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New Research Reveals Brazil’s Climate Financing Challenges and Suggests Potential Solutions

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World Economic Forum report outlines key solutions business leaders and policy-makers can implement to help Brazil reach its 2030 climate targets. Brazil will need an investment of $200 billion (BRL 1 Trillion) to reach its 2030 GHG reduction goals.

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SAO PAULO, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Brazil plans to propose a "huge" fund to pay for the conservation of tropical forests at the United Nations COP28 climate change summit that begins later this month in Dubai, the country's top climate negotiator said on Thursday.

That potential financing mechanism, not previously reported, would be the latest in a proliferation of multilateral environmental funds. Countries agreed in the past year to establish a giant fund dedicated to biodiversity and another to pay for the destruction caused by climate change.

The funds funnel money from rich countries to poor developing nations that struggle to otherwise pay for their environmental efforts.

Brazil is the world's largest rainforest nation and contains some 60% of the Amazon jungle. It is seen as vital to curbing climate change and protecting unique plant and animal species.

Brazil presented the idea of a tropical forest conservation fund on Thursday at a meeting with ministers from seven other Amazon rainforest countries, according to Brazil's top climate diplomat Andre Correa do Lago.

"It's a conceptual proposal with a view to create a fund to help conserve tropical forests around the world...in 80 countries," Correa do Lago said.

He said that the proposal is not finalized and Brazil is seeking support and suggestions from the other rainforest nations.

Asked if the fund would rival $100 billion in annual funding previously promised by rich nations in climate financing, Correa do Lago declined to give the proposed size of the fund but said it would be "huge."

The fund would not value forest conservation in terms of carbon, like many existing schemes, since protecting forests would primarily prevent further greenhouse gas emissions rather than absorbing additional carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere, Correa do Lago said.

He said the value would likely instead be linked to the area of forest measured in hectares, or units of 0.01 square kilometers (0.0039 square mile).

The international proposal to conserve forests will be partnered with a domestic program to reforest destroyed areas.

Brazil also will launch plans at COP28 for an "Arc of Restoration" to counter the so-called arc of deforestation that is advancing ever deeper into the Amazon.

National development bank BNDES will run the project, he said.

BRAZIL IS BACK

Shortly after winning election, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at last year's U.N. climate summit COP27, announced "Brazil is back" as an international environmental leader.

This year, he will present how Brazil is advancing on all environmental fronts, Correa do Lago said, including reducing Amazon deforestation in the 12 months through July to the lowest level since 2018.

The eight Amazon countries are also discussing a proposal on whether to issue a joint commitment to end deforestation by 2030, a target already endorsed by Brazil and some others.

Correa do Lago said that the proposal was advancing but declined to say if the deal could be announced at COP28.

He said Lula will push hard for the world to redouble efforts to limit climate change to a 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) temperature rise, despite many analysts saying this target may be out of reach. Global temperatures have already risen about 1.2 degrees Celsius on average.

Correa do Lago declined to say whether Brazil would support a COP28 decision to "phase out" fossil fuels entirely. At past COP summits, China and India have blocked that language with the nearly 200 countries in attendance instead only calling for a "phase down" of fossil fuels.

Reporting by Jake Spring; Additional reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu; editing by Diane Craft

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Jake Spring reports primarily on forests, climate diplomacy, carbon markets and climate science. Based in Brazil, his investigative reporting on destruction of the Amazon rainforest under ex-President Jair Bolsonaro won 2021 Best Reporting in Latin America from the Overseas Press Club of America (https://opcofamerica.org/Awardarchive/the-robert-spiers-benjamin-award-2021/). His beat reporting on Brazil's environmental destruction won a Covering Climate Now award and was honored by the Society of Environmental Journalists. He joined Reuters in 2014 in China, where he previously worked as editor-in-chief of China Economic Review. He is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and Brazilian Portuguese.

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Brazil to propose mega fund to conserve forests at COP28 climate summit

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Brazil plans to propose a "huge" fund to pay for the conservation of tropical forests at the United Nations COP28 climate change summit that begins later this month in Dubai, the country's top climate negotiator said on Thursday.

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Welcoming the progress made on negotiations during the two-day conference, the COP28 President thanked those who'd put "pen to paper" on the initial elements of the global stocktake, noting ""we are getting closer to convergence in some critical areas."

In particular, he urged Parties to make clear pledges on finance, calling for certainty on the 100 billion, increased contributions to the Green Climate Fund, pledges to the adaptation fund and early pledges on loss and damage.

He urged Parties to come to COP ready with solutions on additional key interventions on adaptation, mitigation and finance.

He said: "We should use every single day between now and the beginning of COP to make progress on all elements...everything we do from this point must be about accelerating".

He also urged parties: "Let's get the traction for action. Solidarity for humanity."

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: - COP28 President Dr. Sultan Al Jaber has used his concluding address at the Pre-COP conference to urge ministers and delegations from around the world to accelerate the progress made on negotiations during the conference, emphasizing that there is no time for further delays on climate action.

During the two-day conference, the 70 attending ministers and 100 country delegates discussed the political aspects of the COP28 negotiations, in a crucial moment to build consensus and set the tone for COP28.

In his closing remarks, Dr. Al Jaber told delegates "Over the last two days I have seen and heard a lot that gives me hope. Real conversations are taking place on the difficult issues. We are getting closer to convergence in some critical areas."

In particular, he thanked those who had "put pen to paper" to outline the initial, essential elements of a decision on the Global Stocktake, which will provide the basis for the negotiations.

However, the majority of his speech was focused on urging Parties to continue to engage and drive consensus and action ahead of COP28. He stated: "We need parties to step up as early as possible so we can facilitate the work towards a decision. This decision needs to send clear, practical guidance to the world on how to close all the gaps revealed by the Global Stocktake."

A major focus was the COP28 President's call for Parties to "step up and make the necessary commitments" on climate finance, which he described as "one of the biggest obstacles to progress".

Referring to the need for a "new ecosystem" to cut inequality for the Global South, he urged Parties to deliver institutional reform and focus on practical market mechanisms to lower risk and attract private investment.

However, the COP28 President was most emphatic on the need for Parties to restore confidence and trust that climate finance is actually being delivered; "This means certainty on the 100 billion, increased contributions to the Green Climate Fund, pledges to the adaptation fund and early pledges on loss and damage."

The COP28 President continued to remind Parties that progress in loss and damage represents "taking action for the world's most climate vulnerable people".

He said, "we must deliver on the fund and funding arrangements for loss and damage [...] We must build bridges on the three key issues: the institutional arrangements... governance and sources of funding".

The remainder of Dr Al. Jaber speech outline his expectations of Parties across additional, crucial areas including fast-tracking the energy transition and driving forward progress on the Global Goal on Adaptation.

On the former, the COP28 President stated, "It is no longer a question of if the energy transition will happen, but when, how fast and how can we do it in a way that leaves no one behind" and noted that "as we set global targets, nations must be free to set their own pathway to getting there".

Noting that there continue to be "strong views about including language on fossil fuels and renewables in the negotiated text", Dr. Al Jaber told delegates "I invite you to take this conversation forward. We must jointly figure out the next steps. And we must come to COP28 ready with solutions."

On adaptation, Dr. Al Jaber noted concern that adaptation is not receiving a fair share of climate finance and that the adaptation process "has lost its way,".

To remedy this, he called for a "unifying destination [...] the equivalent of a guiding star like the 1.5 degrees has been for mitigation" and called on Parties to act on recommendations that had emerged from Pre-COP to break down the Global Goal on Adaptation into themes to make it easier to track and deliver progress and come to COP28 with solutions.

In concluding the remarks, Dr. Al Jaber reminded those present of the work ahead. He said "We should use every single day between now and the beginning of COP28 to make progress on all the elements. We are at a decisive point on our journey to ensuring successful outcomes at COP28, which the world expects. So, everything we do from this point must be about accelerating." He continued "That means working on advancing the negotiations on the actual decisions, and on the foundations for action."

He told delegates: "We can show we are serious by turning up in a few weeks' time fully prepared to agree the agenda on Day One". He continued, "Let's get the traction for action. Solidarity for humanity."

Pre-COP is a preparatory meeting of ministers and negotiators ahead of the main climate conference. This year's event had record attendance with more than double the normal number of participants for a Pre-COP.
-Ends-

COP28 UAE will take place at Expo City Dubai from November 30-December 12, 2023. The Conference is expected to convene over 70,000 participants, including heads of state, government officials, international industry leaders, private sector representatives, academics, experts, youth, and non-state actors.

As mandated by the Paris Climate Agreement, COP28 UAE will deliver the first ever Global Stocktake - a comprehensive evaluation of progress against climate goals.

The UAE will lead a process for all parties to agree upon a clear roadmap to accelerate progress through a pragmatic global energy transition and a "leave no one behind" approach to inclusive climate action."

The four pillars of the COP28 Presidency's Action Agenda are fast tracking the energy transition, fixing climate finance, focusing on people, lives, and livelihoods, and underpinning everything with full inclusivity.

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COP28 Presidency continues to build momentum at Pre-COP with only 30 days to go

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Speaking at the conclusion of the official Pre-COP conference, COP28 President Dr. Sultan Al Jaber said "there is no time for delay" on climate action and called on Ministers to "step up and make the necessary commitments" to deliver

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Climate negotiators from rich, industrialized nations and poor countries devastated by global warming are starting one last make-or-break meeting Friday to finalize plans for a new fund to help developing countries pay for climate-related losses and damages that they have done very little to cause. The stalemate thus far in the negotiations shows there is still a wide gap between the climate aid developed countries have long promised and what they are ready to deliver.

Climate policy analysts said a failure to reach an agreement could undermine the COP28 global climate talks being held from Nov. 30 to Dec. 12 in Dubai by eroding what little trust developing countries have toward developed countries.

Loss and damage is a technical United Nations umbrella term for arrangements to cover the cost of permanent and irreversible climate impacts that can't be mitigated or adapted to. It was first formally mentioned in 2007 at COP13, and grew out of Article 4 in the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in which developed countries made a commitment to "assist developing country Parties that are particularly vulnerable to adverse effects of climate change ... by providing new and additional financial resources."

Loss and damage includes impacts like the permanent loss of lands and homes to sea level rise, the costs of rebuilding infrastructure damaged by flooding and the loss of revenue from agricultural crops destroyed due to drought. Globally, climate economists say the measurable annual cost to developing nations will reach an estimated $400 billion by 2030, and soar above $1 trillion by 2050.

In some smaller developing countries, the costs are staggering. The World Bank, for example, estimated that when Tropical Storm Erika hit Dominica in 2015, it wiped out economic assets worth $483 billion, equal to about 90 percent of the country's gross domestic product, a scale of loss that's hard to recover from without outside help.

Article 8 of the 2015 Paris climate agreement reaffirmed the importance of addressing loss and damage as a key piece in the global deal to limit warming. Crucially, it decoupled any potential loss and damage payments from liability or compensation at the insistence of developed countries, which fear being on a legal hook for untold billions of dollars of loss, damage and suffering already caused by their emissions.

At COP27 in Egypt last year, the 196 countries of the UNFCCC finally agreed to establish a loss and damage fund, tasking a transitional committee with 14 members from developing countries and 10 members from developed countries to put together specific recommendations for approval at COP28. A similar committee was established in 2011 to map out the Green Climate Fund, which has mobilized $13.5 billion for investments in low-emission and climate-resilient development.

But the loss and damage committee hasn't been able to agree on key details of the plan, including whether it should be hosted by the World Bank or set up as a U.N.-affiliated entity; which countries will pay into the fund and which are eligible to receive funding.

As currently envisioned, loss and damage funding is completely voluntary, with the amount in the fund dependent on what developed countries are willing to contribute. There will be periodic reviews to assess whether the funding is keeping pace with the spiralling cost of climate impacts, similar to the voluntary emissions cuts pledges made under the Paris Agreement.

A Climate Framework Designed to Endure Disagreements

That the transitional loss and damage committee didn't find consensus by the end of the originally scheduled meetings in late October has been just one recent disappointing result from recent COP initiatives. In 2021, at COP26 in Glasgow, global leaders pledged to stop global deforestation, which is critical to reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, but loss of forest cover increased 4 percent the following year. The Glasgow summit also saw 100 countries pledge to cut methane emissions 30 percent by 2030, but since then, methane in the atmosphere has surged to a record-high level.

Most countries are even falling short of their basic 2015 pledges to cut emissions enough to prevent the planet's fever from spiking out of control, and the United Nations Environmental Program Adaptation Gap report released Nov. 2 showed that global efforts to fund climate change adaptation are falling farther behind. That fund is important in the context of loss and damage because every dollar not spent on adaptation now leads to more costly losses and damages later.

Still, some experts point out the fact that climate diplomats will have another chance to find common ground before the crucial global climate summit opens later this month shows the flexibility and institutional continuity of the U.N.'s climate process. As the COP28 host country, the United Arab Emirates took over the responsibility for hosting the loss and damage committee under the framework, including providing a venue and logistical and technical support.

It's hard to imagine countries with such divergent interests continuing to talk about a fraught topic like payments for climate damages outside the U.N.'s climate governance framework, they note, because there is little incentive for individual countries to act on a problem that requires a global resolution.

The Paris Agreement, in particular, is designed to be flexible, acknowledging that national and international political and social constellations will shift during the decades of concerted global action required to stabilize the climate.

The best example came when former U.S. President Donald Trump in June 2017 announced he would pull the country out of the agreement, triggering a withdrawal period in the framework that outlasted his presidency, which enabled incoming President Biden to easily reverse Trump's decision. Meanwhile, the rest of the world, more or less, continued working toward the agreement's goals, and U.S. climate negotiators remained engaged, though partially sidelined, in the annual talks.

But the flexibility has been tested since 2015, as global political and social tensions have intensified. Right-wing nationalist governments in some key countries like Italy are questioning global climate goals and policies and, in some cases, backsliding on them. Russia's invasion of Ukraine shows the close links between conflicts and energy policy, and the Israel-Hamas war has the potential to disrupt the coming COP 28.

Additionally, climate impacts are forcing growing numbers of people to try and migrate to safe havens, and the rise of of environmental protests involving civil disobedience have triggered a harsh legal backlash in some countries like Germany, where young climate activists were held in preventive custody for weeks because of their stated intent to blockade roads.

Through all that, 196 countries have still met every year to try and advance climate action, but the final outcome of the loss and damage discussions will still be a test of whether the U.N. climate process can deliver on any of its big promises.

Countries Argue Over Where to Host the Loss and Damage Fund

In a cycle that's now familiar, the euphoria of reaching a major climate agreement at COP27 was replaced by frustration when the fourth meeting of the loss and damage committee ended without reaching its goal of crafting a clear-cut plan for the loss and damage fund. Some negotiators said the talks lacked a spirit of collaboration.

"I am just missing the enthusiasm," Ali Waqas Malik, Pakistan's representative on the committee, said during the closing session. "We celebrated in Sharm El-Sheikh when this was adopted and we were given a mandate to operationalize the fund in one year," he said, adding that the fund was created against the backdrop of the catastrophic 2022 floods in Pakistan that killed thousands of people and displaced millions more.

"Innocent lives perished, and what message will I take back home when they say that you were sent to operationalize the fund and you came back empty handed?" he said. "There is nothing on the table, no equity."

One of the biggest stumbling blocks has been a disagreement between developing and developed countries about where to establish the fund. Negotiators for developed countries said the World Bank has the global presence, infrastructure and legal capacity to get the fund up and running as quickly as envisioned, said Preety Bhandari, who observed the recent loss and damage transitional committee talks as a climate policy analyst with the World Resources Institute, a nonprofit global climate think tank based in Washington, D.C.

"It's obvious that developed countries see the World Bank as a trusted institution, in which they have significant shareholding and decision making power," she said.

But developing countries do not share that trust. They want the fund to be established as an independent legal entity under the authority of the UNFCCC, and not bound by the World Bank's ways of doing business, she said.

"With a standalone option and under the authority of the UNFCCC, they have more say in providing guidance and reviewing the operations of the new fund," she said. "They also have concerns that not all developing countries are eligible to get funding from the World Bank, as well as concerns about potentially high fees that might have to be paid to the World Bank for hosting the fund."

Many developing countries worry that World Bank lending policies could increase the often crushing debt they are already bearing from climate impacts. Instead of loans, poor countries being devastated by global warming are "largely looking for grants and direct budgetary support for loss and damage," she said. Some developing countries also see the World Bank as part of the climate problem as it continues to fund fossil fuel projects accelerating the heating of the planet.

Although developed countries stood by the World Bank during the October committee talks, its hosting of the fund may not be an absolute requirement for the United States in the end, said Rod Schoonover, a former U.S. intelligence official now focused on climate security issues as a consultant and an associate research fellow at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

"It's not that U.S. climate negotiators are unsympathetic to the arguments of the Global South," he said. "It's more that the U.S. has a highly dysfunctional system they must operate within."

The international arena sometimes doesn't fully appreciate "how much U.S. domestic politics straitjackets what U.S. diplomats can do in the international domain," he said. "Loss and damage has long been toxic on the Hill, and the Steve Bannon crowd will pounce on whatever they do."

And it's not like the debate over the World Bank is the only thorny issue, he added.

"Decades of sluggish climate actions have placed negotiators on all sides in extremely challenging situations," he said. "As threats from climate-driven shocks grow, the justifiable frustration from the Global South only adds to tensions in an already-strained international security landscape."

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The last document developed by the transitional committee during the fourth meeting included options like having the World Bank temporarily host the fund to get it up and running quickly while creating a long-term home elsewhere, or even holding an open selection process to determine where the fund should be hosted.

In the latest document prepared for the start of the hastily scheduled early November meeting, the co-chairs implored the committee members to bring a spirit of solidarity and collaboration to the table.

"We ask members to reflect deeply on one another's views and come prepared to put forward compromises and creative proposals that can bridge the remaining divides," they wrote.

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Deep Rifts at UN Loss and Damage Talks Cast a Shadow on Upcoming Climate Conference - Inside Climate News

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Climate negotiators from rich, industrialized nations and poor countries devastated by global warming are starting one last make-or-break meeting Friday to finalize plans for a new fund to help developing countries pay for climate-related losses and damages that they have done very little to cause.

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Looking for the right time to start a conversation about climate change in your classroom? Consider having it during COP28, when the United Nations annual Climate Change Conference will vault climate change to the top of everyone's newsfeed. For two weeks, from November 30th to December 12th, the world's heads of state will meet in Expo City Dubai to discuss ideas, prior commitments, and strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It will also bring together youth activists, artists, advocacy organizations, and business owners from the private sector from all over the world who are committed to fighting climate change together.

What is COP28? COP stands for Conference of the Parties, where the "parties" refers to the 198 nations, including the United States, that agreed to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992. This year marks the 28th time countries have gathered under the Convention; hence, COP28.

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Teaching COP28: What Is It and Why Is It Important?

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Teach your students about the importance of foreign relations and climate policy with this comprehensive COP28 guide.

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Island Voices @ COP28 | Island Innovation

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During COP28 we plan to create an "Island Voices" space where we will share key insights and developments related to remote, rural and island communities.

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EGYPT (October 20, 2023) - The fourth meeting of the Loss and Damage Transitional Committee failed to reach consensus on recommendations for addressing loss and damage from climate impacts, including how to design the Loss and Damage Fund that was established last year at COP27. The Committee will reassemble in Abu Dhabi for an extra-ordinary session in early November to try to reach agreement prior to the COP28 summit.
Following is a statement from Preety Bhandari, Senior Advisor in the Global Climate Program and the Finance Center, World Resources Institute:
"Yet again, developed and developing nations failed to bridge deep divides over how to help communities grappling with losses and damage from increasingly severe climate impacts. The meeting concluded with widely divergent views on three fundamental questions: who will host the Loss and Damage Fund, which nations are eligible and who must pay into the fund.

"If committee members cannot reach common ground at the final gathering in Abu Dhabi next month, we are destined for very rocky negotiations in Dubai. The entire COP28 negotiations could get derailed if developing countries' priorities on funding for loss and damage are not adequately addressed.

"The bottom line is that the Loss and Damage Fund will only be meaningful if it fits the needs of communities that are bearing the brunt of climate impacts by providing financial support that is new, additional, predictable, accessible, adequate, and rapid. Climate change threatens all developing countries so they all should be eligible for this fund, while least developed countries and small island states deserve special consideration for support.

"Whether or not the Loss and Damage Fund becomes fully operational is a key measure of success for the COP28 summit. Negotiators must go above and beyond to reach consensus and finally provide support for communities grappling with floods, droughts and other climate disasters."

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STATEMENT: Loss and Damage Transitional Committee Fails to Reach Consensus Ahead of COP28

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EGYPT (October 20, 2023) - The fourth meeting of the Loss and Damage Transitional Committee failed to reach consensus on recommendations for addressing loss and damage from climate impacts, including how to design the Loss and Damage Fund that was established last year at COP27.

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Last month, COP28 president, oil CEO Al Jaber unveiled his "action plan" for this year's climate summit. Amidst a lot of big talk about fossil fuel phase down was one little word that puts the lie to all of it: "unabated." Whenever Al Jaber makes a commitment to moving the world away from fossil fuels it comes with this caveat. "Unabated" refers to fossil fues that don't have carbon capture or direct air capture associated with them. The idea being that those emissions are being taken care of, so no problem. Except...the data on these technologies is far from conclusive about their capacity to "abate" anything but fossil fuel companies' responsibility to do anything at all about climate change.

In case there was any doubt about that, Occidental Petroleum CEO Vicki Hollub has been saying the quiet part out loud. "We believe that our direct capture technology is going to be the technology that helps to preserve our industry over time," Hollub told an oil and gas conference in March. "This gives our industry a licence to continue to operate for the 60, 70, 80 years that I think is going to be very much needed."

Emissions abatement technologies are, of course, a worthy endeavor. We would all love to have a magic vacuum that sucks greenhouse gas emissions out of the sky. But overstating the technology's capability today only locks us into more pain and suffering tomorrow. Moreover, when scientists talk about DAC as a helpful technology-and they do! yay!-it is always, always with a very important caveat: it will only work to mitigate climate impacts if emissions are reduced first. As scientist David Ho put it i n the journal Nature, "Drastically reduce emissions first, or carbon dioxide removal will be next to useless."

Ho is not just a scientist with an opinion. He has spent his entire career studying carbon cycles, and was a reviewer for the much ballyhooed Musk Foundation-funded $100 million Xprize for Carbon Removal. He's bullish on carbon dioxide removal. But also knows that it will only work if it goes along with rapid decarbonization.

"Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is what puts the 'net' into 'net zero emissions,'" Ho continues. "All pathways to limit global warming to 1.5-2 °C above pre-industrial levels that have been assessed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change require rapid decarbonization to start now. But they also require the removal of CO 2 from the atmosphere because we won't be able to eliminate carbon emissions entirely on the required time scales."

