If possible, participants are encouraged to choose a hotel that operates in an environmentally responsible manner (e.g. sustainable energy management and reuse of towels and linens).

Individual transportation arrangements, such as rental of cars or vans, are strongly discouraged. Individual transportation contributes to higher greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, resource use, land use for roads and parking and traffic congestion – with the resulting aggregate loss of productive time and increased stress levels of all affected. During peak hours, individual traffic hardly brings any reduction of commuting times – on the contrary it may lead to additional delays.

Instead, transportation by bus, tram, metro and regional trains is strongly recommended. The closest bus stop, “Deutsche Welle”, is 100m away from the WCCB entrance, the metro stop “Heussallee” 400m and the new train station “UN Campus” 800m.

Discover Bonn - by sustainable transport – a city guide developed as part of the German Partnership for Sustainable Mobility

Every effort should be made to avoid the generation of waste in the first place. All unavoidable waste will be strictly separated at source, to enable the highest possible quality of recycling. Participants are asked to actively participate in the waste management initiative and support waste avoidance and waste separation as much as possible. Pictograms provide orientation on which bin should be used:

The yellow recycling bin should be used, among other things, for all product packaging other than glass and paper – so-called lightweight packaging made of plastic, aluminum, tinplate or composites (for example, beverage cartons). Examples include disposable cups, milk and juice containers, straws and yoghurt pots.

The blue paper/ cardboard bin is for collecting paper, cardboard, cartons (taken apart), newspapers and envelopes.

The grey residual waste bin is appropriate for a wide range of other materials, such as leftover food, chewing gum, plasters, sanitary products, used nappies and wooden spoons.

In line with the objectives of the paper-reduction initiative, to the extent possible participants are encouraged to rely on digital versions of official documents which can be downloaded from the UNFCCC website.

The Daily Programme for the conference will continue to be made available in electronic form only. A PDF version will be posted each evening on the corresponding website.

Participants are asked to refrain from distributing any printed material, such as publications and information related to side events and exhibits, other meetings or future conferences. Please note that the secretariat strongly encourages the electronic dissemination of information.

Participants are encouraged to print and photocopy only what is absolutely necessary prior to and during the sessions. Once on site in Bonn, request only essential documents from the Documentation Services Desk. The use of colour paper should be kept to a minimum.

Print and photocopy on both sides and keep the font size to a legible minimum.

Collect and reuse paper that has print on one side only.

Consider eliminating the use of paper business cards. Many smartphone apps support sharing digital business cards that are automatically updated in case of changes or scanning and storing personal information received from others.

Conscious of the obligation for organizational aspects of UN climate change conferences to support the objectives of the Convention, and to reduce the carbon footprint of the conference, to the extent possible the food on sale will be from regional production (sourced from within the State of North Rhine-Westphalia) and include a high share of fish/ seafood and vegetarian meals (including vegan options).

Sandwiches are wrapped in foil that uses only the minimum amount of plastic prescribed by German law.

Desserts are served exclusively in multiple-usage glasses.

Cold drinks on sale at the WCCB come in multiple-usage bottles. Empty bottles should be returned to the point of sale. They will be thoroughly cleaned by the manufacturer and can be reused up to fifty times.

When ordering hot drinks, all of which are Fairtrade-certified – for consumption at one of the cafeterias, participants are encouraged to request ceramic cups. Take-away cups, which are made of compostable “BioWare” with laminated (PEFC-certified) paper with bio-coating, are available upon request and exclusively for consumption of the drink away from the point of sale.

This CO2 calculator kindly provided by the City of Frankfurt allows users to compare the carbon footprint of various ingredients and exemplary menus in a playful way.

Water dispensers are available throughout the WCCB and close to the large conference rooms on the UN Campus. Participants are encouraged to bring their own multiple-usage bottles or buy a bottled drink and then refill the empty bottle at one of the water dispensers, in order to reduce the amount of plastic waste and hence help to limit the resulting damage to oceans and biodiversity.

Click here for comprehensive information on virtual participation.

In order to reduce the carbon footprint of the conference and owing to logistical considerations such as storage availability, as per past practice the secretariat is not in a position to receive shipments with a cumulative total weight in excess of 100 kg per Party and observer organization.

Please keep the original packaging of your shipments in good condition for reuse when sending back leftover materials at the end of the conference.

Energy-efficient building technology is used at the main building of the WCCB which utilizes natural power sources and energy-saving lights, efficient heat recovery in ventilation systems, geothermal energy for heating and air conditioning, a photovoltaic system on the roof, centrally managed energy via a building control system and green roofs.

Sustainable cleaning products and eco-certified paper towels are used at the WCCB to the extent possible.

You can make your travel to Bonn (and the rest of your life!) climate neutral and be recognized for it. It is easy and worth it!

UNFCCC’s Climate Neutral Now initiative offers all conference participants the possibility to compensate the unavoidable greenhouse gas emissions emissions they generate, such as those related to travel to and from Bonn and to their daily life, using certified emission reduction credits (CERs) from Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects (which promote climate-friendly projects in developing countries and contribute to sustainable development).

Visit our platform to browse through the projects that sell their CERs. You can filter them by region, country, co-benefits or price – for example. Your purchase will fund an array of projects ranging from wind power projects to efficient bus transit systems, or projects that replace harmful cook stoves with healthy, clean-burning ones. It will be up to you to choose what to invest in to compensate your emissions and your payment will go directly to the project owner.

Emissions generated by air travel can be calculated using ICAO's official calculator. To calculate your personal life’s emissions, you can use the simple calculator available here.

Participants who compensate their emissions through the platform will receive a personalized certificate from the UN Climate Change Secretariat to attest to their climate action.

Go Climate Neutral Now!

The WCCB and the official caterer are certified "Partners of Sustainable Bonn", an initiative with the aim of organizing and hosting more environmentally friendly and future-oriented events in Bonn.