The meeting in Bonn saw the start of negotiations on climate change leading up to December's meeting in Copenhagen.

On 29 March, the initial day of the first of three preparatory meetings for the Copenhagen climate-change summit in December, Todd Stern, the US special envoy on climate change, drew thunderous applause when he told the delegates that he was "determined to make up for lost time". When the meeting ended on 8 April many of the 2,000 delegates had the impression that there was still a lot of making up to do.

Stern told the 175 national delegations that the implementation of a national cap and trade programme could help cut US emissions by around 15% from current levels by 2020, and by 80% by 2050. But he declined to say how feasible such a policy might be politically. Illustrating the challenges, 89 US senators recently voted to adopt a non-binding budget amendment stipulating that climate legislation should not increase gasoline or electricity prices.

Developing countries, including South Africa, India and China, told the Bonn meeting that they expect rich nations to commit to a 40% cut by 2020. Yvo de Boer, the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), acknowledged that getting rich nations to agree to 25–40% emissions cuts by 2020 will be "very difficult".

Another point of contention was the money that poorer countries will need for adaptation programmes. The UNFCCC's Least Developed Countries Fund allows rich countries to support such programmes in the poorest nations and thus meet some of that need, but to date it stands at only US$172 million. Overall, development agencies talk of a need for sums at least 100 times greater. "There is still no clarity over the scale of financial and technological resources that would be available to developing countries," said Shyam Saran, the Indian prime minister's special envoy on climate change.

Oil-exporting nations, led by Saudi Arabia, are also interested in a transfer of funds, saying they will demand compensation if a climate agreement cuts oil revenue. "We share the concern for climate change but at the same time we don't want to be a victim," Mohammad Al Sabban, an adviser to Saudi Arabia's Ministry for Petroleum and Mineral Resources, told reporters in Bonn.