That is not the plan that oil execs, including Al Jaber, are pushing. Instead, the plan is to continue ramping up fossil fuel development, and use DAC and even less-proven carbon capture and storage technologies (CCS) to justify it. It's an approach that makes carbon dioxide removal technology a complete waste of time and money. At 2022 emissions leavel, for every year of operation at full capacity, each currently planned DAC hub would take us back in time about 13 minutes. "But in the time it took to remove those 13 minutes of CO 2 ," Ho points out, "the world would have spewed another full year of CO 2 into the atmosphere."

If, however, we reduce emissions to around 10% of current levels, it would take 4,000 facilities to reach net zero in any given year, presuming they were fully powered by renewable energy. Which brings us to another key issue with currently available carbon removal options: in the absence of an energy transition, they will be an additional emissions source.

None of this is just one scientist's opinion, nor does it boil down to the "activists versus businesspeople" dichotomy it's often framed as. This is basic, objective data that is readily available and entirely known by the fossil fuel executives pushing this "solution."

And yet, here we sit with an "action plan" from Al Jaber that's looking increasingly reliant on a CDR-first approach, and now a draft plan from EU negotiators that shows them teetering on the edge of this "unabated" fantasy as well.

"The shift towards a climate neutral economy will require the global phase-out of [unabated] fossil fuels and a peak in their consumption already in the near term," a draft of the EU's negotiating stance, seen by Reuters, said.

The appearance of the word in brackets indicates that negotiators aren't yet sold on the idea, but it's concerning to see negotiators from the countries that have pushed hardest for real decarbonization already entertaining this idea. If the deal out of COP28 leans heavily on phasing out only "unabated" fossil fuels, lending undue credence to the idea that putting the CDR cart before the decarbonization horse, not only will it set the world on track for devastating climate impacts, but also it could undermine another tool in the accountability toolbox: the many court cases aiming to hold governments accountable for sticking to their Paris Climate Accord commitments could be severely weakened by a new deal that allows everyone to drill and frack and burn away, provided they also invest in tech that could buy us 13 minutes.

This Week's Climate Must-Reads

Our Green Transition May Leave Black People Behind It's been infuriating to watch the climate movement, which only just started to scratch the surface of pulling its head out of its ass on racial equity a few years ago shove it right back up there amidst discussions of the IRA and permitting reform. The always brilliant Rhiana Gunn-Wright lays out what's been happening and why it's not just hurtful and gross but also a losing strategy on climate.

A Dangerous Debt-Climate Nexus In awarming world, technocratic fixes are inadequate responses to vulnerability, Ketaki Zodgekar, Avery Raines, Fayola Jacobs & Patrick Bigger write in a new report in NACLA. Achieving climate and economic justice in the Caribbean calls for reparative solutions.

The Long, Slow Death of Global Development - An old one but David Roberts resurfaced this on Twitter the other day and I finally read it and hoo boy is this long read from David Oks and Henry Williams in American Affairs a good one to prep for a COP that is pitting development funding against climate mitigation, adaptation, and reparations.

A Progressive Take on Permitting Reform - Technocrats have been accusing progressives of being naive and stubborn when it comes to permitting reform. A new report from the Climate and Community Project makes it clear that we can do everything necessary to clear the way for more renewables while also being equitable to frontline and Indigenous communities. Johanna Bozua breaks it down on the latest episode of the Volts podcast as well, and the Roosevelt Institute has a great take on this from Rhiana Gunn-Wright as well. There's a clear path forward, it's just not the one that coal baron Joe Manchin likes.

Searching for Utopia in Our Warming World - Whenever people ask me about solutions in climate and what gives me hope, I have the same answer: community. I find hope in the way I've seen communities on the Gulf Coast fight off petrochemical facilities, in the way I see people in the climate community look out for each other, in the way I've seen people in my own small neighborhood check in with each other when there's a bad storm. Community isn't just necessary for solutions, it's also an absolute requirement for survival as climate impacts continue to worsen. For Noēma, Mélissa Godin reports on a new kind of community emerging-eco villages, where where neighbors share responsibilities like farming and childcare in the search for a more sustainable existence.

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Last month, COP28 president, oil CEO Al Jaber unveiled his "action plan" for this year's climate summit. Amidst a lot of big talk about fossil fuel phase down was one little word that puts the lie to all of it: "unabated." Whenever Al Jaber makes a commitment to moving the

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Policy Brief on Climate Finance in Brazil

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Policy Brief on Climate Finance in Brazil

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Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Responding to the Climate Crisis in Times of Uncertainty: A Clarion Call for Climate Leadership. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.

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The Global Stocktake at COP28 will evaluate how much progress has been made in the fight against the climate crisis and what more is needed. But global climate efforts are currently way off track, and no one is at more risk than the vulnerable communities who are facing a mounting debt crisis and have few resources to respond to escalating impacts.

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Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: The State of Climate Action in 2023. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.

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With the first Global Stocktake drawing to a close at COP28, governments must deliver a rapid response plan that accelerates climate action at a pace and scale not seen before. To support this process, the upcoming State of Climate Action 2023 provides the most comprehensive, sector-by-sector roadmap to close the GHG emissions gap and limit global warming to 1.5°C.

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What exactly is the global stocktake (GST), why is it going to be a key focus of the upcoming COP28 climate conference and critically - how can we ensure public engagement is integrated into every stage of the GST process to help ensure ambitious climate action?

The GST is a UNFCCC mechanism that enables countries to see where they're making progress on climate change, where they're not, and how that gap can be filled. The inaugural GST started in 2021 and will conclude at COP28. It's seen as a key course-correcting and ambition-raising tool.

But to be effective as a mechanism, people need to be at the heart of the GST process - and unfortunately that is currently far from the case.

Our new report calls for urgently integrating a robust public engagement framework into the GST process at every stage, rooted in values, inclusion, transparency and empowerment. The report highlights what effective public engagement looks like, and provides five recommendations for countries and governments.

Many thanks to the IKEA Foundation for supporting this work as part of our Climate Engagement Initiative.

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In the 3 min video below, report author Dr Gurpreet Kaur and project manager Fahmida Miah talk through what the GST is, how it relates to public engagement, and key takeaways from the report.

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The global stocktake and public engagement - Climate Outreach

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What exactly is the global stocktake (GST), why is it going to be a key focus of the upcoming COP28 climate conference and critically - how can we ensure public engagement is integrated into every stage of the GST process to help ensure ambitious climate action?

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Climate finance is crucial for the transition to a low-carbon economy, as it allows financial flows to be geared towards mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change. However, climate finance faces significant challenges, such as mobilizing sufficient resources to meet agreed-upon climate targets, prioritizing resource allocation, and effectively and transparently distributing funds.

In Brazil, activities related to land use play a central role in decarbonizing the economy, as agriculture and deforestation together account for almost three quarters of the country's GHG emissions (SEEG 2021). As such, finance strategies must be developed to promote a transition to low-carbon agriculture and forest protection, increase climate resilience, reduce socio-economic vulnerabilities, and support activities compatible with the preservation of forests and their inhabitants.

To understand climate finance for land use in Brazil, researchers from the Climate Policy Initiative/Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (CPI/PUC-Rio) conducted an unprecedented tracking exercise to quantify the financial flows directed towards agriculture and forest in alignment with climate goals. This work identifies the amounts allocated from public and private sources of finance, both domestic and international. It also specifies the disbursement channels and financial instruments used, the sectors financed, and climate objectives. As such, this report provides a baseline for characterizing financial flows that contribute to land-use-related climate mitigation and adaptation for the period 2015 to 2020.

In addition to a quantitative overview of climate flows, another relevant contribution of this work is the development of a methodology to characterize climate finance in Brazil and identify land use practices, technologies, sectors, and activities aligned with mitigation and adaptation objectives. This approach is based on CPI's international experience in tracking climate finance flows globally since 2011, by means of the Global Landscape of Climate Finance (Buchner et al. 2021). This methodology has been adapted to the specificities of the Brazilian context and can be replicated by other researchers, extended to other sectors, and used in the classification and disclosure of investments.

Information constraints posed a challenge when tracking financial flows. Finding relevant characteristics for the classification of financial flows proved impossible in some of the available databases. The private financial flows included in the map are also likely to be underestimated due to a lack of consistent and standardized data.

In this context, the careful characterization of climate finance flows for land use presented in this report aims to increase transparency and enable the monitoring of the evolution of finance, making it possible to assess whether they are growing in a way that is compatible with climate challenges. This work also helps with identifying finance gaps, designing investment and disinvestment strategies, and holding stakeholders accountable.

WHAT IS CLIMATE FINANCE?

Climate finance refers to capital flows that have direct or indirect effects on the mitigation of GHG emissions or which contribute to climate change adaptation. Flows can also be geared towards dual benefit activities, should they contribute to both mitigation and adaptation. According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), funds for climate finance may originate locally, nationally, or transnationally, from public, private, or alternative sources.

WHAT IS LAND USE?

This report tracks climate finance for land use, which includes:

Agriculture: crop and cattle production, all the way from the primary sector to activities in the secondary sector of the value chain, such as agroindustry. It includes infrastructure on rural properties, the purchase and production of inputs, rural extension activities, and financial services. It also spans measures for energy efficiency in agroindustry and renewable energy generation from sugarcane or crop residue, such as biofuel production. Finally, it covers policy management and planning, as well as research and development (R&D) for agriculture.

Forest: conservation, restoration, and reforestation activities, as well as use for economic purposes, as in the case of planted forests. This includes policies to combat deforestation, and on environmental and land tenure regularization and territorial planning.

Multi-sector: policies and projects aimed at reducing vulnerability to climate change, including meteorological monitoring and surveillance systems, natural disaster alerts, and risk management for hydrological and geological events, among others. For more detail, see the list of climate-aligned activities in Appendix I and the definition of sectors in Appendix III.

Main results

* Climate finance for land use in Brazil amounted to an average of US$ 6.6 billion/year[1] between 2015 and 2020. During this time, financial flows increased from US$ 6.6 billion in 2015 to US$ 7.1 billion in 2020, this represents a growth of 65% in Brazilian reais.

* Most of the finance aligned with climate objectives came from domestic sources, which channeled US$ 6.3 billion/year (95%).

* Two-thirds of domestic finance (US$ 4.1 billion/year) came in the way of private finance, which is largely explained by the fact that financial institutions are obligated to allocate finance to rural credit. As such, a relevant portion of climate finance for land use in Brazil comes from private finance directed by public policies.

* International finance accounted for 5% (US$ 327 million/year) of climate finance flows. International finance originated mostly from public sources: foreign governments (US$ 136 million/year), climate funds (US$ 125 million/year) and multilateral development banks (US$ 58 million/year), channeled mainly via grants (US$ 216 million/year).

* The Amazon Fund is the main climate fund channeling international finance for land use in Brazil. Despite this, the Amazon Fund approved an average of US$ 53 million/year in finance, which is equivalent to 0.7% of the total tracked for climate finance for land use in the country between 2015 and 2020.

* Rural credit is the main instrument to finance activities aligned with climate objectives for land use, as it channeled almost half of the flows tracked between 2015 and 2020 (US$ 3.2 billion/year). However, climate-aligned flows account for only 8% of the total volume of rural credit in Brazil, whose annual average was US$ 42.2 billion/year in the period under analysis.

* Agricultural risk management instruments, which constitute the main tool for climate adaptation, accounted for US$ 1.1 billion/year in finance aligned with climate objectives. Rural insurance was the most relevant of these instruments, with a channeled total of US$ 625 million/year. Of this amount, US$ 500 million/year came from private funds used to take out insurance policies.

* Thematic bonds, which obtain resources to finance projects with social and environmental impact, raised, on average, US$ 1 billion/year (16%) in climate finance for land use, obtained mostly via issuances by Brazilian companies abroad. Although the volume of funds raised via thematic bonds has almost quadrupled in the period under analysis- from US$ 685 million in 2015 to US$ 1.6 billion in 2020- it still represents only a small portion of fixed-income capital market finance.

* The public budget channeled US$ 767 million/year (11%) of finance aligned with climate objectives and was the main instrument for the implementation of policies for the forest sector (US$ 572 million/year). In that same period, finance from international public sources amounted to US$ 320 million/year geared towards projects in this sector. There was a drop, however, in the amount of finance from the public budget, from US$ 993 million in 2015 to US$ 394 million in 2020.

* The crop sector was the main recipient of climate finance, receiving an average of US$ 3.9 billion/year, which corresponds to 60% of flows in the tracked period. The forest sector received US$ 1.7 billion/year (25%), cattle received US$ 532 million/year (8%), bioenergy and fuels received US$ 311 million/year (5%) and multi-sector received US$ 86 million/year (1%).

* Finance geared towards mitigating climate change amounted to US$ 4.5 billion/year, or 68% of the finance tracked. Finance for climate adaptation totaled US$ 1.2 billion/year (19%), while flows with both mitigation and adaptation objectives stood at US$ 859 million/year (13%).

Landscape of Climate Finance for Land Use

Climate finance for land use in Brazil amounted to an annual average of US$ 6.6 billion for the period between 2015 and 2020. Figure 2 shows that the total finance amount increased from US$ 6.6 billion in 2015 to US$ 7.1 billion in 2020.[2] Given the evolution of the exchange rates, during the analyzed timeframe, this represents a growth of 65% in Brazilian reais. This trend is mainly related to the increase in issuances of thematic bonds - which almost quadrupled in the period, reaching US$ 1.6 billion in 2020 - and rural credit, which channeled US$ 3.2 billion aligned with climate goals in that same year.[3] Furthermore, the establishment of new financial instruments, such as Decarbonization Credit ( Crédito de Descarbonização - CBIO), has contributed to Brazil's efforts to promote climate finance.

Figure 1. Evolution of Climate Finance for Land Use, 2015-2020

Note: The values refer to the average amount of financial flows in Brazilian Real (R$) during the analyzed period, deflated by the IPCA using December 2020 as reference. The values were converted into United States Dollar (US$), according to the average exchange rate for the corresponding year, as provided by the Central Bank of Brazil (Banco Central do Brasil - BCB).

Source: CPI/PUC-RIO with data from SICOR/BCB, SIOP/MPO, MAPA, SES/SUSEP, MMA, BNDES, MME, B3, NINT, OECD-DAC, and IDB, 2023

Figure 2 shows the Landscape of climate finance for land use in Brazil by means of a sankey diagram, which tracks public/private and domestic/international finance flows, sources of finance, disbursement channels, financial instruments, beneficiary sectors, and climate objectives.

Figure 2. Landscape of Climate Finance for Land Use in Brazil, 2015-2020
Interactive Sankey
Note: The values refer to the average amount of financial flows in Brazilian Real (R$) during the analyzed period, deflated by the IPCA using December 2020 as reference. The values were converted into United States Dollar (US$), according to the average exchange rate for the corresponding year, as provided by the Central Bank of Brazil (Banco Central do Brasil - BCB).

Source: CPI/PUC-RIO with data from SICOR/BCB, SIOP/MPO, MAPA, SES/SUSEP, MMA, BNDES, MME, B3, NINT, OECD-DAC, and IDB, 2023

Funding for Climate Finance

Most of the finance aligned with climate objectives came from domestic sources, which channeled US$ 6.3 billion/year (95%) between 2015 and 2020. Two-thirds of domestic finance US$ 4.1 billion/year came from private finance, which is largely explained by the fact that financial institutions in Brazil are obligated to allocate funds to rural credit.[4] Domestic private funding originated primarily from financial institutions (31%), corporations (16%), and rural producers (10%). The main sources of domestic public finance were the federal and state governments (26%) and the Brazilian Development Bank ( Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social - BNDES) (6%).

International funds accounted for 5% (US$ 327 million/year) of climate finance flows. This international funding originated mostly from public sources: international governments (US$ 136 million/year), climate funds (US$ 125 million/year), and multilateral development banks (US$ 58 million/year). The main sources were the government of Germany (US$ 79 million/year), the Amazon Fund (US$ 53 million/year), the World Bank (US$ 39 million/year), the Green Climate Fund (GCF) (US$ 33 million/year), the Global Environment Facility (GEF) (US$ 32 million/year), and the government of Norway (US$ 20 million/year) - which, together, accounted for approximately 80% of climate-aligned international public funding. To avoid the double counting of financial flows, the source of finance called "international governments" does not include grants from the governments of Germany and Norway to the Amazon Fund.

The Amazon Fund is the main climate fund that channels international funding for land use in Brazil and, as such, is quite relevant in the promotion of conservation and sustainable land use in the country. Despite this, the Amazon Fund approved an average of US$ 53 million/year in project finance, which is equivalent to 0.7% of the total climate finance for land use in the country between 2015 and 2020.

Disbursement Channels

Disbursement channels intermediate climate finance for land use in Brazil and allocate finance to various sectors. Financial institutions were responsible for channeling almost two-thirds (US$ 4.1 billion/year) of finance tracked from 2015 to 2020, most of which came from private sources (US$ 3.1 billion/year), mainly originating from the institutions themselves (US$ 2.0 billion/year). Financial institutions also intermediate finance from public sources, such as federal and state governments (US$ 608 million/year) and BNDES (US$ 386 million/year). Climate finance channeled from corporations accounted for 16% (US$ 1.0 billion/year) and originated mostly from the corporations' own funds, obtained by means of thematic bonds (US$ 1.0 billion/year).

Disbursements channeled via government agencies amounted to (US$ 1.0 billion/year) (15%) of climate finance, with (US$ 872 million/year) (84%) coming from federal and state government funds. Government agencies also channeled international finance (US$ 162 million/year) from international governments US$ 85 million/year, multilateral development banks (US$ 45 million/year), and climate funds (US$ 31 million/year).

Financial Instruments

Rural credit is the main financial instrument with climate-aligned finance for land use in Brazil, having channeled US$ 3.2 billion/year between 2015 and 2020, equivalent to 48% of all flows tracked in the same period. Approximately two-thirds (US$ 2 billion/year) of finance were sourced from the financial institutions that operate them. However, the total volume of rural credit in the country in the period under analysis was US$ 42.2 billion/year, meaning that the portion of rural credit aligned with climate objectives corresponded to only 8% of the total volume, in accordance with the criteria established in this work.[5]

Agricultural risk management instruments, which constitute the main tool for climate adaptation, accounted for US$ 1.0 billion/year in finance aligned with climate objectives between 2015 and 2020. The most relevant of these instruments was rural insurance, which directed US$ 625 million/year in climate finance for agricultural risk management. Rural insurance relied on private finance expressed in the amount paid by producers to take out the insurance policies (US$ 500 million/year and), in the case of subsidized premiums, it also relied on public finance from the Rural Insurance Premium Subsidy Program (Programa de Subvenção ao Prêmio de Seguro Rural - PSR), in the amount of US$ 124 million/year.

Thematic bonds, which obtain resources to finance projects that have social and environmental impact, captured US$ 1.0 billion/year (16%) in climate finance for land use, corresponding to only a small portion of traditional capital market finance. These securities were issued following voluntary guidelines and standards, such as the Green Bond Principles (GBP), and include global notes (US$ 686 million/year), bonds (US$ 100 million/year), Eurobonds (US$ 114 million/year), Agribusiness Receivables Certificates ( Certificado de Recebíveis do Agronegócio - CRA) (US$ 85 million/year), debentures (US$ 22 million/year), and promissory notes (US$ 0.4 million/year).

The public budget channeled US$ 767 million/year (11%) in climate-aligned finance and constituted the main financial instrument for the implementation of policies aimed at the forest sector (US$ 572 million/year). Among the activities financed for this sector, the public budget disbursed US$ 22 million/year for actions to prevent and control deforestation and fires, and US$ 16 million/year for environmental and land regularization policies and territorial planning.

Public international finance (US$ 320 million/year) were mainly channeled via grants (US$ 216 million/year) and were mostly earmarked for the forest sector (US$ 221 million/year).

Sectors

The crop sector received, on average, US$ 3.9 billion/year in climate finance, which corresponds to 60% of the flows tracked from 2015 to 2020. This is explained by the prevalence of rural credit as the main financial instrument for climate-aligned finance. The forest sector received US$ 1.7 billion/year (25%); the cattle sector received US$ 532 million/year (8%); bioenergy and fuels received US$ 311 million/year (5%); and multi-sector received US$ 86 million/year (1%).

Climate Objectives

Finance aimed towards mitigation activities amounted to US$ 4.5 billion/year, i.e., 68% of climate finance for land use in the period from 2015 to 2020. Adaptation activities amounted to US$ 1.2 billion/year (19%). Furthermore, flows targeting both mitigation and adaptation accounted for US$ 859 million/year (13%). The high share of finance directed towards mitigation is in line with the GHG reduction commitments set in Brazil's NDC, given that most of the country's emissions come from changes in land use and agriculture.

In some rural credit lines and development and international cooperation projects, it is possible to identify the beneficiaries of the finance and ascertain whether they are small, medium or large rural producers, producer cooperatives, corporations, indigenous peoples, quilombolas, or other traditional communities. But this is not possible for most climate finance tracked in this report. Furthermore, a portion of the flows accounts for the provision of a public good, having been allocated to activities such as forest conservation. However, for climate finance to support the transition more effectively to low-carbon land use in Brazil, the design and information about finance will need to be improved in order to increase transparency about who the beneficiaries are and their locations.

Methodology

This report develops a methodology to quantify and compare financial flows for land use and their use for climate mitigation and adaptation objectives. The approach is based on CPI's international experience for over a decade in tracking climate finance globally, as well as in specific countries and sectors, within the Global Landscape of Climate Finance (Buchner et al. 2021).

This work adapts the Global Landscape's methodological criteria to reflect Brazil's climate context- including, for example, finance for the protection of the rights of indigenous and traditional peoples, land use policies such as combating deforestation and land tenure regularization, production management, and infrastructure on rural properties and agroindustry activities. This work draws on four main sources of information to incorporate criteria relevant to land use in Brazil:

1. CPI Global - Activities pertaining to agriculture and forest aligned with climate goals (Rosenberg et al. 2018; Chiriac, Naran and Falconer 2020; Buchner et al. 2021).

2. Public Consultation No. 82 of 2021 by the Central Bank of Brazil ( Banco Central do Brasil - BCB) - Sustainability criteria applicable to the granting of rural credit (BCB 2021).[6]

3. CPI/PUC-Rio - Institutional analysis of government policies and actions for the conservation and restoration of forest and for the development of sustainable agriculture that contribute to achieving the climate targets in Brazil's Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) (Antonaccio et al. 2018).

4. Rio Markers for Climate Change of the Development Assistance Committee - Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (DAC/OECD) - Finance flows aligned with UNFCCC objectives (OECD 2018).

Appendix I shows a detailed list of the criteria used to define which financial flows are aligned with climate objectives. The criteria are divided by:

Climate objective: (i) mitigation; (ii) adaptation; (iii) mitigation and adaptation.

Area: (i) Agricultural credit policy; (ii) Agricultural risk management; (iii) Government expenditures; (iv) Financial market; (v) International cooperation and development.

Sectors: (i) crop; (ii) forest; (iii) cattle; (iv) bioenergy and fuels; (v) multi-sector.

Appendix II describes the five areas relevant for climate finance in Brazil; it also specifies the databases used for each of them. An important methodological measures were to avoid double counting financial flows.

