COP29

2024 is already on track to be the hottest year on record. Extreme flooding in Brazil in April occurred after a third to half of its yearly average rainfall happened in 10 days. July set the record as the hottest month ever recorded with back to back days of the hottest average global temperature. Hurricane Beryl was the earliest known Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic. Daily sea surface temperatures have been either the highest or second highest (after 2023) all year long. Other severe weather, like massive floods, wildfires and extreme drought, has happened around the globe, at a high intensity.

This is the reality check before the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) that will take place in Baku, Azerbaijan from November 11 until 22. It will seek to advance global collaborative climate action in this dangerous context. First on this year’s COP agenda: how to secure the trillions in investments and support needed to address ever more devastating climate impacts, including massive losses and damages, while ensuring the fair and equitable transition away from fossil fuels. As COP29 is expected to adopt the New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance (NCQG), a decision in Baku will also signal the future of equity and justice in implementing commitments in the international climate framework. This also includes continued and scaled up support for the multilateral climate funds at the heart of the global landscape of climate finance, including for the full operationalization of the new Fund for responding to Loss and Damage.

Many open questions remain. Will developed countries meet their moral and legal obligations under the polluter pays principle to lead in ambitious climate commitments under new nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and to provide financial support to developing countries? And as the UNFCCC considers its gender-integration efforts, what more must be done to ensure all climate action is gender responsive and human-rights centered? We have gathered together our work following important UNFCCC processes and mechanisms throughout this year to set to the stage for COP29.

COP29 is an especially important year for climate finance. With the New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance (NCQG) to be set in Baku as well as other climate finance decisions, choices made there will reverberate for years, including for the continued application of core principles of the climate regime, such as those implementing common and differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDR-RC). As it stands, climate finance needs a large increase in predictable, adequate, and new and additional funding. Trillions of dollars are required to shift away from fossil fuels and to deal with the severe impacts on people, societies, and ecosystems. Historical emitters have a financial obligation to support these investments. Grants and highly concessional finance must be provided in the process in a human-rights based, gender-responsive approach to ensure that  equity and climate justice is be at the heart of all climate finance support.

Financing to address loss and damage finance is at a unique point this year. COP29 will confirm the set-up of the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) with a new independent secretariat hosted at the World Bank: a crucial milestone in the Fund’s operationalization process to begin distributing funding to address the climate crisis as soon as possible. With mounting losses and damages across the world, making sure this Fund is capitalized at scale and structured in a climate just, equitable way will be a key message that COP29 must send to the international community.