As Pilita Clark mentioned in her recent Financial Times Opinion: “Oxford university professor Benito Müller, a long time climate adviser to low-income countries, would replace today’s costly “mega-COPs” with a smaller annual one held in Bonn. Rotating cities could host ‘global climate action weeks’ each year.”

On his way back from Sharm el Sheikh, ecbi Director Müller stopped over in Bern for an informal meeting with Ambassador Franz Perrez, Head of the Swiss climate delegation and long-term friend of ecbi. Among the topics they discussed was the proposal Clark alluded to and which was published in a January 2021 ecbi policy brief, Quo Vadis COP?

The discussion focussed on a slightly amended version of that proposal, which Müller had introduced in a comment to Clark’s Opinion: “Indeed, it might make sense to divide the annual COP jamboree into a negotiation segment in Bonn, a moving Global Climate Action week (Green Zone + private sector trade fair), and a summit in Geneva.”