Public and private finance sources, both domestic and international, were tracked for the period of 2015 to 2020. Financial flows were updated via indexation to the Extended National Consumer Price Index ( Índice Nacional de Preços ao Consumidor Amplo - IPCA) using December 2020 as a reference. For finance originally granted in foreign currencies -such as US dollar or Euro - the amounts were converted into Brazilian Real (R$) according to the average exchange rate for the year corresponding to the flow in question, as provided by the Central Bank of Brazil, and then subsequently updated via indexation to the IPCA.

This report provides a broad view of climate-aligned finance for land use activities. However, the list of climate finance flows is not exhaustive. Indeed, the methodology for measuring climate finance and its composition are constantly evolving (Meattle et al. 2022).

Transparency about the use of climate-aligned public and private finance needs to be improved. This issue is particularly critical for private finance that is not guided by public policy. In the context of strengthening the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) agenda, improving disclosure requirements is necessary to better understand project implementation and operation. Clearer disclosure regulations and standards will allow for more accurate estimates of private finance aligned with climate objectives.

Figure 3 presents the Climate Finance Ecosystem for the land use sector in Brazil, which organizes financial flows into five areas: agricultural credit policy; agricultural risk management; government expenditures; financial markets; and international cooperation and development (described in Appendix II). The Ecosystem structures the relationship between the various types of actors involved and characterizes climate-aligned financial flows. Analysis of the databases related to the five areas of climate finance made it possible to extract information to characterize the flows in terms of: origin of finance, sources of finance, disbursement channels, instruments, sectors, and climate objectives. The definitions of each of the categories and subcategories in this figure can be found in Appendix III.

Figure 3. Climate Finance Ecosystem for Land Use in Brazil

Source: CPI/PUC-Rio, 2023

The authors would like to thank Juliano Assunção, Luiza Antonaccio and Mariana Stussi for their comments and suggestions, Natalie Hoover El Rashidi, Giovanna de Miranda, Camila Calado, Rogério Reis de Mello Filho and Letícia Miranda for the editing and revision of the text and Meyrele Nascimento for formatting and graphic design.
[1] The values refer to the average amount of financial flows in Brazilian Real (R$) during the analyzed period, deflated by the IPCA using December 2020 as reference. The values were converted into United States Dollar (US$), according to the average exchange rate for the corresponding year, as provided by the Central Bank of Brazil ( Banco Central do Brasil - BCB).

[2] The total amount tracked in Brazilian reais corresponded to 22.1 billion in 2015 and 36.5 billion in 2020.

[3] Detailed definitions of thematic bonds, rural credit, and other financial instruments can be found in Appendix III.

[4] Public policy in Brazil directs finance from financial institutions to rural credit. Financial institutions are required to allocate the equivalent of 30% of all bank deposits in checking accounts to rural credit operations through Compulsory Resources. Additionally, 65% of rural savings accounts ( Poupança Rural, a form of savings account in certain public banks and cooperatives) funds must be directed to rural credit.

[5] The trade purpose was excluded from the calculation of the total value of total rural credit granted in the period. This purpose was not considered because it can be used to finance the purchase of products by means of the Minimum Price Guarantee Policy ( Política de Garantia de Preços Mínimos - PGPM) or for refinance, as in the cases of Rural Duplicate ( Duplicata Rural - DR) and Rural Promissory Note ( Nota Promissória Rural - NPR) discounts. The annual average of rural credit granted for all purposes - funding, investment, industrialization and trade - was US$ 49.4 billion in 2020 prices.

[6] Although not listed in BCB Public Consultation No. 82, all lines in the following initiatives were deemed to be climate-aligned: the National Program for Low-carbon emissions in Agriculture ( Programa para Redução da Emissão de Gases de Efeito Estufa na Agricultura - ABC+ Program), the National Plan for Family Farming under the ABC ( Programa Nacional de Fortalecimento da Agricultura Familiar no âmbito do ABC - Pronaf ABC+) and the Constitutional Financing Fund of the North under the ABC ( Fundo Constitucional de Financiamento do Norte - FNO-ABC).

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Landscape of Climate Finance for Land Use in Brazil - CPI

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CPI/PUC-Rio conducted an unprecedented tracking exercise to quantify the climate-aligned financial flows directed to land use in Brazil.

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Date: Monday, 20 November 2023

Time: 09:00 hr EDT | 17:00 hr EAT | 15:00 hr CET

Duration: 45 minutes

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) launched the 2023 edition of the Emissions Gap Report in a virtual press conference.

In addition to providing an update on where global greenhouse gas emissions are heading and where they should be, the report focuses on energy transitions in low- and middle-income countries and looks at the role of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) in bridging the emissions gap. This year is a crucial year as it is the Global Stocktake, the EGR launches a week ahead of COP28 and will serve as a key input to the Global Stocktake.
Speakers:

António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations

Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP

Anne Olhoff, Chief Scientific Editor of the UNEP Emissions Gap Report 2023

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Date: Monday, 20 November 2023 Time: 09:00 hr EDT | 17:00 hr EAT | 15:00 hr CET Duration: 45 minutes The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) launched the 2023 edition of the Emissions Gap Report in a virtual press conference.

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Recalling the meeting between President Xi Jinping and President Joseph R. Biden in Bali, Indonesia, the United States and China reaffirm their commitment to work jointly and together with other countries to address the climate crisis. In this regard, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and China Special Envoy for Climate Change Xie Zhenhua met in Beijing from 16 to 19 July 2023 and at Sunnylands, California, from 4 to 7 November 2023 and released the following:

1. The United States and China recall, reaffirm, and commit to further the effective and sustained implementation of the April 2021 U.S.-China Joint Statement Addressing the Climate Crisis and the November 2021 U.S.-China Joint Glasgow Declaration on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s.

2. The United States and China recognize that the climate crisis has increasingly affected countries around the world. Alarmed by the best available scientific findings including the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, the United States and China remain committed to the effective implementation of the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement, reflecting equity and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in light of different national circumstances, to achieve the Paris Agreement's aim in accordance with its Article 2 to hold the global average temperature increase to well below 2 degrees C and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees C, including efforts to keep 1.5 degrees C within reach.

3. The United States and China remain committed to the effective implementation of the Paris Agreement and decisions thereunder, including the Glasgow Climate Pact and the Sharm el-Sheikh Implementation Plan. Both countries stress the importance of COP 28 in responding meaningfully to the climate crisis during this critical decade and beyond. They are aware of the important role they play in terms of both national responses and working together cooperatively to address the goals of the Paris Agreement and promote multilateralism. They will work together and with other Parties to the Convention and the Paris Agreement to rise up to one of the greatest challenges of our time for present and future generations of humankind.

4. The United States and China decide to operationalize the Working Group on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s, to engage in dialogue and cooperation to accelerate concrete climate actions in the 2020s. The Working Group will focus on the areas of cooperation that have been identified in the Joint Statement and the Joint Declaration, including on energy transition, methane, circular economy and resource efficiency, low-carbon and sustainable provinces/states & cities, and deforestation, as well as any agreed topics. The Working Group will carry out information exchanges on policies, measures, and technologies for controlling and reducing emissions, share their respective experiences, identify and implement cooperative projects, and evaluate the implementation of the Joint Statement, the Joint Declaration, and this Statement. The Working Group is co-led by the two special envoys on climate change, with the appropriate participation of officials from the relevant ministries and government agencies of the two countries.

5. The United States and China will, on the road to COP 28 and beyond, accelerate, inter alia, the following concrete actions, including practical and tangible collaborative programs and projects under the Working Group.

Energy Transition

6. Both countries support the G20 Leaders Declaration to pursue efforts to triple renewable energy capacity globally by 2030 and intend to sufficiently accelerate renewable energy deployment in their respective economies through 2030 from 2020 levels so as to accelerate the substitution for coal, oil and gas generation, and thereby anticipate post-peaking meaningful absolute power sector emission reduction, in this critical decade of the 2020s.

7. Both sides agree to restart the U.S.-China Energy Efficiency Forum to deepen policy exchanges on energy-saving and carbon-reducing solutions in key areas including industry, buildings, transportation, and equipment.

8. The United States and China intend to recommence bilateral dialogues on energy policies and strategies, carry out exchanges on mutually agreed topics, and facilitate track II activities to enhance pragmatic cooperation.

9. The two countries aim to advance at least 5 large-scale cooperative CCUS projects each by 2030, including from industrial and energy sources.

Methane and Other Non-CO2 GHG Emissions

10. The two countries will implement their respective national methane action plans and intend to elaborate further measures, as appropriate.

11. The two countries will immediately initiate technical working group cooperation on policy dialogue, technical solutions exchanges, and capacity building, building on their respective national methane action plans to develop their respective methane reduction actions/targets for inclusion in their 2035 NDCs and support each country's methane reduction/control progress.

12. The two countries intend to cooperate on respective measures to manage nitrous oxide emissions.

13. The two countries intend to work together under the Kigali Amendment to phase down HFCs and commit to ensure application of ambitious minimum efficiency standards for all cooling equipment manufactured.

Circular Economy and Resource Efficiency

14. Recognizing the importance of developing circular economy and resource efficiency in addressing the climate crisis, relevant government agencies of the two countries intend to conduct a policy dialogue on these topics as soon as possible and support enterprises, universities, and research institutions of both sides to engage in discussions and collaborative projects.

15. The United States and China are determined to end plastic pollution and will work together and with others to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including the marine environment.

Subnational Cooperation

16. The United States and China will support climate cooperation among states, provinces, and cities with regard to areas including, inter alia, the power, transportation, buildings, and waste sectors. Both sides will facilitate subnational governments, enterprises, think tanks, and other stakeholders to actively participate in the cooperation. The two countries will meet periodically, as agreed, for policy dialogue, best practices sharing, information exchange, and to facilitate cooperative programs.

17. The United States and China intend to hold a high-level event on subnational climate action in the first half of 2024.

18. Both sides welcome with appreciation existing subnational cooperation between the two countries and encourage states, provinces, and cities to promote practical climate cooperation.

Forests

19. Both sides commit to advance efforts to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030, including by fully implementing through regulation and policy, and effectively enforcing, their respective laws on banning illegal imports. They intend to engage in discussions and exchanges, including under the Working Group, on ways to improve efforts to strengthen implementation of this commitment.

GHG and Air Pollutant Reduction Synergy

20. Both countries intend to cooperate in promoting relevant policies and measures and the deployment of technologies to enhance synergy of controlling GHG emissions and air pollutants, including NOx, VOCs, and other tropospheric ozone precursors.

2035 NDCs

21. Reaffirming the nationally determined nature of NDCs, and recalling Article 4.4 of the Paris Agreement, both countries' 2035 NDCs will be economy-wide, include all greenhouse gases, and reflect the reductions aligned with the Paris temperature goal of holding the increase in global average temperature to well below 2 degrees C and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees C.

COP 28

22. The United States and China, with the United Arab Emirates, invite countries to a Methane and Non-CO2 Greenhouse Gases Summit at COP 28.

23. The United States and China look forward to the first Global Stocktake under the Paris Agreement, which is a vital opportunity for the Parties to reflect on ambition, implementation, and cooperation, in line with the Paris temperature goal to hold the global average temperature increase to well below 2 degrees C and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees C, and the Parties' resolve to keep a 1.5 degree C limit on temperature rise within reach.

24. Both countries are committed to working with each other and with other Parties to adopt a consensus Global Stocktake decision. In the view of both countries, the decision:

should reflect that there has been substantial positive progress toward achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement, including that the Agreement has catalyzed action by both Parties and non-Party stakeholders and that the world is considerably better off in terms of its temperature trajectory than it would have been in the absence of the Agreement;

should take account of equity and be informed by the best available science, including the most recent IPCC reports;

should be balanced across thematic areas, include both retrospective and responsive elements, and be consistent with the design of the Paris Agreement;

should reflect that substantially more ambition and implementation on action and support will be needed to achieve the Paris Agreement's goals, recognizing different national circumstances;

should send signals with respect to the energy transition (renewable energy, coal/oil/gas), carbon sinks including forests, non-CO2 gases including methane, and low-carbon technologies, etc.;

recognizing the nationally determined nature of NDCs and recalling Article 4.4 of the Paris Agreement, should encourage economy-wide 2035 NDCs covering all greenhouse gases;

should reflect the critical importance of adaptation and be accompanied by a robust decision that delivers an ambitious framework for the global goal on adaptation - one that accelerates adaptation, including developing targets/indicators to enhance adaptation effectiveness; delivering early warning systems for developing country Parties; and strengthening adaptation efforts in key areas (e.g. food, water, infrastructure, health, and ecosystems);

should note the expectation of the developed countries that the $100b goal will be met in 2023, reaffirm the urging of developed country Parties to at least double their provision of adaptation finance; anticipate the adoption by COP 29 of the new collective quantified goal; and make finance flows consistent with the Paris Agreement goals;

should welcome with appreciation the recommendations of the Transitional Committee with respect to establishing funding arrangements to address loss and damage, including the establishment of a fund; and

should emphasize the important role of international cooperation, including that the global nature of the climate crisis calls for the widest possible cooperation and that such cooperation is a critical enabler for achieving ambitious mitigation action and climate-resilient development.

25. The United States and China are committed to further their dialogues, efforts, and collaboration to support the UAE Presidency for the success of COP 28.

For media inquiries, please contact ClimateComms@state.gov.

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Sunnylands Statement on Enhancing Cooperation to Address the Climate Crisis - United States Department of State

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Recalling the meeting between President Xi Jinping and President Joseph R. Biden in Bali, Indonesia, the United States and China reaffirm their commitment to work jointly and together with other countries to address the climate crisis. In this regard, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and China Special Envoy for Climate Change Xie [...]

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The past few months have been harrowing.

I live in Canada, where an unprecedented summer saw the country blanketed in toxic smoke and an entire capital city was evacuated due to catastrophic wildfires exacerbated by climate change.

Then, helpless from the diaspora, I spent September watching over 120,000 ethnic Armenians, my people, being forcibly displaced from their ancestral homeland in Nagorno-Karabakh, known as Artsakh to Armenians.

These days, I am spending my days in community with Jewish and Palestinian friends, bearing witness to the heart-wrenching atrocities unfolding in Israel and Gaza.

I've dedicated the past 15 years to organizing for climate action, and as world leaders prepare to gather at the UN climate talks, it's clearer than ever to me that a peaceful, secure future depends on our transition away from fossil fuels.

Fossil fuels create - and fund - conflict

The climate crisis knows no borders and is intensifying at an alarming rate. As long as we're dependent on fossil fuels, we will continue to live in a volatile landscape worsened by climate change.

Not only are fossil fuels driving us toward climate catastrophe, including through the sheer emissions generated during war, but the revenue generated by fossil fuel extraction plays a disturbing role in funding the conflicts and genocides that are unfolding right now.

Last year, in an attempt to reduce Europe's reliance on Russian energy, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signed deals to increase gas imports from Israel and Azerbaijan. The millions of dollars both countries have received in gas revenue indirectly facilitate their ongoing military actions.

The climate crisis knows no borders and is intensifying at an alarming rate. As long as we're dependent on fossil fuels, we will continue to live in a volatile global landscape worsened by climate change, writes @amarapossian

Some of these countries also exploit environmentalism as a cover for their actions.Israel, for instance, uproots and destroys olive trees to weaken Palestinians' connection to the land and economic self-sufficiency, while simultaneously planting trees to greenwash land theft.

Azerbaijan deployed fake anti-mining activists to launch its illegal nine-month blockade on the only road in and out of Nagorno-Karabakh, eventually driving Armenians out of their ancestral homelands in September.

It's all about who controls land and resources

At the same time, western nations have a long history of waging wars to secure access to fossil fuels and toppling governments that dare nationalize oil companies. For decades, the Middle East, which holds over half of the world's oil reserves, has been a focal point of conflicts driven by imperialism and greed.

Those who strive to protect their lands from resource extraction, both at home and abroad, are often met with state violence.

In Canada, for example, when Indigenous communities resist pipeline construction, our governments deploy militarized tactical teams. We see a similar pattern in the actions of Israel's military, which seizes solar panels sent by humanitarian aid groups for Palestinian communities. Israel clearly recognizes the independence that solar panels offer - it has passed progressive laws requiring the installation of solar panels on all new buildings, even while the Israel Defense Forces confiscates solar panels from Palestinians. When people have local control over their energy production, it becomes much harder to cut off their power.

Every group of people has a right to self-determination, and at the heart of it all lies the question of who controls land and resources - and who has the power to cut off water and electricity to entire populations.

Breaking free from fossil fuels can pave the way toward peace

Renewable energy sources, like wind and solar, have the potential to disrupt this status quo by offering a decentralized alternative to the concentrated power of fossil fuels.

In Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan initially cut off Armenians' gas supply and then their electricity. Throughout the harsh winter, Armenians could only sporadically access hot water thanks to solar water heaters. These renewable sources threaten the power of those who profit from wars and oil, thereby weakening the economic foundations of authoritarian regimes and reducing their incentives for military aggression.

As we approach the UN climate negotiations, let's remember the interconnectedness of our struggles and futures. As an Armenian, I have a stake in a world where everyone can live without violence and conflict.

As a climate activist, I recognize the same stake. In fact, all of us who value justice and human rights have a stake in each other's liberation.

The world remained silent as Azerbaijan blockaded Nagorno-Karabakh, then forced 120,000 Armenians from their homes. Silence in the face of such injustice has dire consequences and we must raise our voices against hate, violence and oppression wherever they occur.

Right now, this means echoing the UN secretary general's calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, advocating for an end to the siege on Gaza to allow for humanitarian aid, and calling on our governments to end their complicity in Israel's war crimes and occupation of Palestinian land.

We have a rapidly shrinking window to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avert the most severe climate impacts. We have an even shorter window to end the siege and save thousands of innocent lives.

Let's unite across movements and call for peace, justice and a resilient and secure future for all, free from the grip of fossil fuel expansion.
An Armenian organizer living in Toronto, Amara Possian is currently Canada's team lead at . She has led some of Canada's most impactful people-powered campaigns, using digital tools to engage and mobilize hundreds of thousands of people to win on climate issues and change governments.

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True peace and justice is possible if the world transitions to clean energy

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The climate crisis knows no borders and is intensifying at an alarming rate. As long as we're dependent on fossil fuels, we will continue to live in a volatile global landscape worsened by climate change.

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The U.S. Center will also host exhibits that highlight innovative solutions to the climate crisis. Check back soon for more information!

Schedule Summary

Friday, December 1: World Climate Action Summit

Saturday, December 2: World Climate Action Summit

Sunday, December 3: Health, Relief, Recovery, and Peace

Monday, December 4: Finance, Trade, Gender Equality, and Accountability

Tuesday, December 5: Energy and Industry, Just Transition, and Indigenous Peoples

Wednesday, December 6: Multilevel Action, Urbanization, Built Environment, and Transport

Thursday, December 7: Rest Day

Friday, December 8: Youth, Children, Education, and Skills

Saturday, December 9: Nature, Land Use, and Oceans

Sunday, December 10: Food, Agriculture, and Water

Monday, December 11: Final Day

Friday, December 1: World Climate Action Summit

Saturday, December 2: World Climate Action Summit

Sunday, December 3: Health, Relief, Recovery, and Peace

Monday, December 4: Finance, Trade, Gender Equality, and Accountability

Tuesday, December 5: Energy and Industry, Just Transition, and Indigenous Peoples

Wednesday, December 6: Multilevel Action, Urbanization, Built Environment, and Transport

Thursday, December 7: Rest Day

Friday, December 8: Youth, Children, Education, and Skills

Saturday, December 9: Nature, Land Use, and Oceans

Sunday, December 10: Food, Agriculture, and Water

Monday, December 11: Final Day

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U.S. Center at COP28 Schedule - United States Department of State

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United Arab Emirates will host the 28th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from November 30 to December 12, 2023. Learn more about the venue as well as the UAE program on their website. All U.S. Center events will be live-streamed on the U.S Center at COP28 website [...]

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Climate pledges lacking: 87% of remaining global carbon budget to limit warming may be depleted by 2030, finds UN

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Emissions will only be 2% lower in 2030 than 2019 levels if fully implementedt12jav.net

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Resources Main Article - Climate Generation

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Biden and Xi will probably skip it, but the summit will have Lula, the pope and King Charles. And yeah, Rishi Sunak.

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What Is COP28? And Other Questions About the Big U.N. Climate Summit

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Diplomats and leaders will gather in Dubai for United Nations climate talks. Here are some key facts.

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With some of the world's top policy makers and climate experts at COP28, there's a tremendous opportunity to advance the critical role nature plays in combating climate change and implementing the Paris Agreement.

As countries work to update and align their climate plans, TNC staff will be at the forefront of negotiations with government and business leaders, pushing for greater ambition to phase out fossil fuels, build more resilience into societies, and invest more in both mitigation and adaption efforts.

To accomplish these goals, we'll be advocating for both swifter transition to renewable energy source and more use of natural climate solutions, and more investment from both the public and private sectors, especially to help those countries that have been most affected the impacts of climate change. We'll also be working to ensure Indigenous and local community voices are heard, as these are the people who know best how to work with nature in their communities.

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COP28: Your Guide to the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference in UAE

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COP28 takes place November 30-December 12, 2023 in United Arab Emirates. This guide will tell you what to expect at COP28, why TNC will be there, and what it all means for you.

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With the annual United Nations (UN) climate conference, COP28, due to start at the end of the month, climate-vulnerable countries have reiterated that wealthy countries should cut down their carbon emissions, provide finance to vulnerable countries, and help with technology transfer so all countries can transition to a greener economy faster.

Meanwhile, recent meetings between the world's superpowers and biggest polluters, the US and China, offer a glimmer of hope that there might be some progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"From our perspective, we first of all call for a truthful global stocktake, truthful to our successes and also failures so all countries can face the truth that we in the vulnerable countries already know," said Tony La Viña, associate director for Climate Policy and International Relations at the Manila Observatory in the Philippines.

ACT25 members expressed alarm at the latest from the World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) November bulletin shows that greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere have reached record levels, and will continue to trap heat and drive climate change for many years.

Greenhouse Gas levels in the atmosphere have reached record levels. Again.
This will continue to trap heat and drive #climatechange for many years, with more extreme weather, sea level rise and many other impacts on our planet.#COP28 #StateofClimate https://t.co/tm0uuH4Gx0 pic.twitter.com/XJz5uLQMoh

- World Meteorological Organization (@WMO) November 15, 2023

Climate and health

Chukwumerije Okereke, director of the Center for Climate Change and Development at Nigeria's Alex-Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike, called for more attention to be paid to the connection between climate and health

"I come from the part of Nigeria that has begun to see more incidence of malaria as a result of the changes in weather patterns," he said. "There are quite a range of different health issues. Flooding is one of the biggest challenges faced in Nigeria. And after each flood, we see an escalation of cholera and other health-related challenges."

For the first time, a day has been set aside at COP28 to do precisely that. The World Health Organization that the direct damage costs to health is estimated to be between US$ 2-4 billion per year by 2030. Reducing emissions of greenhouse gases could result in very large gains for health, particularly through reduced air pollution.

