CCAC at COP29: Daily Updates - 14 November 2024

COP29 Continues: Finance, Investment and Trade Day

With yesterday’s closing of the World Leaders’ Summit, Ministers’ and Delegation Heads now remain to negotiate an agreement that many parties hope will update climate finance targets in a way that allows investment to flow quickly and effectively for developed countries. The theme of the day set by the COP29 Presidency, “Finance, Investment and Trade”, underscores the attention given to finance at this year’s gathering, and the urgency to raise ambition at what many observers are calling “the finance COP”.

At the beginning of the day, the Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance, co-chaired by climate finance experts Amar Bhattacharya, Vera Songwe, and Nicholas Stern, delivered a new report showing that the annual target, currently only set at $100 billion and expiring in 2025, would need to rise to at least $1.3 trillion a year by 2035 if countries fail to act now. For its part, the CCAC will prepare, over the course of 2025, a new economic assessment, the Integrated Economic Assessment of Climate and Clean Air, to be released in 2026. By considering the economic impacts of air pollution and climate change together for the first time, this assessment will provide policymakers with new insights into the impacts of climate change and air pollution, cost of inaction, as well as socioeconomic benefits of implementation of key policies, actions and measures needed to drive transformative change.

Finally, as part of the COP process, negotiators are now working behind-the-scenes on texts of draft agreements that hold many options on climate finance, reflecting the wide variety of opinions held by parties, with the drafts expected to get shorter and more precise as discussions continue. At the root of the negotiations is the lack of an agreed definition of what constitutes climate finance itself, and which investments count towards the current $100 billion target, which has been a point of contention between developed and developing countries for decades.

Super Pollutants at COP29

It was another busy day for the CCAC Secretariat, at various events across the COP29 venue that spotlighted super pollutants and clean air initiatives. Speaking alongside government partners at the Senegal Pavilion, CCAC Head of Secretariat Martina Otto highlighted how reducing methane can play a key part in achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement. Later, she took part in the “We Don’t Have Time” broadcast focusing on methane regulation, and the role of the recently launched CCAC Fossil Fuel Regulatory Programme. Read more about the programme here.

On clean air, Martina participated in a UNFCCC official side event, hosted by the Clean Air Fund and the Observer Research Foundation, focused on the co-benefits of climate and health in tackling super pollutants.

Elsewhere, the Secretariat also took part in an event hosted by the Japan Pavilion, titled Effective Ways to Boost Mitigation Ambition in NDC - Fluorocarbons Life Cycle Management in Cooling Sector. As part of the event the Government of Japan, via the Initiative on Fluorocarbons Life Cycle Management (IFL) discussed its extended capacity building and investment support cooperation with its partner countries, in collaboration with international agencies. Watch a recording of the event here.

In their own words at the Leaders’ Summit of the Small Island Developing States on Climate Change

“It’s more expensive the longer you wait. This $1 trillion by 2030 is absolutely possible for rich countries to achieve, but it does entail real commitment and moving quickly. Developed countries should embrace the logic of this analysis. Kicking the can down the road doesn’t help.”

Lord Nicholas Stern, Co-Chair of the Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance

"Parties must remember that the clock is ticking. They must use this precious time to talk to each other directly and take ownership of building bridging solutions."

Yalchin Rafiyev, COP29 Lead Negotiator

We Don't Have Time X U.S.: The Other Half of Warming: Super Pollutants

In 1987, the world united under the Montreal Protocol to phase out freons and nearly 100 other chemicals that were destroying the ozone layer. With the support of a special international fund and unprecedented public-private cooperation, the treaty was a massive success: 99% of ozone-depleting substances have been eliminated, and the ozone layer is now healing.

We can do this again. We can unite the world to create a Montreal Protocol for methane and other short-lived climate pollutants.

Speakers:

• Dr. Nkiruka Maduekwe, Director-General, National Council on Climate Change, Nigeria
• Tibor Stelbaczky, Principal Adviser on Energy Diplomacy, EEAS
• Martina Otto, Head of Climate and Clean Air Coalition Secretariat, UNEP
• Ingmar Rentzhog, CEO & Founder, We Don't Have Time

In case you missed it

According to a newly released study by climate scientists and policy makers, the earth remains on a path to warm 2.7°C if current policies continue, nearly double the 1.5°C aspired to in the Paris Agreement. With super pollutants contributing nearly 50% to global warming, and with many of these pollutants being able to be removed from the atmosphere in periods ranging from days to 15 years, there is a clear and distinct opportunity to reduce warming by 0.6°C by 2050 if all possible super pollutant reduction measures are taken. Read more here.