New Delhi, July 9 -- The air in Bonn was thick with technical jargon, procedural wrangling-and the unmistakable scent of stagnation. The 62nd session of the Subsidiary Bodies (SB62) of the UNFCCC, which serves as a critical step toward COP30 in Belem, Brazil, concluded on June 26. The only thing truly heating up during the ten-day meet was the planet outside the conference halls.

Held in the shadow of shattered global temperature records-and amid the geopolitical cacophony of the simultaneous G7 summit in Canada-the Bonn climate talks offered a masterclass in incrementalism, even as the world cries out for revolution. This was not just a meeting; it was a stark diagnosis of a system in decline.

This assessment does not stem from pessimi...