China-US pledge

The two envoys expressed commitment to implementing previous agreements, including "the effective implementation of the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement, reflecting equity and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in light of different national circumstances, to achieve the Paris Agreement's aim in accordance with its Article 2 to hold the global average temperature increase to well below 2 degrees C and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees C, including efforts to keep 1.5 degrees C within reach."

The US is ready to work with China to address "transnational challenges, such as health security and debt and climate finance in developing countries and emerging markets," it added.

But Mark Bynoe, assistant executive director of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre, said: "It seems like, rather than scaling back, we are continuing to experience and to see that we are investing more in oil and gas.

"Countries that would have said we need to take a conscious decision of moving away are now investing in oil and gas. The subsidies that we need to cut back on is now increasing towards oil and gas," added Bynoe. The International Monetary Fund has that the subsidies given to fossil fuels have surged to $7 trillion.

Demand rising for private finance

However, vulnerable countries do not expect any radical change at COP28, with the meetings not delivering much gains, year after year. But they also haven't written off the process, as it is the only global place for global climate negotiations. "Largely, as we have recognized, most of these agreements are gentleman's agreements. They are not binding and as a result, it is difficult to hold the country to something that they would have pledged to," said Bynoe.

The ACT25 members are now also beginning to talk about private finance to address the gaps in climate finance - mainly stemming from wealthy countries not providing the resources necessary to assist low- and middle-income countries to mitigate climate change. "We need from the corporate, the financial, the private sector, greater involvement, greater transparency and a commitment to make sure that the resources are mobilised towards the global south, towards those most in need," Maria Laura Rojas Vallejo, executive director of Transforma in Colombia.

Image Credits: AP.

Combat the infodemic in health information and support health policy reporting from the global South. Our growing network of journalists in Africa, Asia, Geneva and New York connect the dots between regional realities and the big global debates, with evidence-based, open access news and analysis. To make a personal or organisational contribution click here on PayPal.

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Climate-Vulnerable Countries Call For Financial Support, Welcome US-China Deal - Health Policy Watch

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With the annual United Nations (UN) climate conference, COP28, due to start at the end of the month, climate-vulnerable countries have reiterated that wealthy

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In 2009, during a United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen, developed countries made a commitment.

Zoom in: They promised that, by the year 2020 and lasting through 2025, they would provide $100 billion annually to developing nations to help them withstand the effects of climate change and mitigate emissions.

Driving the news: Preliminary new data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) indicates that industrialized nations likely met the $100 billion threshold only sometime last year.

Counting and classifying this money isn't cut and dried, given different types of government and private financial assistance.

For example, Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy of CAN International, criticized industrialized countries for relying too much on loans that must be paid back.

Why it matters: The persistent failure to meet this funding commitment has fed a major trust gap between the Global North and South.

Many nations view it as a threshold issue that must be solved for progress to be made on other thorny agenda items that will surface at the upcoming COP28 climate summit in Dubai. This includes a new climate finance package.

Between the lines: Meeting the goal could be a significant boost for efforts to tackle other challenges at COP28, such as a fund to compensate developing nations for the damage that climate change has already caused, which is known as " loss and damage."

Still, global needs have also grown since 2009. At the time $100 billion seemed huge; now, not so much, given that greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise and climate change's effects have walloped much of the globe.

$100 billion pales in comparison to the actual needs just for climate adaptation, which a recent U.N. report pegged at between $215 to $387 billion annually through 2030.

Reports released this week showed how significantly climate change is already affecting every corner of the U.S. and how far off track emissions cuts are compared with what is needed to meet the Paris Agreement targets.

What's next: While the $100 billion figure is important, it is a minuscule sum compared with what is needed to adapt to climate impacts and prevent worse warming.

Discussions at COP28 will focus on how to catalyze trillions from public and private coffers to fund the energy transition, assist hard-hit nations, and lower emissions.

For perspective, the U.S., alone now typically sees at least $150 billion a year in direct damages due to extreme weather events alone, some of which are being worsened by climate change. This number is rising with population growth, climate change and other factors.

"We really need to be shifting trillions," said Gaia Larsen, who specializes in climate finance at the nonprofit World Resources Institute.

"It doesn't solve all of our problems."

"We hope that by having this kind of as a foundation it can perhaps build some confidence on our commitment to work together with developing countries moving forward," said Jennifer Morgan, Germany's special envoy for international climate action.

Canada and Germany released a climate finance statement, echoing the OECD conclusion but going more in depth about future needs, on Thursday as well.

What they're saying: "I think having this information by the OECD and showing that we have met that goal is an important milestone, but that's what it is. It's a milestone," Steven Guibeault, Canada's minister of environment and climate change, said at a press conference with his counterpart from Germany on Thursday.

Along those lines, incoming COP28 president-designate Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber released a skeptical statement.

"I continue calling on donor countries to deliver on the $100 billion in annual climate finance to developing countries," he said. "The announcement by Germany and Canada today is encouraging, but there is still room for further ambition."

The intrigue: There are likely to be doubts among developing nations about the OECD's estimates, Larsen said.

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New data underscores wide climate finance funding gap

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When it comes to climate finance, a promise made isn't exactly a promise kept.

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With negotiations at the COP28 climate conference set to open in Dubai in less than two weeks, the annual flurry of agenda-setting, diplomatic meetings, deeply alarming reports, and glimmers of hope is in full swing.

And right on cue, we're hearing the same question that comes up around every UN climate conference, in one of two flavours:

Is this the year when nearly three decades of plodding, process-bound climate negotiations will finally deliver results that make it all worthwhile?

And if not, how does this conference justify its carbon footprint?

We were at dinner with friends last night, and it took Greg about five seconds to put the COP in perspective. "Isn't all that air travel a curious way to do something about climate change?" he asked.

It's a question that wouldn't have been out of place in the messaging guide for an anti-carbon tax rally...except that isn't where it came from. Greg is a smart, resourceful engineer who spent his career taking on big, complex assignments and making them work (and not just because he'll be reading these words). He's deeply concerned about climate change. He knows better than most that a big, ambitious project only works when every available resource is devoted to making it work.

And there's no project bigger or more ambitious than driving down global climate pollution by 45% this decade, then bringing it to net-zero by 2050.

Greg's air travel question is one that everyone involved with the UN negotiating process should be asking-and the answer is easy enough to calculate.

The UN climate secretariat knows how many people are travelling for the conference, including their points of origin.

We can reliably assume that each delegate's carbon footprint will be two or three times higher than their home lifestyle while they're staying in a hotel, higher in a luxury suite.

(The hot air[pdf] generated in the meeting rooms is a different story, but we can get away without calculating that.)

So do the math, and the rest is a judgement call: Does this conference pull its weight if countries reach and implement decisions that save twice as much climate pollution as the gathering produced? Three times as much? Ten times as much? A hundred or a thousand times?

And at this point, less than two weeks before everything begins, how are they doing with that?
(Column continues below.)
The statement contained no specific targets for energy efficiency improvements and no reference at all to a fossil fuel phaseout.

It's important that the U.S. and China are talking climate again, after a year of frostier relations. But Climate Home News notes that China won't be joining the 150 or so countries that signed on to a global methane pledge at the Glasgow COP, committing to a 30% reduction that already fell short of what climate science demands.

And the vagueness of the response from the world's two super-emitters may not bode well for results at COP28, since "climate politics has an unwritten rule," Climate Home writes: "Whatever the United States and China agree on sets the ceiling of ambition."

Programming note: You've no doubt been reading that tech giants Google and Facebook/Meta are blocking Canadian media from their news platforms. That makes email subscriptions to The Energy Mix and the Energy Mix Weekender your best antidote to make sure you always get the climate news you need. Subscribe today and never miss another edition!

When it convenes during COP28, the Stocktake will be "a moment to take a long, hard look at the state of our planet and chart a better course for the future," the UNFCCC adds. "It enables countries and other stakeholders to see where they're collectively making progress toward meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement-and where they're not."

After thousands of documents and hundreds of hours of talks, "the main technical conclusions emerging from the stocktake are not new. Nations are not cutting emissions fast enough, they are not sufficiently prepared for climate hazards, and developed countries are not providing enough support to developing countries," Carbon Brief writes. "But the stocktake is more than just a review of progress. It is a key part of the Paris Agreement's ' ratchet mechanism ', which encourages countries to scale up their climate ambitions over time so as to avoid dangerous warming."

With all these issues and many more rolled into the Global Stocktake, we'll all know soon enough what conclusions the COP28 delegates reach, and how long it will take to translate even the best of words and intentions into action and results.

With a resounding silence that kicks the prospect of a fossil fuel phaseout down the road, Biden and Xi are not alone. For months, the fossil fuel CEO who will be chairing COP28, Sultan al Jaber of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), has been trying to argue for reductions in oil and gas emissions that require no corresponding drop in oil and gas extraction.

That particular fantasy hinges on carbon capture and storage technology that won't by ready for prime time by 2035, by the industry's own admission, when climate science dictates a 45% reduction in global emissions by 2030.

But you can expect to hear a lot about a fossil fuel phaseout during the COP, even if 195 countries look unlikely to agree on the need or the timeline. The 27-member European Union and some other countries will be keeping it on the agenda, with initiatives like the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty showing up in Dubai to make the case. We'll see how much more ground the fossil lobby can cover with hundreds of delegates flooding the zone during negotiations, and one of their own leading the whole process.

But this is one area where change is already happening-not yet fast enough, but still happening-whether or not negotiators can reach consensus on a watered down conference declaration. The International Energy Agency projects that demand for all fossil fuels will peak before 2030, then fall after that, and a separate analysis shows China's world-leading emissions beginning their decline next year. So we may soon reach a point where a future COP might as well declare a phaseout target, since everyone knows it's already happening.

Earlier this month, government negotiators finally reached tentative agreement on a loss and damage fund to compensate poor countries for the unavoidable impacts of climate change. And last week, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) announced preliminary figures indicating that rich countries had finally met their 2009 pledge to deliver US$100 billion per year in climate finance to the developing world.

The amount was one that they set themselves, not based on any measure of adequacy or consultation with developing nations.

And there are still concerns about the proportion of the funds that will arrive as outright grants, rather than loans that will eventually have to be repaid by the poorest nations to the richest.

"For many, the lesson from the whole $100 billion fiasco is that developed countries won't voluntarily take large sums of their taxpayers' money and send it abroad," writes Climate Home reporter Joe Lo. "The reaction of many climate justice campaigners is to keep denouncing them and keep the pressure on. Another strategy- arguably pragmatic, arguably defeatist-is to look for other sources."

All of which brings us back to Greg's question last night, the same one that climate hawks and critics alike have been asking for years if not decades: Is it worth it?

But David Victor, a professor of public policy at the University of California at San Diego, told the Washington Post that 27 years of COP conferences have produced action and results that wouldn't have happened without multilateral negotiations.

"I think it's really important to distinguish between compliance with pledges and efforts" to meet them, he said. "You've got a lot of pledges that are ambitious and therefore require governments to do things they don't know how to do. So they're falling short, but they are making efforts."

Mitchell Beer traces his background in renewable energy and energy efficiency back to 1977, in climate change to 1997. Now he and the rest of the Energy Mix team scan 1,200 news headlines a week to pull together The Energy Mix, The Energy Mix Weekender, and our two weekly e-digests, Cities & Communities and Heat & Power.
Failed U.S. Nuclear Project Raises Cost Concerns for Canadian SMR Development EV Battery Prices to Fall 40% by 2025, Goldman Sachs Predicts 46M Health Professionals Urge Fossil Phaseout as Lancet Countdown Warns of Dire Impacts Trudeau Applauds Canada's First City-Wide Smart Grid China's Emissions Will Begin to Decline in 2024 NYC's Non-Profit Cleantech Lab Boasts 88% Success Rate NS Writers Scorch Alberta Govt 'Snake Oil' While Analysts Cite Gas as 'Dying Commodity' Ontario Asks for More Time, Flexibility on Clean Electricity Regs Ontario Health Workers Push Pension Fund to Divest Fossil Fuels by 2025

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Time to Deliver: What Makes a UN Climate Conference Worth Holding?

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Diplomatic language. Long-overdue commitments. High hopes. Missing pieces. COP28 climate negotiations must be right around the corner.

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Climate change, conflict - and increasingly poverty - are converging with alarming intensity, starkly evident in the lives of millions living in a handful of countries; the IRC is calling for concerted action for conflict-affected, climate-vulnerable states overburdened by climate impacts and underserved by international finance.

With the COP28 climate summit approaching, the IRC calls for concerted climate action for countries that are both conflict-affected and uniquely vulnerable to climate change - including Afghanistan, Syria and South Sudan - which represent a new and growing global "epicenter" of crisis.

While climate change is a shared global challenge, it does not impact all countries equally. Climate change is a "threat multiplier" amplifying humanitarian need and inequality, especially in fragile settings. In the crisis-affected places where the IRC works, the climate crisis is already the current reality. More frequent and intense extreme weather events are destroying livelihoods, intensifying conflict, uprooting people from their homes, and exacerbating already dire climate injustices.

Far from being on the periphery of the fight against climate change, these communities in conflict-affected, climate vulnerable countries* increasingly represent the epicenter of the climate crisis. This handful of 16 countries represents:

10% of the global population, and
Less than 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but
44% of the global population in extreme poverty,
60% of global humanitarian need,
Over 70% of internal displacement, and
Nearly half of all people affected by natural disasters globally in the past three years.

These alarming statistics underscore the stark reality faced by millions living in regions marred by conflict: overburdened by the disproportionate impact of climate change while receiving only one-third of the climate adaptation funding per capita compared to their stable counterparts - only further growing the financing gap and, as a result, humanitarian need.

Ahead of COP28, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has released a paper, Climate Action for the Epicenter of Crisis: How COP28 Can Address the Injustices Facing Conflict-Affected Communities, which calls on international leaders to correct route, prioritizing these communities and committing to four key actions for climate justice.

Improve risk mapping of conflict-affected communities to target action where it is most needed, with better collaboration between the humanitarian and climate sectors;
Invest in innovative adaptation, resilience, and anticipatory action designed for conflict settings instead of focusing on mitigation alone. For example, in Nigeria, the IRC's anticipatory action project shows that providing cash payments in advance of droughts helps to reduce food insecurity, allow farmers to diversify crops, and prevent short-term fixes such as people selling off livestock to meet immediate needs;
Adopt a "people-first" approach to delivery through meaningful non-governmental partnerships, so that climate finance is made accessible to local actors and civil society groups, including women's groups, which are often overlooked; and
Make climate finance more equitable and accessible to adequately resource action by fulfilling the $100 billion per year climate pledge and increase ambition for the new goal set from 2025 that will start from a floor of $100 billion. Donors should commit to a minimum 5% of humanitarian budgets to anticipatory action, delivered flexibly and in advance of crises, with a strategy for further expansion by 2030.

Shabnam Baloch, IRC Pakistan country director:
"The 2022 floods in Pakistan that affected around 33 million people submerged a third of the country and destroyed almost 10 million acres of land, causing loss and damage estimated to be over $30 billion. Pakistan contributes less than 1% of the global carbon footprint. The continued fallout is a reminder that the worst impacts of climate change are concentrated in a small handful of countries least prepared for its effects. "Failure at COP28 is not an option. By delivering tangible commitments to communities at the front lines of the climate crisis, we can help stave off the worst consequences of climate change for the most vulnerable."
Shashwat Saraf, East Africa regional emergency director:
"East Africa is on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe: the worst drought in 40 years makes severe malnutrition, livestock loss, food and water shortages, and displacement a daily reality for 40 million people in the region. "The anticipated Relief, Recovery and Peace Declaration should recognize the unique challenges facing climate-vulnerable, conflict-affected communities and the ways they are being left behind by the existing approach to climate action. Clear financing targets and accountability will be required to turn the words of the declaration into tangible progress for communities in need. "The question before us is whether we will seize this moment and demonstrate our commitment to prioritizing the most affected communities, or continue down the path of inaction, allowing climate injustice to not only persist but grow."
* Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Mali, Mozambique, Myanmar, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Climate-vulnerable counties are defined as being in the bottom 25% of the ND-GAIN Index, which summarizes a country's vulnerability to climate change and its readiness to improve resilience. Conflict-affected countries are identified according to the World Bank's FY24 List of Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations. Fourteen of these countries are on the UN's list of Least Developed Countries, while Nigeria and Syria are both home to some of the largest pockets of extreme poverty, despite not being classified as LDCs.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of International Rescue Committee (IRC) .

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International Rescue Committee (IRC): How COP28 can address injustices facing countries at the epicenter of crisis - Africa.com

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Climate change, conflict - and increasingly poverty - are converging with alarming intensity, starkly evident in the lives of millions living in a handful of

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Climate vulnerable nations could get insured for $10 mln a year each -research

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Wealthy nations could provide 100 of the world’s most vulnerable countries a combined $25 billion in annual protection against climate disasters for as little as $10 million per nation, research published on Tuesday showed.

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Oil, carbon and loss: navigating Cop28 with Climate Home News

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Climate Home News is hosting 'Oil, carbon and loss: navigating Cop28', a series of three online events to guide you through Cop28. Join us to hear from the experts and ask your questions.

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If you'd like to use this infographic, or any of its elements, please send John an email.

A library of ECIU's infographics can be found here. To learn more about the 2023 UN climate summit in Dubai, please read our briefings and sign up to ECIU's 'Road to Dubai' newsletter.

Acknowledgements
John would like to thank his colleagues Gareth Redmond-King, Steve Smith and Katy Sleta for their feedback on early drafts.
Sources
- Climate Action Tracker

- Climate Champions, The Pivot Report

- COP28 UAE Thematic Program

- IPCC, AR6, WGIII, Mitigation of Climate Change

- IPCC, Special Report on 1.5°C

- UNFCCC, The Paris Agreement

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Informed debate on energy and climate change.

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After lengthy and heated negotiations, diplomats have largely agreed on a draft framework for a new UN fund to help nations recover from the "loss and damage" caused by climate change.

Last year's COP27 summit in Egypt marked a victory for developing nations when they secured agreement on this fund - an idea many had been advancing for decades.

A transitional committee composed of members from developed and developing countries was tasked with discussing everything from who would pay into this fund to where it would be located, ahead of a final decision due to be taken at COP28 in Dubai next month.

Meetings overran this year as members clashed over long-standing grievances. Developing countries did not want to see the fund based at the US-dominated World Bank and wanted to ensure it was accessible for as much of the global south as possible.

Developed countries wanted to see funds coming from sources besides their public coffers, including those of the wealthiest developing nations, such as China and Saudi Arabia.

In the end, the final committee meeting held last weekend in Abu Dhabi settled on a draft proposal that would see the new fund housed at the World Bank for at least four years.

Neither developed countries nor anyone else would be obliged to pay into the fund.

This proposal will now form the basis of a final decision by leaders at COP28.

While the committee's recommendations were adopted by consensus, a last-minute objection from the US provides an early indication that those talks at the UN's upcoming climate summit may not progress smoothly.

What is 'loss and damage' and what was agreed at COP27?

" Loss and damage " is a term used to describe how climate change is already causing serious and, in many cases, irreversible impacts around the world - particularly in vulnerable communities.

For example, more intense and frequent extreme weather events are causing the loss of human life and damages to properties and cropland.

The issue is recognised in Article 8 of the Paris Agreement, which says parties "recognise the importance of averting, minimising and addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change". However, the Paris text did not commit countries - developed or otherwise - to providing funds for loss and damage.

At UN climate talks, the term is often used by nations and organisations to argue for developed, high-emitting nations to be held responsible for losses incurred in poorer regions, which are the least responsible for climate change. (Because of this, the term "loss and damage" is sometimes described as meaning " climate reparations ".)

At the COP27 climate summit, all countries agreed to set up a fund to pay for loss and damage. This came after a 30-year fight for such a fund led by small island states and developing countries.

After much back and forth between developed countries and the G77 and China - a major group of developing countries representing six out of every seven people in the world - a text was produced close to the end of the summit that "decided" to establish a new loss-and-damage fund.

This same text said that a "transitional committee" should be established, dedicated to coming up with a plan for how the fund would work in practice.

It added that a decision "related to the new funding arrangements" should be adopted "no later than at COP28".

It was also decided that the committee should be composed of 24 members, including 14 members from developing countries and 10 from developed nations.

What progress has been made in setting up a loss-and-damage fund since COP27?

The transitional committee held four scheduled meetings and two workshops in Egypt, Germany, Thailand and the Dominican Republic during March-October 2023.

After the failure of the fourth meeting to reach consensus, it also held an emergency fifth meeting in Abu Dhabi from 3-4 November 2023.

The committee's task was to come up with a series of recommendations for the loss-and-damage fund that could then be approved by leaders at COP28.

This included establishing which financial sources would feed into the fund, what kind of activities it could support and how it would work alongside existing funds. The recommendations also covered where the fund would be located and how it would be structured and governed.

Over the course of these meetings, nations and civil society groups submitted proposals for the fund. These ideas were assessed by the committee and, ultimately, fed into a series of documents that were subject to further scrutiny and debate.

As talks entered extra time in Abu Dhabi, the committee co-chairs presented members with what one of them, Outi Honkatukia of Finland,called a "take it or leave it package". This attempted to distil all the competing views into a viable set of recommendations that could form the basis of a COP28 decision.

After passing up opportunities to object earlier on, US committee member Christina Chan raised a last-minute concern about language "urg[ing]" developed countries to support the fund.

Throughout the talks, the US had consistently pushed back against any language that compelled developed countries to pay into the fund. (While "urge" is towards the stronger end of the lexicon of UN legal drafting, it does not, in fact, imply compulsion.)

Chan asked for this text to be bracketed, indicating it had not been resolved.

The co-chairs reasoned that all members had objections to the final text for various reasons, but the committee had already reached consensus and it was too late to reopen negotiations. "Once we start bracketing, that doesn't stop," Honkatukia told the meeting.

Given this, Chan said the US did not view the final decision as reaching consensus. Teresa Anderson, global lead on climate justice at ActionAid International, tells Carbon Brief that the US's "forceful objections to the transitional committee's recommendations suggest that this text might not sail smoothly through COP28".

Why are countries divided over the new fund?

Tensions ran high throughout the five transitional committee meetings as long-standing arguments between representatives from developed and developing nations were revisited.

Developing country committee members reportedly threatened to walk out, accusing a small group of nations - particularly the US - of pushing them into a " Faustian bargain ", involving many compromises, in order to make progress on the loss-and-damage fund.

Below are some of the key areas that sparked divisions within the committee.

Who would receive money from the fund?

At COP27, nations agreed to create the fund to assist "developing nations, especially those that are particularly vulnerable" to climate change. However, the interpretation of "particularly vulnerable" remained a point of contention.

EU committee members, for example, suggested that the fund should only serve least developed countries (LDCs), small-island states and "other particularly vulnerable countries based on specific eligibility criteria".

Members of the G77 and China resisted what they perceived as efforts to narrow the focus of the fund. In a statement released towards the end of the fourth meeting, Cuban G77 chair Pedro Pedroso Cuesta said:

"We must ensure that the administrative arrangements of the fund do not impede direct access to all developing countries particularly vulnerable to climate change."

