By: cclgafrica team
The 29th session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC-COP29) took place from November 4-24, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. The conference commenced with Technical Meetings (TM) from November 4-11, followed by the official opening ceremony on November 11. Over the next two weeks, various meetings and negotiations took place, including bilateral and side events at the pavilions, with a central focus on climate finance. COP29 successfully brought together nearly 200 countries, culminating in a breakthrough agreement.
Side Events
CCLG-Africa urges African Governments to Prioritize and Leverage on Legal frameworks for Climate Action
In promoting climate resilience, it is important to prioritize legal information to guide the implementation of climate activities in Africa. The call was made during a side event organized by Climate Communications and Local Governance-Africa at the Ghana Pavilion at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The panel of experts made the call and observed that only a few African countries have a legislative instrument on climate mitigation and adaptation, they therefore under score the need for governments across Africa to work hard for a climate law.
The Africa Coordinator for Climate Civics International, Dr. Mike David Terungwa, indicated that few countries in Africa have an act that governs climate change, these includes; Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa. He further said climate act would enhance the fight against the impact of climate change, ‘we should not wait for developed countries to come to our aid before we implement a fight against climate change, we also have a civic duty against climate change.
On his part, the Acting Director for climate vulnerability and adaptation at the environmental protection agency in Ghana Dr. Antwi-Boasiako Amoah, who is also a lead negotiator for Africa at COP, explained the importance of an Act of Parliaments to support the climate agenda, and also build the capacity for our lawmaker on climate change and its related issues, he further said, Africa is playing a pivotal role in negotiating for better financial resources to fight the impacts of the deadly environmental challenges facing humanity.
The President of Climate Communications and Local Governance-Africa, Kofi Don-Agor, said communication is the key in desiminating relevant information and policies about climate change, we must breakdown the concepts to the lowest form for people to comprehend the subject matter, that’s why we should develop a sergeant communication module for climate resilience.
Further, we should leverage traditional and social media in communicating climate change to the masses.
COP29 Plenary Continues
Plenary reconvened after midnight, prior to the closing session of meetings for parties to elect Adonia Ayebare (Uganda) as new Chair of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice and Julia Gardiner (Australia) as new SBI Chair.
An initial set goal of at least USD 260 billion per year by 2035 was indicated for acceptance for developing countries from a wide variety of sources, public and private, bilateral and multilateral, including alternative sources, while developing countries were encouraged to make contributions on a voluntary basis;
Provided further guidance on the definition of indicators for assessing progress towards the Global Goal on Adaptation; extended the enhanced Lima work program on gender for 10 years; and provided guidance on future global dialogues and investment-focused events under the Mitigation Work Program.
The dialogue on the implementation of the outcomes of the Global Stocktake and on the just transition work program will continue at the subsidiary bodies’ sessions in June 2025.
Disagreement
With regard to the new finance goal, India, Bolivia, and Nigeria registered their concerns and characterized the goal as an “insult that did not represent developed countries taking the lead.” The LDCs lamented the lack of ambition in light of developing countries’ needs, exclusion of loss and damage, and missing minimum allocation floors for the LDCs and SIDS. Pakistan identified critical gaps in the overall package and, pointing to the next session of the subsidiary bodies, called for a return to the negotiation table with renewed commitment.
The European Union, Environmental Integrity Group, AOSIS, the Independent Alliance of Latin America and the Caribbean (AILAC), and the Umbrella Group lamented the lack of progress on taking forward the outcomes of the Global Stocktake and urged rapid progress on energy transition.
In one of the plenary meeting, Nabeel Munir, Chair of the UNFCCC’s Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) facilitated Presidency consultations on the new finance goal. The least developed countries (LDCs) and the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) said they had not been consulted in its revision and highlighting the lack of reference to allocation floors for their groups or grant-equivalent finance for adaptation and loss and damage, so the meeting was suspended.
Plenary reconvened, parties adopted a range of decisions on less contentious matters. The most notable achievement was the adoption of the decisions on Paris Agreement Articles 6.2 and 6.4, which effectively operationalizes the market-based cooperative approaches for implementing the Agreement. This was in the works for a long time and marks an important milestone achieved in Baku. While delegates applauded, the news was largely drowned out amid worry over the other key outstanding issues, especially the new finance goal.
Plenary again was suspended for several hours. At some point, new text circulated among parties and huddles started to form for groups to coordinate. Huddles convened and disbanded in various constellations. Plenary remained very well attended.
During the meetings, many were anxiously waiting for the new text, the rumor mill was running at high speed, with constant whispers of incoming texts, updated figures on the finance goal, and the convening of the closing plenary echoing through the venue.
The New Collective Quantified Goal
Finally, a successful agreement on the second phase of the Financial Goal for the implementation of Country’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement. The nearly 200 countries that participated in COP29 was a milestone to achieving agreement on the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) setting US$300Billion till 2035. The funds contribution will be led by the Developed Nations targeting to support Developing, Least Developed Countries, Small Island States, (Ghana as a country must position itself to benefit from these funds).
Aside, agreement was also reached to mobilise US$1.3tillion annually from both governments and private sectors. This new funding Goal is said to replace the Phase 1 which was 100Billion Dollars annually.
The new finance goal at COP29 builds on significant strides forward on global climate action at COP27, which agreed an historic Loss and Damage Fund, and COP28, which delivered a global agreement to transition away from all fossil fuels in energy systems swiftly and fairly, triple renewable energy and boost climate resilience.
COP29 also reached agreement on carbon markets, which previous COPs were not able to achieve. These agreements will help countries deliver their climate plans more quickly and cheaply, and make faster progress in reducing or halving global emissions.
In spite of the success, it still remain vague how these monies will be mobilised into the existing funds established, including the Adaptation Funds, Loss and Damage and the Green Climate Funds.
There were more sentiments and concerns raised by experts and developing countries about the need for concrete financial commitments and transparent tracking mechanisms to ensure that climate finance goals are met. The NCQG agreement aims to address these concerns by establishing a more ambitious and deliverable financial commitment, with clear rules defining who will contribute, for what purpose, over what timeframe, and how progress will be monitored.
