  

Rivers and other water bodies have never played a central role in UNFCCC negotiations. However, the COP29 Baku Declaration on Water for Climate Action recognised for the first time in the UNFCCC Framework that the protection of water resources is vital to any effective climate action. The declaration highlighted that water bodies can play a fundamental role in contributing to nationally determined contributions, countries’ adaptation efforts and mitigation activities, as well as engaging local stakeholders such as Indigenous peoples and riverine communities.  

The declaration established the Baku Dialogue on Water for Climate Action to integrate water-related climate action into national adaptation and mitigation plans. But are the UNFCCC negotiations discussing any meaningful action on how to tackle the global water crisis?    

Vasiliki Kioupi Lecturer in Sustainable Curriculum, Sustainability Research Institute

I am very much interested in following the ACE (Action for Climate Empowerment) developments and events at SB62 and especially the ACE Dialogue.

The ACE Dialogue will focus on discussing ways of better understanding of the role of children, youth and indigenous peoples in accelerating ACE implementation and promoting intergenerational knowledge sharing, but also on developing and implementing national climate change policies, plans, strategies and action following a clear, inclusive, intergenerational and gender-responsive approach. The outcome of the dialogue will be incorporated in the annual summary report on progress in implementing activities under the Glasgow Working Programme, which will be considered at UNFCCC COP30.

Supporting young people, such as our university students, to build capacities and skills related to climate action and sustainable development is crucial for ACE implementation. I am keen to reflect on how attending SB62 will inform my LITE fellowship that investigates how to conceptualise, teach and assess student competences for sustainability in holistic and inclusive ways and inform the work I am doing for the Sustainable Curriculum of the University’s Climate plan. 

Vaibhav Pramode Nair Undergraduate Student, School of Earth and Environment 

I will be a youth delegate as part of the University of Leeds delegation, in Bonn from the 22nd to 26th of June. As my work revolves around sustainable agriculture and food systems, I am very excited to be wearing 3 hats during my time there: academic, on behalf of the Priestley Centre; civil society, as an advocate of the Save Soil Movement; and as a constituency member, in my role as a member of YOUNGO’s Food and Agriculture Working Group. I look forward to meeting key actors shaping the global discourse in this space, and participating in events and conversations with country delegates on how civil society and academia can help accelerate the transition to a sustainable food system for all. A key goal for me is also to build stronger networks particularly among university partners from the UK and Europe to take back collaboration opportunities on food systems and have follow up actions post SB62 as I move into my final year at university.  

As a core member of the policy team for YOUNGO’s Food and Agriculture Working Group, I will be helping facilitate a side event titled ''Scaling Food System Solutions for 1.5°C -Role of NDCs, Climate Finance & Agri-GHG-Emission Pricing”, which promises to be insightful. The event takes place on 26th June 2025, 10:30–11:45 CET, in the Berlin Room.

Debbie Rosen Research and Innovation Development Manager, Priestley Centre

I’ll be attending SB62 virtually to follow the progress of the Indicators of Global Climate Change (IGCC) initiative, which is led by Piers Forster and being launched at SB62 on 19th June.  I provide support for IGCC throughout the year and coordinate our activities at Bonn with our partners.  

IGCC provides updates of several key global climate indicators reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that can help us to understand the state of the climate system and how it is changing, following the causal chain from emissions to warming, and filling the relatively long gaps between publication of IPCC reports.  These indicators include global greenhouse gas emissions, the level of human-caused warming. and the remaining global carbon budget.

This is the third year that we’ve launched IGCC at Bonn, where we hope to directly reach and engage with the negotiators and decision makers involved in international climate policy, and highlight the opportunity for them to access and utilise the latest robust information on the climate system. 

 Although I won’t be there in person this time, I’ll be able to follow our press conference and become more familiar with the discussions and sessions where we hope IGCC will play a role in future, such as the Research and Systematic Observations.  This will also inform our approach to making submissions of evidence to the UNFCCC in advance of COP30. 

Rebecca Sarku Research Fellow in Climate Change and Food Systems, School of Earth and Environment 

I am a Research Fellow in Climate Change and Food Systems, currently working on the iSPARK project in Kenya. Recently, I received funding to lead the Leeds–Ghana Food Systems Innovations Partnership Initiative. I am attending the SB 62 meeting in Bonn because of my strong commitment to advancing sustainable and climate-resilient food systems.

As climate change continues to threaten global food security, I am particularly interested in the in-session workshop on systemic and holistic approaches to implementing climate action in agriculture and food systems. I hope to gain valuable insights into how countries are integrating adaptation strategies into national policies and how cross-sectoral collaboration can enhance resilience for my research. Beyond the formal sessions, I look forward to engaging in dynamic exchanges during side events and informal gatherings, which often spark innovative collaborations and new partnerships. 

 


Main image provided by Rebecca Sarku