Sherry Rehman, former climate minister of Pakistan and G77 chair at COP27, told a press conference that the fund should be "more inclusive" - citing flood-struck Pakistan and Libya as middle-income nations that might not be able to access it, should more limited criteria be adopted.

The final text agreed by the committee does not specify which countries would be eligible to receive funds. Instead, it says the fund's board would develop a "resource allocation system", based on the available evidence and with a minimum percentage allocated to LDCs and small islands.

Who would contribute to the fund?

Currently, only a small group of " Annex II " countries, which were deemed "developed" when the original UN climate treaty was agreed in 1992, are obliged to provide climate finance.

These parties have consistently failed to meet their existing climate-finance pledges to developing countries.

However, neither the 1992 climate convention nor the Paris Agreement say who should give money to pay for climate change loss and damage.

The US and European nations have stressed the need to share the burden with wealthier emerging economies - specifically singling out China and Gulf states, such as Saudi Arabia. UK climate minister Graham Stuart told a UN ministerial meeting in September:

"It will simply not be possible to deliver what is needed if we stay trapped in outdated categories from decades ago and we must break out of this to get a positive outcome at COP28."

Developed countries also say that scaling up the fund sufficiently would mean opening it up to contributions from non-government sources, including the private sector and humanitarian groups. (See: What options are being considered to raise money for loss and damage?)

Developing countries are not entirely opposed to drawing finance from this " mosaic" of funding sources. However, as one joint submission by committee members from developing countries states, they want to keep the focus primarily on grant-based finance from developed countries.

Referencing climate finance more broadly, the Saudi Arabian government voiced its concerns in a statement delivered at the pre-COP event in Abu Dhabi and seen by Carbon Brief. The statement said Saudi Arabia expected "those who have clear obligations to own up to them and not attempt to pass on the baton to other countries or entities outside the process".

Brazilian diplomat Matheus Bastos, representing the G77 and China, called for language reflecting the "principles and provisions" of the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement.

He said the function of this would be to make it clear, as those treaties do, that developed countries are obliged to provide climate finance. In the view of the G77, this extended to the "full costs incurred" in developing countries, including not only mitigation and adaptation but also loss and damage, Bastos added. The US said it would not accept this text.

Ultimately, the final recommendations would not oblige developed countries to pay into the fund. They also mention a "wide variety of sources of funding".

Developed countries are asked to "take the lead" in providing start-up finance for the fund, rather than loss-and-damage relief.

In addition, the recommended text "urge[s]" developed countries to "continue to provide support", while other countries would be subject to a weaker exhortation "enourag[ing]" them to do the same "on a voluntary basis". (This is the element that the US raised its last-minute objection to as the meeting came to a close.)

Where would the fund be located?

One major issue blocking progress was the location of the loss-and-damage fund.

The US and the EU wanted to see the fund hosted by the US-based World Bank, a proposal that G77 and China members strongly opposed.

They argued that World Bank finance is based not on grants but on loans, which are not desirable for debt-burdened countries in the global south. They also said the bank is not set up to allow fast, direct access of the kind required when dealing with climate disasters.

In addition, they said it would not be accountable to all parties, due to the dominance of the US - its largest shareholder - and other major donors in decision-making.

Diann Black-Layne, a committee member representing the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) said the World Bank would charge a hosting fee of 17%, which she described as "highway robbery...pure gangster behaviour":

"[That] means that the biggest beneficiary of this fund will be the World Bank. The 10,000 employees of the World Bank will get more money from this fund than the 63 million people of the population of AOSIS countries."

(This sum, which others have placed at 24%, refers to administration costs taken from the fund's secretariat and is, therefore, not a portion of the total money flowing into the fund. According to the Loss and Damage Collaboration, it would amount to 1-2% of total funds.)

A coalition of nearly 70 US NGOs wrote an open letter to the US negotiating team stating that "the world does not need yet another channel for international finance that is donor-driven and unaccountable to communities in the global south".

The World Bank issued a statement pushing back against such criticism and emphasising that it could be flexible in how it allowed countries to access loss-and-damage funds.

(This dispute recalls arguments at the 2009 COP15 climate talks in Copenhagen. There, the so-called "Danish text" - which was never adopted - would have "hand[ed] effective control of climate change finance to the World Bank", the Guardian reported at the time.)

Developing countries argued instead for a new, independent entity operating under the financial mechanism of the UN climate convention itself.

This would be similar to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), which is overseen by a 24-person board that includes an equal number of developed and developing country representatives.

After this dispute prevented consensus at the fourth committee meeting, developing countries came to the final meeting stating that they would accept the World Bank as the host on an "interim" basis. Committee members stressed that they were making a "huge concession" in doing so.

Some developed country members also said they wanted to see a clear pathway to move the fund out of the bank within two years.

In the end, the committee agreed to a text that would establish the World Bank as an interim host of the fund for four years. It included conditions such as allowing communities to access small grants and providing access to countries that are not World Bank members.

Laura Schäfer, a senior advisor in climate risk management at Germanwatch, tells Carbon Brief that while these elements are promising, they should also be "basic conditions" for a loss-and-damage fund.

She says there remain concerns that the World Bank will end up being the fund's permanent home, an issue that has faced other funds that were meant to be housed there temporarily:

"There is no exit strategy defined in the text, so this basically means if the World Bank performs well and fulfils all the conditions set, it will be the host even after four years."

One of the key demands of developing countries was that, wherever the loss-and-damage fund ended up being based, it would have the status of a standalone entity under the UNFCCC. However, civil-society groups said the final language on this in the text was unclear.

The GCF, seen by some as a model for the new fund, is clearly designated as an "operating entity" under the UN climate convention's financial mechanism. By contrast, the proposed text for the World Bank-based loss-and-damage fund describes it only as being "entrusted with the operation of the financial mechanism".

This " somewhat murky " language is expected to face legal scrutiny in the weeks ahead of COP28.

Other issues

In an earlier draft text released at the fourth meeting, developing-country committee members disputed a line stating that the fund "does not involve liability or compensation".

This has long been a fundamental issue for the US, in particular, because it does not want to be held legally accountable for its high historical emissions.

US committee member Chan told other members it was "absolutely unacceptable" that this was viewed as "a point of contention":

"This was a key piece of the understanding that led to the agreement for this agenda item at Sharm el-Sheikh."

She said that if this text was removed, "we don't see a pathway to an outcome" on the fund overall. This language remained in the final recommendations.

Civil society groups also raised concerns about the removal of language committing to human-rights protections from the final recommendations.

How much money is needed to deal with loss and damage?

Developing-country transitional committee members made a submission in September calling for "at least" $100bn a year in loss-and-damage funding by 2030.

They cited a UN-commissioned report by the Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance, which says "recent events suggest [costs] could be as high as $150-300bn by 2030 to cope with immediate impacts and for subsequent reconstruction".

The expert report also emphasises the uncertainty of these figures, adding that climate models "likely underestimate" loss-and-damage costs in developing countries.

Indeed, the expert group's figures are towards the lower end of existing estimates. Their report cites other studies as placing the costs of "residual damages" from climate hazards far higher - as much as £290-580bn annually in developing countries by 2030.

With this in mind, developing country representatives emphasised that a £100bn goal "is not meant as a ceiling, but rather as a minimum commitment."

By contrast, US and EU submissions did not back any specific targets.

A draft of the final outcome, released at the fourth meeting in October, included a section titled "scale", with the developing countries' proposal in square brackets, meaning it had not yet been agreed by all parties.

However, US committee member Chan said that she would not accept such a figure in the document. "This is not part of our mandate, it's not part of what is in the Sharm decision," she said.

Ultimately, any reference to the scale of funding was scrubbed from the final recommendations.

What options are being considered to raise money for loss and damage?

One of the transitional committee's goals was to "take into account the landscape of institutions and solutions relevant to responding to loss and damage".

As part of the deal that emerged from COP27, countries commissioned the UNFCCC secretariat to review existing loss-and-damage funding and identify "gaps existing within the landscape".

The secretariat released a synthesis report summarising its findings in May 2023, which has fed into the decisions made by the committee.

It identifies a variety of existing sources that are relevant for tackling loss and damage, including adaptation funds and insurance facilities.

Meanwhile, scientists and civil society groups have proposed alternative sources for loss-and-damage funds, such as taxes or levies on fossil fuels and global shipping.

One paper suggests allocating hundreds of billions of dollars in "climate reparations" charges to fossil-fuel majors such as, for example, Saudi Aramco and ExxonMobil.

Earlier versions of the transitional committee's recommendations reflected a variety of potential sources, again in square brackets. These included private entities, NGOs and "special drawing rights (SDRs), levies, voluntary carbon market or international pricing mechanisms".

However, the question of funding sources is contentious as, broadly speaking, developing countries have tried to keep the emphasis on grant-based finance from developed countries.

Developed countries, meanwhile, say that "innovative" new sources must be explored to raise money on a sufficient scale.

Speaking at the fourth committee meeting for the G77 and China, Brazilian diplomat Bastos told fellow committee members that they had "repeatedly asked for deletion" of language around raising money for the fund from the voluntary carbon market and other pricing mechanisms.

The final recommendation text does not include much detail on types of funding, but mentions a "wide variety of sources", as well as saying it will be open to public, private and "innovative" contributions. It also specifies that it should be open to receiving funds from philanthropic foundations.

It says the fund's board will prepare a strategy to "mobilise new, additional, predictable and adequate financial resources from all sources of funding".

How could countries claim money from the loss-and-damage fund?

As with many aspects of the fund, the question of how countries could actually claim money after experiencing loss and damage is still far from being answered.

Traditionally, countries access UN climate funds by filing lengthy project proposals in a process that typically takes several years.

For the loss-and-damage fund, some countries are instead calling for a "trigger-based mechanism" to allow them to claim funds immediately in the wake of extreme weather events, explains Zoha Shawoo, a scientist working on loss and damage at the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). She tells Carbon Brief:

"Something like that could work if there is an immediate recovery and relief window. But we know that developed countries have been saying that that is largely covered by humanitarian aid, so maybe the fund should focus more on medium- and long-term recovery."

There are also still question marks around what sort of losses and damages countries would be able to claim for.

Loss and damage can be caused by immediate climate impacts, such as more intense and frequent extreme weather events, as well as impacts that gradually worsen over time, such as sea level rise and the retreat of glaciers.

The study of how climate change is affecting the likelihood and severity of extreme weather events is known as "attribution" science.

Attribution is playing an increasingly important role in proving liability in climate court cases. For example, a recent landmark court case won by young climate activists in Montana relied heavily on attribution science.

This has prompted some to question whether attribution could play a role in helping countries to make claims from the loss-and-damage fund.

However, Shawoo notes it may not be preferable for developed or developing countries to use attribution science in deciding who should access loss-and-damage funding:

"First, developed countries may not be comfortable with being held liable for particular losses. But then I think it could potentially also be a burden on developing countries to have to prove that a certain event is due to climate change. So I don't think either side would want that."

There still could be a role for attribution science in helping to provide evidence for the claims of developing countries however, she adds:

"Rapid attribution studies could provide additional evidence that developing countries could use to back up their claims and access funding. Not a formal requirement, but just something to give them additional leverage."

So far, there has been little cross-talk between attribution scientists and those involved in the UN process for operationalising the loss-and-damage fund, Dr Izidine Pinto, a scientist from the World Weather Attribution initiative, tells Carbon Brief:

"Right now we're separate because no one knows how the loss-and-damage fund is going to work."

He adds that attribution may only be able to play a limited role in determining how much money countries should be able to claim from the loss-and-damage fund:

"Attribution studies are just one side of the coin. Attribution is saying that the amount of rainfall or heat was made more likely by climate change. But vulnerability is the other side of the coin, because the same amount of rainfall can destroy a house in region A but not B. So it's very tricky to just focus on attribution without looking at vulnerability and exposure."

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Q&A: The fight over the 'loss-and-damage fund' for climate change - Carbon Brief

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Carbon Brief examines a draft framework for a new UN fund to help nations recover from the "loss and damage" caused by climate change.

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Less than two weeks now until is gavelled into session in the , Dubai. The assessments of progress, gaps, scale of renewables and fossil fuel investment, and of the damage and threats from climate impacts continue apace. In just the last week, the UN themselves have issued their synthesis assessment of global emissions pledges, which is always an important scene-setter ahead of COP.

Here at ECIU, we're getting ready to head out there to keep you updated on progress from the ground with our daily updates. If you know of anyone else who would find that sort of update useful, do share this edition with them, and point out that they can sign up here .

More warnings

The World Resources Institute (WRI), in concert with Climate Action Tracker, Climate Analytics and other heavyweight experts have issued the State of Climate Acftion 2023. You can read more and find a link to download the report below. But suffice to say that it will not make reassuring reading for the 167 world leaders packing their bags for Dubai. Using the phrase 'woefully inadequate' to sum up progress, it concludes that the world is off track on 41 of 42 indicators, with only sales of electric vehicles currently providing a green light on the dashboard.

Also, the annual UNFCCC analysis of the world's nationally-determined contributions - and particularly their emissions-cutting pledges - has landed, just ahead of COP28. Reminding that, to be on track for net zero globally to keep temperature rises to 1.5°C, we need to cut emissions a further 43% this decade (from 2019), they conclude that current NDCs add up to a cut of just 2% by 2030. Insufficient doesn't quite cover it, especially when you consider that those 2030 numbers represent a rise of nearly 9% on 2010 emissions.

But some good news
US/China co-operation and announcements ahead of climate COPs tend to bode quite well and set good winds for the summits themselves. So with John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua in detailed talks that paved the way for a meeting between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping at APEC in San Francisco, 'woefully inadequate' and 'insufficient' are at least being met by serious discussions between the world's two biggest emitters, responsible between them for more than two fifths of annual emissions.

And in further good news on China, analysis by Carbon Brief suggests that China's carbon dioxide emissions may now have peaked, as they seem certain to fall in 2024, largely owing to the phenomenal growth in China's deployment of low-carbon energy - renewables in particular, sufficient to cover growth in demand for electricity beyond 2024. Yet another reminder to those who would deflect from their own nation's delivery against targets, or slowing of progress with 'we're tiny - what about China?' that, in fact, China is turning a corner and is a powerhouse in terms of momentum towards the clean transition.

UK leaders
The Prime Minister is expected to attend the world leaders' summit at the beginning of COP28. Whilst messaging at home has been about slowing some of the key net zero policy areas, the UK as a party to the UNFCCC talks remains committed to fossil fuel phase-out, to landing a successful outcome on the loss and damage finance facility (find out more on what that means, below), and pushing for COP28's agreement to be underpinned by clear references to the science set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which sets out the need for 60% cuts in global emissions by 2035. All of which means the UK remains in the high ambition space, even if they've not been signing up the High Ambition Coalition letters of late.

Also attending will be the UK Foreign Secretary. Until a few days ago, that was James Cleverly; now it is former Prime Minister, David Cameron. As PM, he delivered on the target that overseas development assistance (ODA) should be 0.7% of GDP; a level reduced to 0.5% by Rishi Sunak. In his opening remarks to FCDO staff he is reported as saying that he wanted to make the UK a " development superpower again ". With the UK having recently changed rules to broaden what is counted as climate finance (ICF), and with delivery of its £11.6 billion ICF backloaded to the later of the five years to 2026, all eyes will be on what this ambition means for UK commitments to support poorer, climate vulnerable nations. With half of UK food imports coming from overseas , and half of our food supply chains in climate impact hotspots, it's a food security issue as well as a question of delivering on Paris Agreement commitments.

UK Parliamentarians
Working with the Conservative Environment Network, Labour Climate and Environment Forum, and all-party Parliamentary Group on renewable energy (PRASEG), ECIU is supporting a cross-party delegation of British MPs to attend COP28 in the first few days of week two. Driven by the cross-party shared commitment to climate policy and decarbonisation that Britain has demonstrated since the Climate Change Act, the UK MPs will join negotiators and civil society in Dubai to feed into discussions around the talks, and learn more about the international process that is so critical to efforts to limit even more dangerous future climate change. They will seek to gain greater insights into the complex negotiations, bringing their understanding back to their colleagues in Parliament - including on the role which UK climate leadership has played in achieving the momentum up to, and since, the landmark Paris Agreement back in 2015. Sign up to our daily updates, and you'll doubtless hear from some of the MPs during COP!

Sign up and speak up
If you find this useful, maybe you know others who will too. Please do share with them, and they can sign up to receive it themselves, right here .

If there's some aspect of COP28 or related issues that you'd find it particularly helpful to know more about,drop us a line and we'll see what we can do in terms of what we include here.

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Your latest briefing on the road to COP28 in Dubai

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Less than two weeks now until is gavelled into session in the , Dubai. The assessments of progress, gaps, scale of renewables and fossil fuel investment, and of the damage and threats from climate impacts continue apace. In just the last week, the UN themselves have issued their synthesis assessment of global emissions pledges, which is always an important scene-setter ahead of COP.

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Last year India pushed for the loss and damage fund and will most likely do so again.

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Welcome to Foreign Policy 's South Asia Brief.

The highlights this week: Pakistan-with support from its neighbors-pushes for a "loss and damage" plan at COP27, Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar meets his Russian counterpart in Moscow, and China and India have their eyes on Nepal's parliamentary elections.
If you would like to receive South Asia Brief in your inbox every Thursday, please sign up here. South Asia Calls for Loss and Damage at COP27
Pakistan is weathering a furious political storm at home, along with an economic crisis. But at this year's United Nations climate change conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt-known as COP27-Islamabad is leading the charge in the global fight for climate aid to the developing world.

Pakistan currently chairs the G-77 group, comprised of 134 developing countries at the U.N., and Pakistan's prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, is a vice chair of COP27. Before the conference began, Islamabad succeeded in putting the issue of "loss and damage" onto the summit agenda. As currently envisioned, loss and damage financing would involve developed countries providing support to developing countries on the front lines of the climate crisis.

Developed countries have long resisted such a policy, fearing it will make them vulnerable to continuous demands for compensation, given their outsized production of greenhouse gas emissions. But Pakistan has a golden opportunity to make the case for wealthy countries to embrace loss and damage aid and for international donors to make new commitments for aid focused on adaptation and mitigation.

Pakistan's catastrophic floods this year- triggered by early and intense monsoon rains-offer a vivid example of why loss and damage is so compelling. The disaster, which submerged one-third of the country and affected 33 million people, provides a perfect data point. The flooding and its aftermath have so far cost the cash-strapped country around $40 billion, as well as a projected 2.2 percent decline in GDP.

At COP27, Islamabad has strength in numbers: not only full support from the G-77 but also from its neighbors. Support for loss and damage is a rare point of policy convergence in South Asia. Excluding India, the region contributes relatively little to global greenhouse gas emissions. But it is one of the world's most climate-vulnerable areas and suffers from high levels of poverty -meaning that its residents are some of the most affected by climate change.

Shortly before COP27, Indian Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav released a statement calling for action on climate finance, adaptation, and loss and damage. Bangladesh's environment minister, Md. Shahab Uddin, has promised to push for loss and damage funding, too. In his COP27 speech, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe said that developing countries "need to be compensated for loss and damage." Even Afghanistan's Taliban have echoed the language of loss and damage.

With its global clout, India could play a key role in advocating for loss and damage financing. India made ambitious carbon-emissions-reduction pledges at last year's climate summit. It has backed them up with mitigation strategies, including major investments in renewable energy that have made it one of the world's fastest-growing solar markets. India's efforts can drive home a powerful message: Developing countries may seek loss and damage help, but they are also willing and capable when it comes to fighting climate change.

This isn't to suggest these efforts will result in immediate policy success. It's a major victory for South Asia and its G-77 partners just to get loss and damage on the U.N. climate summit's agenda. But the negotiations over loss and damage will be long and acrimonious, and there's unlikely to be an agreement-or even a breakthrough-by the end of COP27.

Meanwhile, there is always more to be done domestically: Poor governance decisions often exacerbate climate change impacts in South Asia, including Pakistan's recent floods. These include unregulated deforestation, subsidies for wasteful forms of irrigation, and poor urban planning. The region makes a strong case for loss and damage relief, but that doesn't absolve it of the need to make other course corrections. As a recent Nepali Times editorial put it: "[P]oliticians must stop invoking climate change to cover up past failures."

Jaishankar visits Moscow. Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar met with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in Moscow on Tuesday. The visit marked the first time that Jaishankar has visited Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in February. The meeting did not appear to yield any notable new agreements, although both sides described it as an opportunity to discuss bilateral issues. Jaishankar said that the "Ukraine war was a dominant feature" in his talks with Lavrov.

The trip is notable for its timing: It comes as India, a close partner of Russia, shows signs of frustration with the war in Ukraine, though it has not condemned the invasion outright. At a regional summit in September, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Russian President Vladimir Putin that "today's era is not an era of war." This week, a New York Times report highlighted the possibility that India might pitch itself as a mediator to help end the war.

Jaishankar did not travel to Ukraine this week, but Modi told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in October that India is prepared to be involved in peace efforts. Even if it is well positioned to mediate, in reality New Delhi isn't going to volunteer for the task unless asked by both sides. Jaishankar's visit to Moscow likely pushed the stance that India has taken for weeks: Diplomacy, dialogue, and de-escalation are urgently needed.

Pakistan opposition march resumes. After last week's assassination attempt on Pakistani opposition leader Imran Khan, the political temperature remains high. On Thursday, Khan's anti-government "long march" resumed from the spot where he was shot and wounded in Wazirabad, Pakistan. Later this month, the protest is expected to arrive in Rawalpindi, home to Pakistan's military headquarters and where Khan, who was released from hospital this week, promises to return to the march. He has said the protest will eventually reach Islamabad, but he hasn't specified a date.

Khan, who was ousted as prime minister earlier this year, has not toned down his confrontational rhetoric. He has repeatedly accused three officials of involvement in the attack: Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, and a senior intelligence official, Faisal Naseer. (The government has denied the accusations.) On Monday, Khan sent a letter to Pakistani President Arif Alvi appealing to him to take note of "serious wrongdoings" by certain parts of the military leadership and to conduct an investigation.

Khan's letter accuses military and intelligence officials of various abuses of power; such specific allegations against top security leaders from a senior member of the political class are rare in Pakistan. There is little that Alvi, a member of Khan's party, can do; Pakistan's presidency is a ceremonial role. But it's significant that Khan went over the military leadership's head, marking the latest escalation in a growing confrontation between Khan, the government, and the military-which until earlier this year was allied with Khan.

Nepal prepares for elections. Nepal holds parliamentary elections on Nov. 20, pitting Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba against an opposition alliance led by former Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli. Deuba and Oli are two of the most dominant figures in Nepali politics. The election is sure to be watched closely in both Beijing and New Delhi.

One of the campaign's big storylines is geopolitics: Nepal has become a major battleground for India-China competition. China's influence in Kathmandu grew during Oli's most recent term, from 2018 to 2021, as the two countries inked infrastructure deals linked to its Belt and Road Initiative. Deuba is seen as more aligned with India. Last week, the Indian government sent 200 vehicles to Nepal to facilitate election logistics; the Indian Embassy said Kathmandu requested the cars.

In Foreign Policy, Marcus Andreopoulos wrote that the Chinese Communist Party has sought to shape Nepali politics through both official diplomacy and soft power.

