Small but important procedural victories for developing countries livened up an otherwise low-profile climate change conference that was essentially meant to be a preparatory session for a number of important decisions scheduled to be taken next year. After night-long meetings, negotiators finally agreed on the agenda of a special stock-taking meeting that the Paris Agreement had said should take place in 2018. This meeting, named 'Facilitative Dialogue' is supposed to assess whether the actions promised by all the countries under the Paris Agreement were commensurate with the overall objective of keeping global temperature rise within 2 degree celsius compared to pre-industrial times. In addition, this is also supposed to examine what further actions needed to be taken to restrict temperature rise to 1.5 degrees. Read | On last day, climate change meet moves into extra time Developing countries had been insisting that the agenda for this meeting should include a discussion not just on the progress made by developed countries on their obligations to cut emissions in the pre-2020 period, but also their efforts in providing finance and technology to poor and vulnerable countries in this same period. The agreed agenda did finally include this item. The 'Facilitative Dialogue' - now being called Talanoa Dialogue at the request of Fiji which wants these talks to be held in the traditional Talanoa spirit of inclusiveness that seeks a resolution of differences without putting any blame on any one - is to be held alongside next year's year-ending climate change conference in Poland. But the preparatory phases for this dialogue would begin in January itself and several rounds of discussions are expected. A few other sticking points on issues related to money and transparency of actions that had forced the negotiators to spend the Friday night in meeting rooms were left to be settled in meetings to be held next year. The Bonn climate change conference also decided to organise one more round of discussions next year, in addition to the meetings that happen every year. By next year, the countries have to finalise the rule-book and guidelines to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement. Some progress towards that end was made here in Bonn but the decisions are all to be taken next year. Earlier in the week, the developing countries had managed to force the developed countries to agree to special review meeting next year only to discuss the actions they were taking on their obligations under the Kyoto Protocol. Developed countries are mandated to make targeted cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol that still has three more years to run. They are also supposed to provide finance and technology to the developing countries to help them deal with climate change. The Paris Agreement is the essentially a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. An agreement over steps to be taken to make agriculture cope better with climate change was also finalised to the satisfaction of the developing countries. Also read | Bonn climate change conference nears end amidst calls to phase out coal There was some forward movement on the issue of loss and damage as well, though it stopped short of addressing all the demands of thee developing countries. Small and vulnerable countries, particularly the island states, have been asking for a mechanism through which they can get financial help to compensate for the damage caused to life and property because of climate change-induced extreme weather events. The countries here agreed to continue the discussions next year. The Bonn conference was held under the shadow of US decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement. The United States is not just the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, after China, it is also crucial to resource mobilisation. The US kept a largely low-profile in public spaces at this conference, even as it came under increasing attack from NGOs and civil society organisations pressing for ambitious reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. In the meeting rooms, however, the US stand on various issues was not very radically different from earlier years. It continued to block developing countries demands on finance, pre-2020 actions and similar issues.
