SB64 Ends in Delay and Division as Pacific Now Looks to a Crowded Agenda at COP31

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Photo Credit: Marie Jacquemin | Greenpeace

[19 June 2026, BONN] — The outcomes of the June Climate Meetings in Bonn, Germany (SB64) is marked by delay, division and a dangerous weakening of ambition at a time when climate impacts are accelerating across the Pacific.

Across the major negotiating tracks, Parties failed to reach meaningful agreement, pushing critical decisions on mitigation, adaptation, finance and just transition to COP31 in Türkiye.

For Pacific communities already living with the consequences of the climate crisis, the outcome is more delay when the world can least afford it.

SB64 also exposed growing fault lines across the negotiations, including attempts to weaken the role of science in climate decision-making, continued resistance to delivering climate finance at the scale required, and a widening gap between political rhetoric and climate reality.

As the road to COP31 begins, PICAN warns that trust is declining while the workload grows.

The burden now falls to COP31 to deliver where SB64 could not. The world cannot arrive at another climate conference with the same unresolved questions and expect different results.

Responding to the conclusion of SB64, Dr Sindra Sharma, International Policy Lead at PICAN said:

“SB64 will be remembered as a negotiation that deferred rather than decided. For Pacific people, every delay means more lives disrupted, more communities at risk and a narrowing pathway to 1.5°C.

“What concerns us most is not only the lack of outcomes, but the growing willingness to sideline science, soften accountability and postpone responsibility. Negotiating the science of climate change won't delay the truth of the crisis upon us.

“The Pacific came to Bonn defending science because science is our floor of consequence. Without it, ambition becomes optional and justice becomes negotiable. We reject both.

“As we head towards COP31, we must stop managing the politics of climate change and start addressing the reality of it. The Pacific is demanding action that matches the scale of the crisis in full recognition that the window to deliver is narrowing. Fast.”

ENDS

ABOUT PICAN

PICAN is a regional alliance of 260+ non-government organisations, civil society organisations, social movements and not-for-profit organisations from the Pacific Islands region working on various aspects of climate change, disaster risk and response, and sustainable development.

Media Contact:

Dylan Kava, Strategic Communications Lead, PICAN

dylan.kava@pican.org | +679 9061989 (Bonn / GMT+2)