Afghanistan's Taliban regime has reported significant achievements in bilateral trade. This week, the deputy prime minister's office announced that Afghanistan exported $1.8 billion in goods over the last seven months, including carpets, fruits and vegetables, coal, and semiprecious stones. Products went to China, India, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Uzbekistan. Islamabad alone imported $744 million worth of goods.

The trade data represents a twofold increase over the same period last year. It shows that despite tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan since the Taliban takeover last year, commercial cooperation with Islamabad and other neighbors remains robust. The Taliban's ability to generate government revenue from cross-border activities, including trade as well as customs tariffs, remains one of its few economic successes.

The Print editor D.K. Singh notes the "growing indiscipline and factionalism" within India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the inability of party leaders to rein it in, leaving the task to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "He is expected to play arbiter and keep the flock together ... but he may have reasons to be disappointed with his senior party colleagues," he writes.

A Himalayan Times editorial warns that sluggish export performance is contributing to Nepal's balance-of-payment crisis, which remains serious despite some recent relief from increased remittances. "If countries like Laos, Cambodia and Mongolia can export goods worth $6-9 billion annually, there is no reason why we should lag behind," it argues.

Author Sibtain Naqvi argues in the Business Recorder that former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has defied expectations that he would become weaker after being ousted from power. "Even his most ardent supporters would not imagine that a few months after losing the prime minister's seat, Imran's popularity would grow," he writes.

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South Asia Unites Around 'Loss and Damage' at COP27

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Led by Pakistan, climate-vulnerable countries seek aid for adaptation.

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As we go into the climate talks at this year's United Nations's Conference of the Parties (COP28) meeting in Dubai later this month, we face global challenges and conflicts that have deservedly captured headlines around the world. But as those eager to see real and robust climate action know well, efforts to address the climate crisis have been plagued by inevitable crises that push climate change to the world's back burner of priorities.

Over the last few decades, we have seen time and again an inevitable slowdown in climate action due to some danger that appears more imminent and pressing than our changing climate. But, in many ways, these crises are more deeply connected with climate change than we may realize, and require simultaneous action.

From economic downturns to wars, we have seen repeated distractions take the pressure off of leaders when it comes to specific and substantive climate action. Just in the last several years we have faced a global pandemic, challenges to American democracy and rule of law, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the tragic crisis between Israelis and Palestinians. The challenges can feel mentally exhausting; it is understandable that people and governments may have difficulty wrapping their minds around and spreading their resources out among the array of challenges we are facing.

Yet amid all these myriad challenges, the climate crisis looms.

The summer of 2023 was the hottest on record. By the middle of September, 2023 ranked as the worst year on record for billion-dollar climate disasters in the United States. The extreme weather events we have seen this year have included wildfire smoke that blanketed vast swaths of our country, including large urban centers like New York City, for days at a time; the first tropical storm to hit southern California in more than 25 years; and the devastating firestorm that swept across Hawaii.

The tragedies of conflict and violence we see unfolding around the world are unbelievable to witness, but we must not let the urgency of dealing with these crises slow down the drive to preserve our climate. The reports issued by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in recent years should be no less shocking than today's headlines, for they present no less of a threat to our future.

The destruction we see in war will be mirrored by the effects of the climate crisis, as droughts, floods, tropical storms, heatwaves, wildfires and other extreme weather events are accelerating and wreaking increasing damage to our way of life. Aside from these obviously destructive events, we face general and wide-reaching disruption to our way of life as the natural resources and ecosystems we take for granted change. For example, glaciers that provide a great deal of our fresh water are disappearing and thus threaten to disrupt existing agriculture, while changing temperatures will dramatically change how we cool our homes and workplaces.

The current trend in greenhouse emissions promises irreversible impact if we do not act soon.

According to Climate Analytics and NewClimate Institute's Climate Action Tracker, our existing policies and actions put us on a path for between 2.2 and 3.4 degrees Celsius total temperature increase above pre-industrial levels by 2100. That is significantly off course, at up to 120 percent higher than the goal set by the Paris Climate Agreement to get the global temperature increase below 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. Even the most optimistic scenario in which we assume full implementation of all announced emissions reduction targets would still put us up to 2.3 degrees above pre-industrial levels, which is more than 50 percent above the Paris Climate Agreement's 1.5 degree target.

Our current global efforts and even proposed commitments to climate action are grossly missing the mark on what we need to avoid a climate crisis if even our most optimistic scenario could be 50 percent off and we are actually up to 120 percent off if we look at the existing facts in front of us. In a very real way, this is humanity's last chance to avoid the worst climate catastrophes.

While the effects of the climate crisis continue to mount, our efforts to tackle the crisis have fallen short largely because we have done little to curb one of the primary culprits: fossil fuels.

Despite being the primary culprit, global climate talks have glaringly omitted addressing fossil fuels head-on. The landmark Paris Climate Agreement did not even mention fossil fuels and last year's climate talks in Sharm el-Sheikh only reference the phasedown of "unabated" coal and "inefficient" fossil fuel subsidies. Fossil fuels remain the elephant in the room that the world has not had the stomach to honestly address.

And fossil fuels are not merely destroying our climate - they are also contributing substantially to some of the other great challenges facing our world today. It would be bad enough if our global dependency on fossil fuels was only damaging the wellbeing of our most vulnerable communities through increasing air pollution, rising sea levels and myriad other direct climate impacts, but the fact is that many authoritarian regimes would not even be in power were it not for our fossil fuel dependency.

History shows that countries with greater fossil fuel production are often more prone to fall under authoritarian or dictatorial governments: the exploitation of fossil fuels often goes hand in hand with a greater concentration of power and a lack of need to be accountable to a country's people, as dictators are funded by fossil fuel revenues rather than the support and tax dollars of citizens. As an example, revenue from Russian oil and gas made up roughly 40 percent of Russia's federal budget between 2011 and 2020. It is therefore hard to argue that fossil fuels are not directly bankrolling Vladirmir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

In an unfortunate cycle, the effects of climate change are likely to spur more frequent and severe instances of some of the other kinds of global crises that often distract us from addressing our changing climate. Extreme weather events and changes to regional climates around the world can result in disruptions to our food supply, which can lead to greater food insecurity and related conflicts. Humanity's increasing encroachment on the world's wild areas and changing climates that drive wildlife into closer contact with humans increase the risk for pandemics. Further, rising sea levels and extreme weather will likely result in tens of millions of migrants in the next few decades, adding pressure to the already contentious issue of immigration.

Grasping the urgency and interrelated nature of the climate crisis and all the other global challenges we face can only point toward urgent action. What we really need is a hopeful vision of the future that would include a shift to renewable energy, energy-efficient buildings, greener forms of transportation, and an empowered workforce to join in the transition to a cleaner and more just future.

And this has to begin with a recognition that we are committed to phasing out fossil fuels.

A just transition off of fossil fuels is the one path that has the power to resolve multiple crises at once and set the world on a safer path so that we are not held hostage by fossil fuels, the vicissitudes of energy markets, and the unequal societies that fossil fuels tend to support. With a concerted effort, we can address the climate crisis and offer rational solutions.

Unfortunately, there will always be another emergency that demands the world's attention. We do not have the luxury of dealing with just one crisis at a time. We cannot wait for climate action because climate change will not wait for us. At COP28, it is time for world leaders to bring real solutions and end our reliance on fossil fuels. We just need the courage and hopefulness to chart that path.

John Oppermann is executive director of Earth Day Initiative.

Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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We cannot wait for climate action - climate change will not wait for us

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As those eager to see real and robust climate action know well, efforts to address the climate crisis have been plagued by inevitable crises that push climate change to the world's back burner of p...

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COP28 America Is All In Action Center in Dubai

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Our Action Center will again facilitate a collaborative platform for All In coalition members and partners to share successes, educate and learn from peers, ...

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Teach Climate Network: Using the Power of Education to Create Climate Action in your Community

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If Not Now, When? Ambitious Energy Package Is a Must at COP 28

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As COP 28 approaches, all eyes are on the energy sector. Amidst a striking 91% of global carbon dioxide emissions originating from fossil fuels in 2022, the world is watching for an ambitious energy transition package at this year’s UN Climate Conference in Dubai.

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Joining the U.S. in t he pledge, Bloomberg said, will likely be the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Finland, and South Korea . A later piece on HuffPost added Ghana, Japan, Morocco, Poland, Romania, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan to the list of pledge proponents.

Both stories reported that the pledge will pressure the World Bank to include nuclear energy in its lending policies.

" On behalf of America's nuclear professionals, we welcome the anticipated commitment by the United States and other countries to tripling global nuclear energy production by 2050 , " the American Nuclear Society said in a November 16 statement . " This transformative undertaking not only underscores the urgency of our times but signals a resolute leap forward in meeting the world's climate and energy needs.

" Tripling the world's nuclear energy supplies by 2050 is the catalyst required to halt rising temperatures and achieve a sustainable future. A large-scale build-out of new nuclear energy can only happen with the crafting of nuclear-inclusive lending policies by financial institutions like the World Bank. We look forward to the announcement."

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U.S. to lead call at COP28 to triple nuclear energy by 2050

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Joining the U.S. in t he pledge, Bloomberg said, will likely be the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Finland, and South Korea . A later piece on HuffPost added Ghana, Japan, Morocco, Poland, Romania, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan to the list of pledge proponents.

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Sultan Al Jaber on COP28, Climate, and More

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To hear the big oil CEO tell it, climate progress depends on market buy-in as much as international negotiations.

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The Youtube channel of GloCha - the next big thing in citizens and youth climate action empowerment - with culture/music, technology and organizational innovation. More info: www.glocha.org

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Want to stay up to date on the state of the world's forests? Subscribe to our mailing list.

How much forest was lost in 2022?
This section of the Forest Pulse is updated annually using annual tree cover loss data to provide a comprehensive overview on where forests have been lost around the world. Annual updates are released each year and cover the previous year's trends.
Tropical Primary Forest Loss Worsened in 2022, Despite International Commitments to End Deforestation
By Mikaela Weisse, Elizabeth Goldman and Sarah Carter
The tropics lost 10% more primary rainforest in 2022 than in 2021, according to new data from the University of Maryland and available on WRI's Global Forest Watch platform.

Tropical primary forest loss in 2022 totaled 4.1 million hectares, the equivalent of losing 11 football (soccer) fields of forest per minute. All this forest loss produced 2.7 gigatonnes (Gt) of carbon dioxide emissions, equivalent to India's annual fossil fuel emissions.

Tropical primary forest loss, 2002-2022

This increased forest loss comes in the first year after heads of 145 countries vowed in the Glasgow Leaders' Declaration on Forests and Land Use to halt and reverse forest loss by the end of the decade, recognizing the important role of forests in combating climate change and biodiversity loss. Instead of consistent declines in primary forest loss to meet that goal, the trend is moving in the wrong direction.

Indeed, humanity is not on track to meet major forest-related commitments. Read more in our Targets Tracker.

At the national level, while primary forest loss ticked up in the two countries with the most tropical forest, Brazil and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it rapidly increased in other nations like Ghana and Bolivia. Meanwhile, Indonesia and Malaysia have managed to keep rates of primary forest loss near record-low levels.

Top countries for primary forest loss

Here's a deeper look at some of the trends in forest loss in 2022:

Brazilian Amazon sees highest rate of non-fire-related loss since 2005

In Brazil, the rate of primary forest loss increased by 15% from 2021 to 2022, with the vast majority of primary forest loss happening in the Amazon. Non-fire-related losses, which in the Brazilian Amazon are most often due to clear-cut deforestation, reached the highest level since 2005. Read more about how this data compares with Brazil's official data on deforestation.

This high rate of primary forest loss occurred during the last year of Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro's administration. Forest loss in Brazil decreased dramatically in the early 2000s under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula), but recent increases have coincided with the Bolsonaro administration's eroding of environmental protections, gutting of enforcement agencies, attempted granting of amnesty for illegal deforestation and attempted weakening of Indigenous rights.

The re-election of President Lula, sworn in on January 1, 2023, may reverse that trend. He and his administration have promised to end deforestation in the Amazon and other biomes in Brazil by 2030, combining command and control actions with a more long-term perspective around sustainable economic development. This will not be an easy task, with some officials cautioning that there may not be visible progress until 2024 at the earliest as enforcement agencies are re-equipped and re-staffed and illegal activities investigated.

Brazil primary forest loss, 2002-2022

Brazil remains the country with the most tropical primary forest loss by far - in 2022 it accounted for 43% of the global total. Its 1.8 million hectares of primary forest loss resulted in 1.2 Gt of carbon dioxide emissions, or 2.5 times Brazil's annual fossil fuel emissions. In addition to carbon impacts, forest loss in the Amazon impacts regional rainfall and may eventually lead to a " tipping point " beyond which the majority of the ecosystem will become a savanna.

Within Brazil, primary forest loss accelerated in the Western Amazon. The states of Amazonas and Acre saw some of their highest levels of primary forest loss on record in 2022. Amazonas state, home to over half of Brazil's intact forests, has nearly doubled its rate of primary forest loss in just three years. Primary forest losses in this part of the Brazilian Amazon are mainly large-scale clearings - likely for cattle pastures - along existing highways.

Primary forest loss in Amazonas, Brazil, 2002-2022

A number of threatened Indigenous territories in the Brazilian Amazon also lost primary forest in 2022. The Apyterewa, Karipuna and Sepoti territories all experienced record levels of primary forest loss related to land invasions. Primary forest loss due to mining is also visible in the Yanomami Indigenous territory, which was subject of a government operation to drive out illegal miners earlier in 2023. Despite these losses, Indigenous territories in Brazil have a much lower deforestation rate than similar lands managed by other actors, and represent the Amazon's last carbon sinks.

Deforestation expands in the Sepoti Indigenous Territory

Rate of primary forest loss in the Democratic Republic of the Congo remains persistently high

High rates of primary forest loss continued in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The country lost over half a million hectares in 2022 and the rate of loss has continued to increase slightly in recent years. Most of the primary forest loss consists of small clearings near cyclical agricultural areas (land that is cleared and burned for the short-term cultivation of crops and left fallow for forests and soil nutrients to regenerate). DRC's growing population is increasing demand for food, leading to shorter fallow periods and the expansion of agriculture into primary forest.

In other Congo Basin countries, the data showing primary forest loss tends to fluctuate from year to year, likely due to difficulties in satellite data detection from cloud cover. However, Gabon and Republic of Congo - High Forest Low Deforestation (HFLD) countries - continue to experience low overall rates of primary forest loss.

Primary forest loss in the DRC and the Congo Basin, 2015-2022
Primary forest loss prior to 2015 in the Congo Basin is underreported in the University of Maryland data and thus excluded from these graphs. The integration of Landsat 8 satellite data and updates to the loss detection algorithm starting in 2015 better capture the small-scale loss, which is common in Congo Basin countries.
Reducing primary forest loss in the region remains a challenge. The drivers of loss across Congo Basin countries are predominantly small-scale agriculture and charcoal production, the dominant form of energy in the region, which is generated by cutting and burning timber. In DRC, poverty is widespread and access to electricity is limited - about 62% of the population lives on approximately $2 a day and 81% does not have access to electricity - with local populations relying on forests for food and energy demands.

Investments to lift people out of poverty and reduce reliance on a resource-based economy are urgently needed. A recent $500 million agreement signed at COP26 to protect DRC's forests shows promise, but has yet to have an impact on deforestation rates. Despite committing to uphold the conservation objectives of protected areas, the DRC government recently auctioned off permits for oil and gas exploration in pristine forest and carbon rich peatlands and indicated that it would soon lift its moratorium on new logging concessions.

Primary forest loss in Ghana at a record high

Ghana experienced the largest percent increase in primary forest loss in recent years. In 2022, the country lost 18,000 ha, and while the area of primary forest loss is relatively small, Ghana has little primary forest remaining and experienced the highest proportion of loss of any tropical country in 2022.

The majority of loss occurred within protected areas, which cover the last patches of primary forest in the country. Some of the loss is adjacent to cocoa farms and has a pattern of small-scale clearings likely associated with cocoa production. Other patches of loss appear to be linked to fire and gold mining.

The increase in primary forest loss points to a need to double-down on commitments and efforts underway to tackle loss in the country, including the Cocoa & Forests Initiative which was formed by the governments of Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire and the world's leading cocoa and chocolate companies to end deforestation and restore forest areas. The European Union (EU), which imports 56% of cocoa beans worldwide, recently passed a regulation that will prohibit the sale of cocoa, timber and other commodities linked to deforestation. The EU and other donors should work with Ghana to empower smallholder farmers to supply deforestation-free products in a manner that safeguards their livelihoods while avoiding deforestation linked to these commodities and lowering primary forest loss in the country.

Primary forest loss is accelerating rapidly in Bolivia

Bolivia saw a record-high level of primary forest loss in 2022, with a 32% increase from 2021 levels. For the third year running, Bolivia was third behind only Brazil and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in area of primary forest loss, surpassing Indonesia despite having less than half the amount of primary forest.

Despite the massive loss of primary forests in recent years, Bolivia has received significantly less attention for deforestation than other rainforest countries. It is also one of the few countries that did not sign on to the Glasgow Leader's Declaration in 2021.

Commodity agriculture is the main driver of forest loss in Bolivia, particularly in the department of Santa Cruz which has remained a hotspot for loss of primary forests. Soybean expansion has resulted in nearly a million hectares of deforestation in Bolivia since the turn of the century, of which nearly a quarter can be attributed to Mennonite colonies. Though Bolivia has much less soybean production than neighboring countries, most of its expansion has come at the expense of forests. Sugarcane, corn, sorghum and cattle ranching also contribute to deforestation in the country.

Bolivia's government supports an increase in agribusiness, with goals to reduce imports, implement biofuel production and increase cattle production. These goals have been accompanied by a decriminalization of illegal deforestation and an increase in deforestation authorizations.

Fires have also had a significant impact on Bolivia's forests in recent years: in 2022, they were responsible for around a third of total primary forest loss in the country. Forest fires in tropical nations like Bolivia are usually set by humans for agricultural purposes, such as regenerating grasslands for grazing and clearing for cropland, or to claim land. In 2022, several fires also appear to have started in areas of selective logging. Fires in Bolivia spread due to drought conditions, which may be linked to the effects of deforestation on rainfall in the Amazon. Several protected areas were also affected by the blazes in 2022, including Noel Kempff Mercado National Park, a biodiversity hotspot and one of Bolivia's largest parks. The fires have stretched the efforts of firefighters, who have also been hampered by lack of resources and the inaccessibility of some of the fires.

Bolivia primary forest loss, 2002-2022

Primary forest loss in Indonesia remains at historically low levels

Indonesia has reduced its primary forest loss more than any other country in recent years.

As the chart below shows, there is a continued downward trend in Indonesia's moving average rate.

Indonesia primary forest loss, 2002-2022

Government policies and corrective actions have contributed to this reduction, in line with reaching Indonesia's target of Net Sink (meaning negative CO2 emissions) from the forestry and other land use sectors by 2030. Increased fire prevention and monitoring efforts, termination of granting new licenses on primary forest and peatland (moratorium), law enforcement, and a renewed commitment not only to protect and restore peatlands but also to rehabilitate mangroves have led to fewer fires and less primary forest loss.

Relatively wet conditions and cloud-seeding efforts from the government and private sector may have helped with the fire suppression in Indonesia. On-the-ground community efforts to suppress fire have also contributed.

Mandatory and voluntary corporate commitments also appear to be working.

Primary forest loss in Malaysia also remains low

In Malaysia, primary forest loss remained low in 2022 and has leveled off in recent years. Corporate and government action also appear to be contributing. No Deforestation, No Peat and No Exploitation (NDPE) commitments now cover the majority of the palm oil sector and in 2018, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) strengthened its certification requirements. In addition, the Malaysia Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) Board was formed in 2015 to certify sustainably grown palm oil. In 2017, the government of Malaysia mandated MSPO certification starting in 2020. Positive government action has continued in more recent years, with a plantation area cap established in 2019 through 2023, and new forestry laws enacted in 2022 to stiffen penalties for illegal logging.

Malaysia primary forest loss, 2002-2022

What happened to forests outside of the tropics?

Total global tree cover loss, which includes loss of primary, secondary and planted forests, declined by 10% in 2022. The decrease is a direct result of a decrease in fire-related losses - non-fire losses increased slightly in 2022, by less than 1%.

Unlike in much of the tropics, fires in boreal and temperate forests are a natural and important part of the ecology. However, the rate of fire-related loss worldwide has generally increased since 2000, likely driven by climate change and human activities, and 2021 saw a major increase in fire-related loss in the boreal region. 2022 was a relatively quieter year for fires globally with a 28% decrease in fire-related loss from 2021, though some areas still experienced significant fire-related loss.

Russia was the biggest contributor to the decline in tree cover loss, with a 34% decrease between 2021 and 2022. Russia had its highest rate of tree cover loss ever in 2021 due to a record-breaking fire season while the 2022 season was below average. Forestry is the other main driver of tree cover loss in Russia, with several instances of expansion into intact forests in 2022. Boreal forests, and Russia in particular, have an outsized impact on the global statistics. Even with the decrease in tree cover loss from 2021 to 2022, Russia still contributed to almost 19% of the global total.

Russia tree cover loss, 2002-2022

Despite the lower area of fire-related loss worldwide in 2022, fires still drove loss in western Europe, which saw major forest fires and resulted in record-breaking tree cover loss in Spain.

Commitments alone won't stop forest loss

While recent years have seen new international ambition and the recognition of the urgent need to end deforestation, the lack of progress in slowing forest loss in the tropics underscores the need to move beyond political commitments to action. While some countries have shown promising results to reduce forest loss, such as Indonesia and Malaysia, others have seen continued activities and policies that are causing acceleration of deforestation in critical areas.

Protecting forests remains one of the most effective ways to mitigate global climate change and protect the people and biodiversity that depend on them - but time is running out.
We would like to acknowledge Svetlana Turubanova and Peter Potapov from the University of Maryland, who updated the tree cover loss data, and Sasha Tyukavina from the University of Maryland, who updated the tree cover loss due to fire data.

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Forest Pulse: The Latest on the World's Forests | World Resources Institute Research

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Forest Pulse reveals the latest trends and analyses on global tree cover loss and deforestation. It also highlights which stories to watch in the year ahead.

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Nature based Solutions are key to climate solutions to COP 28.

Brazil and UAE are some of the countries supporting and promoting these NbS solutions.

Nicole MJ

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Healthy marine systems and climate stability are closely interlinked.

Blue Nature based Solutions are also vital in both national and global climate strategies. These urgently need to be at the center of decision making from the highest to the lowest levels

WWF reports:

https://www.emiratesnaturewwf.ae/en/blog/880-nature-based-solutions-key-to-climate-solutions-at-cop28

Nicole MJ

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Nicole MJ

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Nicole MJ

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Healthy ecosystems underpin whole economies and societies: They provide food and fuel, deliver economic gains, support livelihoods, mitigate climate change and protect communities against natural disasters. Despite the powerful case for investing in these ecosystems to build resilience to climate risks, the world has barely begun to realize this potential. The key barriers include lack of awareness of nature's critical role in adaptation and lack of accessible funds to invest in nature-based solutions (NbS). Less than 2% of all public international climate finance goes toward NbS for adaptation, missing a critical opportunity to harness the power of nature to make communities more resilient to climate impacts.

