The Chairs representing countries most vulnerable to climate change warned the world is wasting its last chance to raise ambition and avoid breaching the global warming limit

UN Campus, Bonn, Germany, June 24th, 2025

On Tuesday 24th June, the UN negotiating bloc for small island developing states, AOSIS, joined the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) at a press conference to raise the alarm on stalled talks in key areas at the United Nations 62nd Meeting of the Subsidiary Bodies, also known as the Bonn Climate Change Conference. 

Below is the statement delivered by Ms. Anne Rasmussen, Lead Climate Negotiator for AOSIS.

“I would like to take a moment to especially thank the media for continuing your coverage of climate change issues. I cannot emphasize enough how essential your work is in these extremely challenging and uncertain times. It is so easy to succumb to the distraction and despair of the international military conflicts which are highlighted in the headlines; however, it is imperative that we amplify to the world how very real this climate crisis is.

We are falling further and further behind, and if countries do not act with real ambition to achieve the pledges they made when we all committed to the Paris Agreement 10 years ago, we will be truly lost. We are here at Bonn not to engage in a rudimentary exercise in negotiating text, but to enact a critical defense of lives and uphold the right of our countries to thrive. Our world has not yet crossed the Paris Agreement 1.5-degree Celsius limit which refers to a 20-year average, but the most recent scientific reports underscore we are in a far worse danger zone than we previously thought.

AOSIS calls on all countries to ensure we do not fail in our mission and destroy our citizens’ hopes of a sustainable future. This means that Parties must be committed to MUCH greater ambition to avoid permanent overshoot of the 1.5-degree Celsius limit, and it is deeply concerning that we are not seeing countries act with the urgency required. Where are the ambitious actions to reduce emissions drastically by 2030?

We know that the world is hurtling off track of the 1.5-degree pathway, yet we CAN STILL COURSE CORRECT. The Global Stocktake charts a course. However, if countries do not act now with tremendous ambition to implement the Global Stocktake and submit their enhanced, 1.5C-aligned Nationally Determined Contributions this year, we will be speeding up the onset of disastrous consequences for all people.

Around the world, the “unprecedented” has become our new norm. The economies of small island states are stymied by disasters we did not cause. Not even a year ago, the Caribbean was ravaged by Hurricane Beryl, the earliest Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic ever recorded. The mass destruction it brought was a battering to economic sustainability, costing hundreds of millions in damages. The Pacific is experiencing record sea-surface temperatures, with marine heatwaves affecting over 10% of the global ocean. SIDS have been leading with resilience-building, from the historic marine conservation to Palau to the early warning systems initiatives of Samoa. However we are constrained by special circumstances including our small size, and we cannot fight climate change impacts on our own.

The discussions here in Bonn must be urgently progressed. Climate change and its devastating impacts are accelerating, why are we not acting at least at equal pace?

On the Mitigation Work Programme, Parties must find a way to work together and ensure we accelerate our efforts to limit the costs of adaptation, keep the full range of adaptation options on the table, and limit loss and damage.

AOSIS is bewildered by the backwards tracking on finance. Countries MUST implement the NCQG outcome, and implementation of existing climate finance commitments is the starting point. The urgency of progress on finance must be hand in hand with mitigation action.

It was highlighted to Countries that COP30 would be an Adaptation COP. So where is the action to progress on robust and more focused indicators for the Global Goal on Adaptation and Adaptation Finance here in Bonn?

Ladies and gentlemen, we have no time to waste. Our representatives from 39 small island developing states have made the long journey here and will work tirelessly because the world cannot afford another missed opportunity. Countries must turn things around now, here at Bonn, if we are to have any hope of success in Belem.

In this pivotal year for enhanced NDCs submission and the 10th Anniversary of the Paris Agreement, let us prove that multilateralism does indeed work, and that we CAN deliver on the promise of this process to deliver justice for the most deserving!”

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