Keeping an eye on Bonn Climate Change Talks next week

Negotiators from the world's governments are gathering in Bonn from April 30 to May 10 for three simultaneous meetings under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Their aim as ever is to figure out how to further implement the many agreements they have made over the past 28 years, and crucially how to put the 2015 Paris Agreement into practice.

Their self-imposed deadline to finish this work is the end of this year at the 24th Conference of the Parties (COP24) to be held in Katowice, Poland.

However some key questions have to be resolved before this can happen, including:

Will countries step-up their contributions in this critical window for climate action?

Will countries stick with the plan to deliver comprehensive national contributions?

Will real progress be seen on finance—the key enabling condition for climate action?

How can the process itself advance given the role of the US and polluting corporations?

With the window to avoid breaching the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C threshold closing fast—by some estimates less than four years remains—and with the nationally determined contributions (NDCs) projected to result in 3°C warming, countries know they must radically step up their efforts in the immediate-term as well as the long-term.

Recording an estimated $300 billion of climate change damages, 2017 went down as the costliest as well as the third hottest on record.

Africa is most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

The Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) will lead civil societies on the continent at the Bonn Climate Talks to seek climate justice.