WRI is working to support governments and multilateral institutions in understanding the value of nature for climate adaptation, strengthening the adaptation impact from existing nature-based initiatives, identifying appropriate metrics and catalyzing investment in nature-based solutions for adaptation.

This work builds on WRI's work supporting the Nature-based Solutions Action Track of the Global Commission on Adaptation and other efforts. WRI continues this work in three key areas:

Assessing and Strengthening Existing Nature-based Solutions Platforms

With support from the Moore Foundation, WRI is assessing how existing platforms and initiatives that support nature-based solutions have addressed adaptation and contributed to adaptation outcomes. We are also identifying new opportunities for these platforms to support scaling up NbS for adaptation. We are engaging with governments, funding institutions and organizations implementing NbS to increase support for adaptation, including through new commitments, investments and partnerships.

Catalyzing Investment in Nature-based Solutions

WRI recently produced an assessment of the landscape of public international funding for nature-based solutions for adaptation. This assessment showed that only a small percentage of international public climate finance is flowing to NbS for adaptation (0.6-1.4% in 2018), and that funding is driven by just a handful of major donors.

Building on this assessment and other recent work, WRI plans to collaborate with donor governments and funding institutions on two key areas: identifying pathways for donors to increase investment in NbS for adaptation; and developing NbS metrics and standards to ensure those investments are effective and sustainable.

Advancing City-Led Action on Nature-based Solutions

WRI, through its Cities4Forests initiative, is working with a network of of over 65 cities to scale up commitments and advance implementation of adaptation-focused nature-based solutions. We produced tools to help cities implement NbS, including the Cities4Forests Toolbox , a social equity guide and an urban forest plans and policies guide. We have also convened a group of "vanguard cities" to share lessons through the Global Comission on Adaptation platform.

WRI is supporting cities through three key activities: advancing innovative financing and governance strategies for NbS; providing technical assistance to close knowledge gaps around NbS design and planning; and amplifying cities' political voices to raise ambition on NbS for adaptation globally.

Image Credit: UNEP Kadir van Lohuizen /Flickr

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WRI is working to support governments and multilateral institutions in understanding the value of nature for climate adaptation, strengthening the adaptation impact from existing nature-based initiatives, identifying appropriate metrics and catalyzing investment in nature-based solutions for adaptation.

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Nicole MJ

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Nicole MJ

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Implementing Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) can be an impactful strategy to confront biodiversity and climate crises, while promoting sustainable rural development and generating financial, social and investment returns. Despite this, NbS face multiple difficulties in implementation, with lack of financing as a critical obstacle. Unlocking investment to close the gap will require investors, governments and infrastructure operators to include natural capital solutions and to implement specific financing strategies. This is part two of a written that explores, through interviews, the perspectives and roles of different key stakeholders in breaking down barriers to scale NbS projects in Mexico. This series is part of the Climate Solutions Partnership (CSP), a five-year collaboration which combines HSBC's financial expertise with the knowledge and experience of WRI, WWF and a network of local partners to scale climate solutions.
Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are a strategic alternative to address the climate crisis and biodiversity loss while also tackling a variety of social challenges, such as water and food security. Despite their great potential and the economic, environmental and social benefits they generate, investing in NbS projects is more than limited: the global financing gap towards protection of nature is more than $700 billion. Public financing alone will not be enough. To close this gap, it is imperative to attract private investors or to build the capacity of NbS projects to leverage private capital. Currently, most NbS projects are financed by public and philanthropic funds, while only 14% of capital is provided by the private sector. Within the private sector, banking institutions are key to promoting investment, since their practices and standards contribute to positioning NbS as attractive and economically viable alternatives within the sector.

As part of the efforts to unlock the great potential of NbS in the region, WRI Mexico interviewed members of three banking institutions to learn more about their visions for NbS. In part 1 of this series, the interviews explored the barriers that, from the bank's perspective, prevent investment in NbS. Some of the barriers mentioned include novelty of the concept, lack of clarity and length of time on the return on investment, complex methodologies, and lack of tax and government incentives.

This installment of the series explores the role banks can play to break down the barriers to scale NbS, based on interviews.
"The financial sector moves the economy, [...] we are a relevant key player with authorities and with diverse stakeholders of sustainable development. Even though we are not a highly polluting sector through our direct emissions, through financing we are able to indirectly support projects with great positive impact, by participating in the decarbonization of our portfolios and acting as advisors that push for sustainable transitions." "Apart from financing projects, that is, besides being the ones who provide the capital for projects [...] our job also includes training clients on the existence of NbS and its benefits, avoiding a focus solely on the carbon footprint side." -Fernando Puente, Deputy Director of Sustainability, Banorte -Irma Acosta, Director of Responsible Business and Sustainability, BBVA
Role of banks to scale NbS
"Banks must offer a portfolio of green products suited to the needs of each line of business, since the needs of a person and those of a corporation are not the same." -Aidée Olmos, Director of Corporate Sustainability, HSBC "A product for wholesale banks that is generic we see perceive as complex; in most cases it has to be a tailor-made product for the project in question." -Fernando Puente, Deputy Director of Sustainability, Banorte "In addition to financial information, there must be public non-financial information that states commitments from people and companies on issues related to environmental, social and corporate governance." -Aidée Olmos, Director of Corporate Sustainability, HSBC
1) Increase visibility and dissemination of NbS within the private sector

During interviews, the banks' representatives were clear about the role their sector should play to foster the scaling of NbS. They specifically identified themselves as players that can increase the visibility and dissemination of NbS within the financial and private sector.
"A good practice is to be involved with pilot projects. However, it is important to guarantee that there is the guidance, time, methodologies and information necessary to successfully develop projects within institutions. Pilot projects must also consider comprehensive approaches that support results; that is, they take the companies' operations into account, as well as the scientific guidelines, government position and global trends, among other factors." -Britzia Silva, Deputy Director of Sustainability and Responsible Investment, Banorte
Among the efforts made within the banking sector to highlight the link between ecosystem services and business activities is the Climate Solutions Partnerships (CSP), which seeks to accelerate the transition to net-zero by creating more opportunities to make climate solutions more commercially viable, as well as to protect and restore biodiversity.

Another relevant project is the Natural Capital Protocol, a standardized decision-making framework through which different organizations, including banks, identify, measure and assess their dependence and impact on natural capital. Understanding the complex relationships with ecosystem services allows the organizations to make more informed decisions. This also creates an important precedent that provides specific and contextualized information on the link between both sectors. Demonstrating this link can allow for NbS to be integrated into companies' value chains or into their climate adaptation and risk reduction strategies. Banorte stands out for having implemented NCP with hotel industry clients in Mexico. The results of their case study show how impacts of climate change and loss of natural capital represent financial risks for hotels and banks and highlight NbS as strategic approaches to address such risks.

2. Common offer among products

Similarly, the interviewees highlighted the importance of having a common offer of products for NbS that maintain real commitments and the same rigor regarding objectives and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to ensure transparency and healthy competition, which prevents the laxest credits from receiving more clients and deters greenwashing.
"It is a reality that companies prioritize their profitability, therefore, it is not easy for them to quickly accept new initiatives whose main objective does not clearly show the cost-benefit. The role of sustainability is to train, to showcase the benefits, the importance, to catalyze action. However, it is necessary to link efforts and rely on experienced actors. This way, initiatives will gain more strength and be more successful." "The work carried out by non-governmental organizations is very important, since they accompany the communities executing the projects and increase their visibility." -Irma Acosta, Director of Responsible Business and Sustainability, BBVA -Britzia Silva, Deputy Director of Sustainability and Responsible Investment, Banorte
However, due to diversity of NbS and the potential clients who may invest in these types of projects, there are challenges in developing a one-size-fits all product, since the characteristics of each project are associated with a risk profile and specific times. It is important to note that with creating this offer within the bank, a comprehensive market infrastructure should be provided, integrating products that are applicable to the various stages of NbS projects, such as benchmark assessments, monitoring and evaluation or capacity building.

The creation of this type of product is still in the early stages. However, an innovative project offered by banks that enables investment in NbS is the Mangrove Bond, created by HSBC Australia and Earth Security. This project is developing a blueprint for market bonds to protect and restore mangroves. Although the project is focused on the Australian market and is being co-developed with local stakeholders, it is expected to work as an outline that can be replicated in other coastal cities that border mangroves.

Alternatives to Unblock NbS
"We need to translate positive impact indicators into monetary terms. However, I think that for sectors that greatly depend on nature, it is easier to highlight the importance of those solutions [...] where we could pilot [...] more projects, and highlight monetary benefits and of course, benefits regarding sustainability, biodiversity and climate change." -Britzia Silva, Deputy Director of Sustainability and Responsible Investment, Banorte
1) Create pilot projects

From the banking perspective, pilot projects are low-risk opportunities to engage in NbS financing. In addition, this type of initiative provides a clear picture on what NbS are, the expectations around results, timing, methodologies and partnerships involved.
"What we expect from this type of initiative is to have available, clear and replicable methodologies that facilitate the training and integration of business areas to projects, and not only count on sustainability teams." -Britzia Silva, Deputy Director of Sustainability and Responsible Investment, Banorte
To strengthen pilot projects, the interviewees deem strategic partnerships, such as with academia, government and non-governmental organizations, as essential. In addition, results from projects will provide timely data on the performance of NbS and will fill the information gaps perceived as barriers.

The Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance (GICF) is an international program focused on identifying innovative climate financing tools in developing countries that create pilot projects and implement them on a large scale. They recognize that well-designed financial instruments can reduce risks perceived by private investors on sustainable financing and can also create new markets and attract new investors. Among the initiatives developed by GICF, GROVE: Forestry Smart Ledger favors the development of small-scale community forestry projects in mangroves. They connect communities associated with the mangroves with stakeholders interested in achieving carbon neutrality through a platform. They also use remote sensing to measure the carbon captured (which reduces the costs associated with third party validation) and integrate an accounting mechanism that ensures full transparency and efficient monitoring of financial flows.

2) Join forces
"It is important that company donations consider long-term projects that involve communities where there are skills provided that allow projects to continue and give them scalability." -Aidée Olmos, Director of Corporate Sustainability, HSBC
Scaling NbS is a shared goal, and efforts to promote their use are already happening in various sectors. From the banking perspective, it is important to carry out coordinated initiatives among stakeholders in order to encourage more members of the private sector to join.

Creating strategic partnerships is an opportunity to join existing efforts while taking advantage of the roles specific to each sector to overcome the barriers associated with NbS projects. In Mexico, Alianza Mexicana de Biodiversidad y Negocios (AMEBIN) (Mexican Alliance for Biodiversity and Business) is a coalition made up of members of the private sector, banking institutions and NGOs that looks to establish a dialogue to address issues related to conservation, sustainable use and restoration of biodiversity from a business perspective. Even though its primary focus is conservation, it sets a good precedent for cross-sector efforts that can be replicated for NbS.

3) Blended Finance

Blended finance strategies are key to unlocking the investment required for NbS. Blended finance consists of the strategic use of capital from public and philanthropic sources to reduce investment risk and to increase the bankability of projects, attracting larger amounts of private capital towards projects that contribute to sustainable development, while providing financial returns to investors. These strategies work best in scenarios where the finance sector would be willing to invest if the risks were lower. Blended finance projects involve collaboration between private, philanthropic and public capital.

For example, the project Risk Mitigation Instrument for Land Restoration, managed by the Inter-American Development Bank, combines a $15 million USD Global Environment Facility investment with $120 million USD in co-financing to implement innovative risk mitigation instruments to restore degraded lands in Latin America, such as intercropping, shade cropping and silvopastoral systems.

4) Determine Strategic Sectors

Ecosystem services are not yet acknowledged in balance sheets, taking them for granted in business projections. Some economic sectors depend heavily on ecosystem services for the development of their activities. For example, coastal protection provided by mangroves and coastal habitats is critical for the hotel industry, while water flows that depend on the upstream catchment, facilitated by forested areas, are essential for bottling plants and soft drinks producers. For these sectors, the benefits of NbS projects are much more tangible, which is why they are strategic options

This tight link has been leveraged in several novel projects that use the NbS perspective. Coastal protection against storms, reduced beach erosion, sand creation and aesthetic appeal are some of the ecosystem services provided by the Mesoamerican Reef that contribute to the maintenance of Quintana Roo's tourism industry. The insurance company Swiss Re and The Nature Conservancy identified this relationship devised insurance for coral protection, guaranteeing a rapid disbursement of funds for trained members from local communities to address reef damage following tropical storms. The government of Quintana Roo acquired this insurance, which protects 160 km of beaches. It is expected to set a precedent so that members of the hotel sector can acquire similar insurances.

5) Clear Methodologies and Goals

Amid the novelty that NbS can be, having specific scopes and processes helps give clarity to the projects and evaluate their economic viability. It is particularly important to have an established methodology that provides certainty to investors on how the scope of the project will be measured. The use of standardized methodologies or third parties that can certify the results contributes to reinforcing the sense of confidence in measuring the scope.

There are numerous ecosystem services and economic valuation efforts. For example, Coca-Cola Company has developed and tested a standardized methodology to account for the ecosystem service benefits from water replenishment. They determined that such projects provide ecosystem services that "reimburse" the original investment and generate a positive return on investment for society.

It must also be recognized that not all benefits can or should be monetized. Non-economic and financial indicators are also important for sound and useful decisions making. For example, current methods to monetize biodiversity benefits are still limited; non-monetary indicators are an obvious and needed alternative.

6) Ensure the Maintenance and Scalability of Achievements

For members of the private sector, it is very important that the objectives of the projects are met and that the scopes derived from investment are maintained over time. In this sense, the building of capacities among members of financed initiatives is a way of guaranteeing the success of the investment. By encouraging community members to acquire technical skills, the communities receiving the financing are better equipped to implement the projects effectively, guaranteeing the success of the projects and the viability of the investment. Currently, however, most funding for community-based capacity building comes from philanthropic and public funds.

Likewise, a strategy for maintaining the achievements across various NbS projects is the development of sustainable economic activities associated with the projects, which can provide a flow of capital independent of the investments made by the private sector. In this way, conditions are created that favor the scalability of projects and their maintenance over time, making them independent and self-sustaining. In the long run, the investments generated achieve greater impacts within the communities and ecosystems. An example is the RE3CO Project, financed by HSBC and implemented by WRI Mexico in association with the Small Grants Program (UNDP-SGF). The project seeks to support community restoration and conservation of mangroves in key sites by promoting actions for sustainable management of ecosystems and fostering the economic development of local communities and carbon storage.

7) Creating Incentives and Avoiding Greenwashing

Major environmental challenges, such as biodiversity loss and climate change, require global guidelines and treaties (examples include the Paris Agreement, Principles for Responsible Investment and the Sustainable Development Goals). Banks can begin the process of integrating NbS projects into their portfolios by following international guidelines. In turn, it is also vital that other stakeholders, in particular national and subnational governments, set clear lines and give signals to the market on priority issues. For example, since 2013, every company with more than 500 employees is required to issue an annual "environmental and social report" in France. This type of initiative can encourage improvements in reported indicators since companies seek to not be left behind in comparison to their competitors and consumers. At the same time, it increases transparency in the sector and makes visible the impacts of operations.

The interviewees also mentioned the strategic role of the government in creating incentives that drive the scaling of and investment in NbS, be it through blended finance, tax incentives and social responsibility requirements, among others. They discussed the possibility of investments in conservation, and the idea that social responsibility issues could have a mandatory quota for the private sector, accompanied by the implementation of accounting measures that allow verification of said contributions. Other proposed measures were to verify that the investing companies have strong commitments on sustainability issues to prevent NbS from falling into greenwashing practices.

CONCLUSION

The results of this series of interviews provide an overview of how NbS are perceived within the financial sector in Mexico and help identify specific actions that different players can take to scale them up. These interviews and the products generated also contribute to positioning the issue of NbS on the private sector's radar.

The interviewees point out that banks play an important role in increasing the visibility and applicability of NbS, and as a union, they can come together to offer products with rigorous standards that simultaneously respond to the diversity of customer needs and variety of NbS. They also mention that the creation of pilot projects can bring an approach to NbS while maintaining a low financial risk for members of the private sector. On the other hand, the development of projects in sectors whose economic activities have a strong link with ecosystem services was proposed as another strategy for scaling up NbS. The creation of partnerships between strategic actors, the development of tax incentives, blended finance, the inclusion of activities that ensure the maintenance of the project's scope when the investments are withdrawn, and the implementation of standardized methodologies were other proposals mentioned to unblock financing barriers.

WRI Mexico continues to work toward unleashing the potential of NbS in the region. In addition to catalyzing discussion on this topic, WRI Mexico helps carry out NbS projects involving strategic actors within academia and the private sector, as well as local governments and communities. For example, the project Adaptation Based on Coastal Ecosystems focused on increasing adaptation to climate change in coastal communities through the restoration of mangrove ecosystems. Similarly, RE3CO supports capacity-building in mangrove-restoring communities, as well as the development of associated economic activities that ensure the maintenance of the achievements from the investments.

Although these endeavors are pioneering and pave the way for scaling NbS in the region, efforts still need to be joined up to make their enormous potential tangible. It is essential to highlight that the goals of the Paris Agreement will not be achieved through actions in a single sector. Efforts from NbS cannot replace forceful action by other sectors, such as power generation and transportation.

This article was originally in Spanish on the WRI Mexico website.

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Pathways to Unblocking Private Financing for Nature-based Solutions

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Implementing Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) can be an impactful strategy to confront biodiversity and climate crises, while promoting sustainable rural development and generating financial, social and investment returns.

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Nicole MJ

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This article explores the perspectives and roles of community representatives with experience in the implementation of Nature-based Solutions in Mexico. Implementing Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) can be an impactful strategy to confront biodiversity and climate crises, while promoting sustainable rural development and generating financial, social and investment returns. Despite this, NbS face multiple difficulties in implementation, with lack of financing as a critical obstacle. Unlocking investment to close the gap will require investors, governments and infrastructure operators to include natural capital solutions and to implement specific financing strategies. This is part three of a written series (part 1, part 2) that explores, through interviews, the perspectives and roles of different key stakeholders in breaking down barriers to scale NbS projects in Mexico. This series is part of the Climate Solutions Partnership (CSP), a five-year collaboration which combines HSBC's financial expertise with the knowledge and experience of WRI, WWF and a network of local partners to scale climate solutions.
The communities of Isla Arena, San Crisanto, Sisal, Marismas and La Ventanilla, in the states of Campeche, Yucatán, Nayarit and Oaxaca, respectively, face numerous social challenges. These include but are not limited to a lack of opportunities, inequality, insecurity and little access to critical public services; like roads, electricity, banks and schools. On top of that, they face issues related to pollution, gentrification, intensive tourism, the change in land use and illegal logging. These impact local livelihoods, as well as the ability to cope with the impacts of climate change - especially for the populations in vulnerable situations: migrants, women, children, the elderly, native groups or people with disabilities or who are in situations of extreme poverty.

Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are interventions that take advantage of nature to address several of these challenges simultaneously. That's why it's critical to identify and break down barriers to funding NbS while promoting their implementation.

According to recent estimates, NbS such as reforestation, agroforestry, soil restoration and pasture management can contribute more than 20% of Mexico's GHG emission reduction targets by 2050. These solutions represent an opportunity to increase investment in ecosystems and the services they provide. In addition, they offer vital sources of income for the communities, job opportunities for women and can be economically viable alternatives that avoid the degradation of ecosystems.

Despite benefiting both nature and society, investment in these projects is limited. Most of these projects are funded by public and philanthropic funds. Only 14% of NbS capital is coming from the private sector.

Banking institutions are key to promoting NbS investment since their practices and standards contribute to positioning it as an attractive and economically viable alternative. Banking also plays a fundamental role in closing the current funding gap between how much countries must invest in NbS to reach various goals and how what they currently contribute. To achieve this, it is important to increase the visibility and applicability of NbS, as is the creation of alliances and pilot projects with less funding risk for the private sector.

In 2020, WRI Mexico carried out a compilation of experiences and lessons learned from projects related to the restoration, management and conservation of mangroves in a context of adaptation to climate change, as part of the proyecto Adaptación Basada en Ecosistemas Costeros. This mapping made the distribution of efforts, the stakeholders involved and some of the key factors for Nature-based Solutions (NbS) more visible to generate a positive and lasting impact.

In issuing this third installment, it is important to emphasize the work of communities and their importance in the conservation and sustainable management of natural resources, we present this third installment. We interviewed five representatives of the communities to get to know their experiences, the benefits they identified and the knowledge they gained accelerating and implementing NbS - specifically the restoration and management of mangrove ecosystems. Lessons learned after hearing their perspective are crucial to implementing sustained efforts on the ground-level, as community members are often tasked with carrying out the work on a daily basis.

Lessons from the communities for the implementation of Nature-based Solutions

From these conversations, we identify lessons learned so that NbS projects are more likely to be successful; the improvement or restoration of the tangible and intangible benefits that mangrove ecosystems offer to communities, the strengthening of governance based on local knowledge, and the identification of barriers and challenges to create strategies that address and thus resolve them.

1. Tangible and intangible benefits

Ecosystem services are the tangible and intangible benefits that humans obtain from ecosystems, and they are classified into four categories; support, provision, regulation and cultural services. Mangroves offer support services. A habitat and a refuge for species, they provide fishing and timber resources that are essential to people's livelihoods. More broadly, mangroves are crucial to regulating carbon sequestration, water quality, nutrient flows, the local climate and to protect the coasts from hurricanes. Mangroves provide places ripe for environmental education, research and recreational activities.

In our interviews, the community leaders shared the tangible and intangible benefits they identified after the implementation of NbS in their communities, specifically with the mangrove restoration and management work in which they participate.

Israel Molas works at the Carey cooperative in Isla Arena, Campeche. He recognized the tangible benefits of the improvement of fish refuges and the recovery of biodiversity - which increases fishing and the economic income of the community, on which 80% of the inhabitants depend.

"We realized that restoration activity contributes a lot to fishing and [this] is of great satisfaction for us," added Molas. Isla Arena is a refuge for a variety of fishable species. More fish led to more bird refuges, which inspired a group of women to coordinate the monitoring of birds, generating jobs and boosting ecotourism.

Teresa Andueza, community restorer in Sisal, Yucatán, said the mangroves "provide carbon sequestration, which helps to mitigate climate change," and the restoration "helps them to recover biodiversity, because birds, fish... crabs begin to arrive."

"Without the mangrove, it is like saying that a little bit of what we are is over. That's what we live on and that's where we support our families," says Alondra Pérez, a reforester in the Marismas Nacionales Biosphere Reserve, Nayarit. For her and fellow female reforesters, mangroves are strongly linked to their well-being, livelihood and identity. The damage from Hurricane Roselyn in October 2022, for example, nearly decimated Unión de Corrientes, Alondra's Nayarit town.

Pérez points to the power of remaining mangroves that mitigated the impact of the hurricane. "If it were not for the mangroves, the community would be finished."

