COP29 - Our priorities for climate, nature and people

New climate finance goal – Call for high ambition and commitments

At COP29, dubbed the ‘finance COP’, setting a New Climate Finance Goal (NCQG) will take central stage at the negotiating table. It will replace the previous goal of US$100 billion for developing countries annually by 2020 – a target that developed countries were late to meet.

Given the scale of the finance gap, and the essential role of finance in enabling scaled-up action on mitigation and adaptation, increasing the overall amount of the finance goal is critical. Developing countries will need at least US$ 1 trillion every year if the world is to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis. Furthermore, improving the quality of this finance is also essential.  This requires enabling easier access, improving predictability and transparency, and recognising evolving and local needs – with a focus on ensuring finance can reach the most vulnerable on the front line of the climate crisis, particularly local communities, Indigenous Peoples and Afro-descendants.

The finance goal should place finance for adaptation on a par with mitigation to close the yawning gap between the limited investment flowing to build climate resilience today and the rapidly escalating climate impacts on people and nature around the world. Developed countries must go beyond their pledge of doubling adaptation finance. Establishing clear linkages with the operationalisation of the Global Goal on Adaptation’s framework is essential to drive action.

Ambition for nature finance is also vital. With finance discussions stalling at COP16, we risk critical delays in implementing global efforts to halt nature loss.  Net zero is out of reach without nature, so we are calling for donor countries to include a target for funding nature-based solutions in climate finance packages.

Embed nature in climate plans

With new national climate plans – the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) – due in 2025, we urge countries to urgently and significantly enhance ambition in line with the 1.5 goal.  With the Amazon rainforest approaching a tipping point, and natural disasters intensifying in scale and frequency, we call on policymakers to prioritise efforts to stabilise and restore ecosystems, embedding nature-based solutions in their plans to both reduce emissions and enhance climate resilience.

To assist national policymakers and technical experts involved in the revision and implementation of the NDCs, the Nature4Climate coalition, of which Fauna & Flora is a member, has developed a step-by-step guide with clear recommendations on how to strengthen nature considerations in these plans. The new NDCs must also reflect the outcome of the landmark first Global Stocktake concluded last year, which emphasised the importance of enhanced efforts to halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030.

Climate & nature: synergies and aligned actions across the Rio Conventions

The first Global Stocktake also emphasised the importance of conserving biodiversity in line with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), linking up the ‘sister conventions’ on climate and nature for the first time in a final climate COP decision. With decision-makers at COP16 in Colombia setting the tone by recognising the key role of nature in tackling climate change, those gathering in Baku must also ensure that international efforts across the conventions are fully aligned. At the national scale this means getting real about aligning national plans for climate and biodiversity, to optimise efficiency and resourcing, and actively address any trade-offs. It is also essential that the Global Goal on Adaptation’s indicators build on existing frameworks and support synergies across the Rio Conventions to avoid duplicating efforts and reduce the burden on countries when reporting on their progress towards climate adaptation, including nature as a cross-cutting theme.

We welcome the newly established Permanent Subsidiary Body for Article 8(j) of the CBD, which enshrines formal recognition of role of Indigenous Peoples and people of African descent and their communities in biodiversity conservation, and creating a permanent space for Indigenous Peoples and local communities to participate in decision-making. The programme also supports rights-based approaches and seeks to improve direct access to funding for these groups, empowering local leadership in conservation efforts. We need to see a similar commitment to the meaningful inclusion of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in climate-related decision-making and the embedding of traditional knowledge, values, rights and practices in all climate policies and processes, especially in relation to managing ecosystems and natural resources.

People and nature at the heart of carbon markets

When combined with swift decarbonisation action, investment in high-integrity nature-based carbon credits can significantly accelerate the green transition. Carbon markets can drive essential private and public finance at scale towards the protection and restoration of nature and directly benefit local communities. The finalised Article 6 must promote high-integrity nature-based solutions for inclusion in carbon markets and embed robust social, environmental and governance safeguards.

Parties should commit to cooperating on the implementation of high-integrity jurisdictional and nested nature-based solutions – to protect and restore ecosystems at a landscape scale, in alignment with GBF targets. This requires placing environmental and social integrity, and transparency, at the heart of operationalising Article 6, protecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendants and local communities on the front lines of nature stewardship; and creating an enabling environment for investment in high integrity nature-based solutions.

Phasing-out fossil fuels and perverse subsidies

The bottom line is that we need to cut climate-warming emissions – immediately, rapidly and across the whole economy. Last year’s Global Stocktake signalled the end of the fossil fuel era, setting the aims of tripling renewable energy capacity globally and doubling the global average annual rate of energy efficiency improvements by 2030; but we need stronger commitment to phasing out fossil fuels and perverse subsidies to address the root of the problem with the urgency and pace needed. The world has the money for the clean energy transition, but it is currently invested in the wrong places: according to UNEP, on an annual basis US$7 trillion in public and private capital flows into nature-negative activities in sectors including fossil fuels, agriculture and construction, while only US$200 billion goes towards nature-based solutions that promote a stable climate, and healthy land and nature. The most significant step we can take to close the climate and nature finance gap is to transform perverse subsidies into climate-, nature- and people-positive investment flows, while ensuring that just transition is at the heart of implementing subsidy reform.

But current national climate plans (NDCs) combined would reduce emissions by just 2.6% by 2030 compared to 2019, “falling miles short of what’s needed” (at least 43% reduction) to keep 1.5C within reach according to the UN. Countries must submit enhanced emissions reduction targets for 2030 and 2035 in their updated climate plans, with nature at the heart of their strategies for a just, green transition. Technical innovation and moving towards a more circular economy will have a critical role to play in the green and blue transition but must be approached with care. Decarbonisation efforts must not give rise to new drivers of nature destruction. We need countries to pursue new and innovative finance instruments, including a tax on fossil fuel companies – and their booming profits – that could be directed to the transition, and to those who suffer the worst climate change impacts.

Accelerating the role of private finance

The Paris Goals cannot be reached without transformative action by, and investment from, the private sector and finance institutions. They have a critical role to play in unlocking resources, creating innovative approaches and scaling solutions to tackle the deeply intertwined climate and biodiversity crises. At COP29 we hope to see an increase in the number of businesses committed to aligned nature-positive and net-zero plans, following high-integrity principles; and new collaborations between business, government and civil society to direct financial flows to climate action that also delivers for nature and people.

We call on the Parties, and the integrity bodies that guide private sector action on climate and nature, to further strengthen the enabling environment for companies to align, and increase investment in, their climate and nature strategies.