José Inés Loria, advisor to the San Crisanto ejido [common land] in Yucatán said, "It became clear to us that the mangrove was key to our community process, and today, we understand that, if that mangrove disappears, the community disappears."

Beyond the generation of economic income and decent jobs, these interviews highlight the strength of the relationship between the mangroves and the community.

2. Local knowledge and governance

Community leaders have also identified key factors and strategies for successful restoration and conservation projects. The capacity of communities to organize themselves and generate new organizational structures is important to the success of these conservation projects. Leading projects instills useful, new skills, transferrable to other aspects of their lives.

According to interviewees, a new community organizational structure around mangrove conservation and restoration requires defined roles, the legitimate ownership of the land, community involvement, and planning and self-management so that efforts do not weaken once the support and assistance of third parties ends.

For her part, Pérez said that communication between the participants is essential to leave space for dialogue and the establishment of agreements in which all parties feel comfortable. Andueza emphasized the importance of participation and conflict resolution strategies as methods to strengthen group communication.

According to Faustino Escamilla, representative of the Lagarto Real cooperative in La Ventanilla, Oaxaca, identity, a knowledge of the communities, and continuous monitoring are also key. She said, "We were building inventories from the resources that we have [...] if we don't know what we have, we won't know how to assign a value to that resource, be it for use or exchange," he said.

In addition, the exchange of experiences between communities generates synergies.

"I think that the experience that the communities have is important [...] At the Mangrove Congress, we had exchanges with several colleagues and there are techniques that they have used and that have worked for them," Molas said.

3. Barriers, funding, and continuous learning

There are barriers that prevent communities from optimally carrying out restoration, conservation and sustainable management activities in mangroves. These include a lack of support from municipal and federal authorities, bureaucracy, staff turnover and the interruption of procedures, as well as slow political will to carry out the changes of land use in favor of the sustainable and community management of mangroves.

Obtaining the funding to continue these projects remains difficult. Pérez lamented, "the desire is there, the strength is there, the union is there, but what is missing is financial support.

Local and federal authorities do not always have the will or the budget to provide effective support, so the communities have chosen to generate their own resources - even if this does not allow them to reach their objectives in the short term - by making themselves known to pertinent authorities that provide financial support and other resources and applying to receive international funds from NGOs.

Escamilla said that complying with the proposed goals opened the doors to getting the support of the environmental authorities, since the National Forestry Commission was not originally willing to provide them with support due to its being a small community with little restoration experience. After their successful restoration project, they are now often invited to national forums to present their story.

The visibility of community initiatives also plays an important role in obtaining funding. The synergies that are generated with some local stakeholders and organizations can encourage them to be considered in future calls. Israel Molas said that local groups have the confidence to let Molas and the Carey cooperative know when a fund is available, both from the local environmental authority and from a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) with which the cooperative has been working for three years. However, he added that federal agencies have reduced the budget for this work in recent years.

Andueza sees this decade as a great opportunity for the private sector to get involved with NbS. Mangrove projects are properly aligned with the objectives of the United Nations's 2030 Agenda and with what it classified as " The decade of the restoration of ecosystems for food security and climate action. "

Closing the funding gap for the implementation of NbS is possible and presents a great opportunity to address various problems while at the same time, benefiting communities and ecosystems. WRI Mexico works with various communities, governments, private sector actors and academic organizations to promote NbS in the region. This is epitomized by a program like the RE3CO initiative which looks to strengthen capacities and promote the development of economic activities associated with the mangroves, that ensure the maintenance of the achievements achieved with the investments that were made.

The conservation and restoration of mangroves offers plenty of incentives and clear, positive results for the community. And yet, significant barriers to widespread adoption and implementation of NbS remain. Strengthening abilities, increasing funding, and enhancing technical support for community-led organizations and leaders are fundamental to future success. These interviews underscore a need for greater collaboration and support between communities, the private sector, academia and both municipal and federal governments.

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Community Lessons for Successful Nature-Based Solutions Implementation

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Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are interventions that take advantage of nature to address several of these challenges simultaneously. That's why it's critical to identify and break down barriers to funding NbS while promoting their implementation.

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Spain will act as the presidency of the council and serve as the negotiator for the EU at the COP28.

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Added by Tess Ingebrigtsen

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Synopsis

By 2050, nearly 10 billion people will live on the planet. Can we produce enough food sustainably? World Resources Report: Creating a Sustainable Food Future shows that it is possible - but there is no silver bullet. This report offers a five-course menu of solutions to ensure we can feed everyone without increasing emissions, fueling deforestation or exacerbating poverty. Intensive research and modeling examining the nexus of the food system, economic development, and the environment show why each of the 22 items on the menu is important and quantifies how far each solution can get us.

WRI produced the report in partnership with the World Bank, UN Environment, UN Development Programme, and the French agricultural research agencies CIRAD and INRA.

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SynopsisBy 2050, nearly 10 billion people will live on the planet. Can we produce enough food sustainably? World Resources Report: Creating a Sustainable Food Future shows that it is possible - but there is no silver bullet. This report offers a five-course menu of solutions to ensure we can feed everyone without increasing emissions, fueling deforestation or exacerbating poverty.

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Added by Tess Ingebrigtsen

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COP28 Local Climate Action Summit (LCAS) Launch

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WRI will take part in the COP28 Local Climate Action Summit, the first Summit hosted by the COP Presidency in recognition of the critical role local leaders play in reducing emissions, addressing climate risk and supercharging national efforts to move further and faster on climate progress.

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My question that I will be tracking during COP28 is "How can cities and their residents tackle climate mitigation and adaptation?"

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Watch Live

Streaming from Dubai on December 1 at 4:00 pm GST, 12:00 pm GMT, 7:00 am ET

Plenary Agenda
1 December 2023

António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General

H.E. Dr Sultan al Jaber, COP28 President & UAE Special Envoy for Climate Change

Michael R. Bloomberg, UN Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions, Founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies & Bloomberg L.P., Mayor of New York City, 2002-2013

H.E. Abdulla Mohammed Al Basti, Secretary General of The Executive Council of Dubai

Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Mayor Abigail Binay, Makati, Philippines

Mayor Anne Hidalgo, Paris, France

Governor Yuriko Koike, Tokyo, Japan

Mayor Claudia López, Bogotá, Colombia

Mayor Eduardo Paes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation, France's Climate Change Ambassador and Special Representative for COP21, and COP22 UN High-Level Champion for Climate Action

Breakout Agenda
2 December 2023
8:30 - 11:00: Mayors Innovation Studio (Invite Only)

An exclusive, mayors-only event that provides mayors the unparalleled opportunity to discuss innovative strategies and insights with each other and with world-class subject-matter experts. This year's Mayors Innovation Studio will focus on youth community engagement for climate action.
9:30 - 11:00: States and Regions: Driving Local Climate Action

State, regional, and provincial climate leaders will discuss ​how to unlock greater climate ambition using regional legal and policy powers​, improving the flow of climate finance to local solutions, and designing effective multi-level partnerships.

11:30 - 12:15: PART I: Critical Impact of Mayors & Governors

Inclusive Strategies for Local Climate Adaptation and Resilience

Finance at the Forefront of Climate Action: Reimagining Subnational Climate Finance

A Necessary Evolution: Integrating Multi-Level Climate Action into the Paris Agreement

13:30 - 15:15: PART II: New Solutions & Finance for Local Action

Leading Action and Investments for Clean Air and Climate Infrastructure

Dollars and Sense: How Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) Can Scale the Green Transition

A Just Local Energy Transition and Nature Positive Cities

​SCALE: Advancing Ambitious Multi-Level Climate Action​​​​​

15:45 - 17:00: PART III: Coalitions of High Ambitions Actors

America Is All In: Leveraging Local Lessons for National Impact

Unlocking Local Action and National Ambition: Multi-level Partnerships for Accelerating Climate Action

A Danish Climate Journey: Local Action Delivering 76% GHG Reductions through Multi-level Partnership

Brazilian Leadership: Amplifying Climate Impact by Working Together

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COP28 Local Climate Action Summit | Bloomberg Philanthropies

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The Local Climate Action Summit at COP28 in Dubai will recognize the critical role of local leaders in the COP process

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NIGERIA : Youth climate activists call for inclusive, collective action, and the acclivity of marginalized voices in grassroots communities on issues of climate change

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As part of the activities to commemorate International Women's Month, UN Women hosted a discussion titled "Intergenerational Dialogue for Climate Justice: Women's Leaderships, Strategies and Partnerships".

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Brazil's effort to reduce deforestation.

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Brazil's effort to reduce deforestation.

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SAO PAULO, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Brazil could reach historically low levels of deforestation in one to two years, the head of the environmental protection agency said on Thursday, as the country ramps up conservation efforts under left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Deforestation has fallen since Lula took over the presidency on Jan. 1 from far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro, who weakened environmental enforcement and saw deforestation climb to a 15-year high.

Destruction in Brazil's Amazon fell to 9,001 square kilometers (3,475 square miles) in the 12 months through July, the country's official annual period for measuring deforestation. That's the lowest level since 2018, the year before Bolsonaro took office.

But it is still nearly double the all-time low for Amazon deforestation of 4,571 square kilometers set in 2012.

Rodrigo Agostinho, the head of the country's primary federal environmental enforcement agency Ibama, told reporters on Thursday that the government would continue to work hard to bring down deforestation further.

"Who knows, in one or two years we could hit the numbers from 2012 and we will work in the direction of zero deforestation," Agostinho said.

Lula has pledged to end deforestation altogether by 2030.

The president has staked his international reputation on restoring Brazil's environmental credentials and will attend the United Nations COP28 climate summit in Dubai later this month with a message that the country is making progress on its commitments, Brazilian officials said ahead of the summit.

"This reduction in the deforestation rate means that we will arrive at COP28 with our heads held high," Agostinho said.

Reporting by Jake Spring; editing by Diane Craft

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Jake Spring reports primarily on forests, climate diplomacy, carbon markets and climate science. Based in Brazil, his investigative reporting on destruction of the Amazon rainforest under ex-President Jair Bolsonaro won 2021 Best Reporting in Latin America from the Overseas Press Club of America (https://opcofamerica.org/Awardarchive/the-robert-spiers-benjamin-award-2021/). His beat reporting on Brazil's environmental destruction won a Covering Climate Now award and was honored by the Society of Environmental Journalists. He joined Reuters in 2014 in China, where he previously worked as editor-in-chief of China Economic Review. He is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and Brazilian Portuguese.

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Brazil could reach historic low deforestation in 1-2 years, official says

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Brazil could reach historically low levels of deforestation in one to two years, the head of the environmental protection agency said on Thursday, as the country ramps up conservation efforts under left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

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On the way to the 28th United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP28) to be held between November 30 and December 12 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the Brazilian Presidency's Social Communications Secretariat ( Secretaria de Comunicação Social da Presidência da República/SECOM) presented a briefing for the national and international press this Monday, November 20, at Palácio Itamaraty.

The main goal of this COP is to approve what is known as the Global Stocktake of the Paris Agreement. We have to have a text that shows us what has been done and what is missing, in the context of the first eight years of the Agreement. The main expectation is that COP29 will set a new level for financing climate action and, after that, at COP30, countries are expected to present their new NDCs"

André Corrêa do Lado, Brazil's Secretary of Climate, Energy and Environment at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Brazil's delegation will be headed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and will include ministers as well as government, private sector, academia and civil society representatives - thus reaffirming the importance and transversality of the topic to the Brazilian government. More than 138 heads of State and Government are expected to attend the conference.

Brazil is committed to leading by example at the major global event on climate change, starting by its positive results from reducing deforestation in the Amazon - which has registered a more than 40% drop since January, under president Lula's term.

Brazil is also focused on achieving other good results - such as reducing emissions by reducing deforestation. Moreover, 48% of its energy matrix is made up of renewable sources.

"The main goal of this COP is to approve what is known as the Global Stocktake of the Paris Agreement. We have to have a text that shows us what has been done and what is missing, in the context of the first eight years of the Agreement. The main expectation is that COP29 will set a new level for financing climate action and, after that, at COP30, countries are expected to present their new NDCs," highlighted Brazil's Secretary of Climate, Energy and Environment at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago.

NEGOTIATIONS - COP28 will take place after the sixth assessment cycle of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The latter reiterated the general sense of urgency and gravity, warning that there is only a narrow window open to avoid the points of no return caused by climate change, as well as any disruptive consequences to ecological and socioeconomic systems.

With this in mind, Brazil is working towards significant results this year, advancing the climate discussion to pave the way for COP30 - to be hosted in Belém do Pará in 2025. "Brazil will be in a very comfortable internal situation in Dubai, bringing the results of its efforts to reduce deforestation and its adjusted targets, and harboring a government that considers climate change one of its most important topics," highlighted the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment's Secretary for Climate Ana Toni.

"Brazil is not only bringing up a successful internal policy regarding rainforests, but also strong coordination work and several proposals to ensure that the discussion around tropical rainforests is based on the ideas of those who harbor them in their territories," said Toni.

PARIS AGREEMENT - At COP21 in 2015, the world agreed to limit global warming to 1.5°C compared to pre-industrial levels. To remain on target, science says that emissions must be reduced by more than 40% by 2030. "Science is an essential element to guide negotiations. The 1.5°C limit is a commitment, to Brazil," said Ana Toni.

Each signatory country has established its own targets for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These targets are the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

The Brazilian NDC - which was updated in 2023 - states that Brazil must reduce its emissions by 48% (2025) and 53% (2030) in relation to 2005 emissions.

Furthermore, in 2023, Brazil reiterated its commitment to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050; that is, everything the country still emits must be offset with carbon capture sources such as forest planting, biome recovery and other technologies.

The Paris Agreement Global Stocktake (GST) is expected to guide the new cycle of nationally determined contributions that are expected for 2025. Brazil defends that the GST addresses gaps in the implementation of the regime, especially in financing, technology and training in favor of developing countries. The GST should reinforce that the international community must unite, commit to multilateralism and reject unilateralism.

LOSS AND DAMAGE FUND - The Climate Loss and Damage Fund is considered one of COP27's most important achievements. The Conference was held in Egypt in November 2022.

The mechanism is expected to provide financial aid to the countries that are suffering the greatest impacts of climate change, and is a long-standing demand from the countries that are suffering the most severe consequences of extreme events such as floods, droughts and wildfires.

ACTION AGENDA - In parallel to the decisions to be approved in the Climate Convention, its Kyoto Protocol and its Paris Agreement, the COP28 presidency is placing emphasis on the Action Agenda -- in which declarations, initiatives, commitments will be launched to encourage voluntary action in support of the climate. In this context, Brazil may give support to certain declarations and take part in events -- such as those concerning nature and forests -- in which it intends to show the results of the Amazon Summit and launch proposals for the period from Dubai to Belém.

ESPAÇO BRASIL - The venue will host cultural events, exhibitions and debates on tackling climate change and the transition to a low-carbon economy. The main message of the Brazilian participation in COP28 is "Brazil united in its diversity on the path to a sustainable future." A total of 110 events from a variety of fields will be held there over the two weeks of COP28.

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Brazil at COP28: climate leadership and expectations for a sustainable future

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The Brazilian Federal Government presented its expectations concerning the Climate Conference in a press briefing last Monday (20). The country is going to highlight the reduction in deforestation, the expansion of renewable energy sources, and energy transition

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November 21 - As companies and governments race to meet emissions offset targets, Brazil has the potential to be one of the largest global providers of carbon credits. That is, if the country manages to guarantee the integrity of its processes.

According to consultancy firm McKinsey, 15% of the global potential for offsetting emissions through natural climate solutions is in Brazil, and carbon markets, along with renewable power and bio-based energy, are three areas where Brazil can take a leading global role in the green economy.

In early October, the Senate passed a bill to regulate the carbon market. The system will work under the cap-and-trade model, in which companies in regulated sectors will have emissions limits, starting at 25,000 tons. About 5,000 companies are expected to be affected. The legislation is expected to be passed by the full legislature this year.

Although concerns have been raised that the market excludes agribusiness, the sector responsible for most of Brazil's emissions, Guarany Osorio, coordinator of the environmental politics and economics program at Fundacao Getulio Varga's (FGV) Center for Sustainability Studies, believes climate policy in Brazil will need more than one instrument to address all the country's emissions.

"The regulated market is not a silver bullet. There are instruments for each need, such as command and control and energy certifications, and so we will have a climate package to reduce emissions. Within the package, the regulated market is an important piece," he said.

Jose Pugas, head of ESG at JGP investment firm, agreed. "In finance, the most important element is predictability. With that, we can adapt to anything. We have an attractive market, (and) Brazil is a strong brand."

He said it was important for the legislation to pass quickly as it will take a couple of years to implement, in time to demonstrate Brazil's prominence when it hosts COP30 in the Amazonian town of Belem do Para.

Importantly, the bill gives indigenous and traditional communities the right to generate and sell credits in their territories, and says carbon transactions will have to protect indigenous rights under international convention ILO 169, in both the regulated and voluntary markets.

The role of Indigenous and traditional peoples in safeguarding forests and biodiversity is increasingly being recognized. A summit of eight Amazon nations held in Belem in August failed to agree a common approach to ending deforestation, but strongly asserted the need for indigenous peoples' rights to be protected. Read more

And Razan Al Mubarak, the U.N. Climate Change High Level Champion for COP28, has promised that indigenous peoples will have a bigger role in this year's climate talks in Dubai.

"This is far more than a moral imperative," she said. "We simply won't be able to solve the climate crisis without authentically incorporating the leadership of Indigenous peoples and other traditionally under-represented groups such as women and youth."

Safeguards in Brazil's new carbon market will seek to prevent the exploitation and harassment that Indigenous peoples have experienced in the unregulated voluntary carbon market, where the race to generate carbon offsets has made indigenous lands an object of desire.

According to an analysis by the MapBiomas platform, a land cover and use monitoring system, Indigenous lands in Brazil experienced just 1% of deforestation between 1990 and 2020, compared with 20.6% in privately held land.

Maurício Terena, legal coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), says voluntary carbon markets have put Indigenous lands under a lot of pressure, in addition to economic activities such as mining and illegal deforestation.

"Companies arrive, harass leaders, do not explain their intentions adequately, do not carry out a free, prior and informed consultation and make leaders sign million-dollar contracts for money that will not return to the territory," he said.

Sineia Wapichana, coordinator of the National Indigenous Climate Change Committee, adds: "We are always seen as beneficiaries, but we are part of the discussion. Frequently, we are only consulted when something has been decided."

In July this year, the public defender's office of Pará filed five lawsuits to suspend the construction of carbon credit projects in Portel, in the Marajo archipelago. According to a World Rainforest Movement report, companies including Air France, Amazon and Liverpool football club are among the purchasers of credits from the Verra-registered projects, unaware of the irregularities.

In an official note, the Public Defender's Office stated that "the action indicates that there was grabbing of public lands and the use of property documents that do not have legal validity" and that "there was no prior consultation with communities, nor prior study, which creates socio-environmental risks to biodiversity and traditional knowledge".

In a statement to Ethical Corporation, Verra said "As a standard setter, Verra does not comment on questions related to market impact in order to maintain impartiality. We are focused on continued commitment to integrity and the ongoing improvement of Verra's rules and methodologies, as demonstrated by continuous program updates."

It added that that the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) program's rules and requirements expressly require projects to comply with all applicable laws, "regardless of whether or not the law is enforced".

So will allowing indigenous people the right to generate and sell credits in their territories safeguard against abuse?

In the case of the Igarape Lourdes Indigenous Land, where the Gaviao people live, in the municipality of Ji-Parana, in the state of Rondonia, communities have been debating the implementation of a REDD+ project for 10 years, which, once approved, will be implemented and lead by indigenous people. They are extractivists and collect nuts, alongside with rubber and copaiba oil.

According to indigenous leader Josias Gaviao, over the years, the Indigenous people understood that REDD+ is a tool for implementing their territorial management plan and a way of accessing financial resources to improve the people's quality of life.

"In our understanding, if we implement the project now, we will say what we want and we will manage the carbon credit resource. We are consulting communities, calling partners and making things happen. We cannot wait for the government to tell us what we should do and how to manage our territory", he stated.

For Pugas at JGP, the consultation and transparency processes involved in projects with Indigenous communities necessitate putting a premium value on the carbon credits, as they are more expensive to develop. Also, these projects will need more upfront investment to gain scale.

"There's a great opportunity for Indigenous carbon credits, especially because of the impact and shared benefits they provide. They aren't the only solution, or an impossible one, it's a path with its peculiarities, which rely on legal safety, premium values and transparency of the consultation processes," said Pugas.

Miles away from the Amazon forest, the Atlantic forest concentrates around 72% of the Brazilian population and has around 12% of the native forest standing. The extent of degradation has led to the emergence of reforestation initiatives in the region.

One of them is in the Serra da Mantiqueira, region that extends through the states of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais. It is led by the NGO The Nature Conservancy Brazil, in partnership with Mercado Livre, a company that operates online markets dedicated to electronic commerce and that wants to offset its emissions. Through the project 157 rural producers have committed to the recovery and conservation of the Atlantic forest and will help regenerate 2,717 hectares of the biome.

In the first five years, owners will receive an incentive of 300 Brazilian reals ($60) per hectare, every 12 months, when the areas being restored are completely isolated from other activities. After this period, this incentive will be provided through carbon credits that can be generated. In the first 10 years, 80% of carbon credits go to the investor and 20% go to rural owners. In the eleventh year, rural landowners become the sole owners of the credits that are generated.

For the director of the restoration project in Mantiqueira at TNC Brazil, Adriana Kfoury, the initiative differentiates itself because of equity. "We value the rural owner through payment. As the carbon market develops in Brazil, he is paid for restoring and begins to generate the credits that will remain with him."

For Indigenous people, regulating the carbon market in Brazil is not about providing guarantees for the generation of credits, said Wapichana, of the National Indigenous Climate Change Committee. For them, the relationship with the forest, water, soil and seeds is fundamental to life. "In the indigenous tradition, the value is different. Everything belongs to life. We do not see nature as something to be sold, it is quite different from a market."

According to APIB's Terena, the Indigenous lifestyle is a solution to the current climate disaster. "Our culture is not what destroys the ecosystem and Earth. We have a different logic for organizing ourselves as a society and that is what we need at this stage of the climate crisis."

The anti-deforestation and forest degradation association NBS Brazil Alliance recently released a good practice guide for consulting with Indigenous and traditional communities on nature-based solutions. Its president, Janaina Dallan, says her dream is that the children and grandchildren of the current generation will want to live in the forest. "It will be such a cool, developed place, with universities and a forest belonging to us. If we can achieve this transformation, everyone will want to live in the forest."

Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias. Ethical Corporation Magazine, a part of Reuters Professional, is owned by Thomson Reuters and operates independently of Reuters News.

Jennifer Ann Thomas is a Brazilian journalist specialized in environmental affairs and sustainability. Her work has been published by the Thomson Reuters Foundation and Mongabay, among several Brazilian media outlets. She has done field reporting from the Brazilian Amazon to the Antarctic Peninsula, covering stories about illegal deforestation, contemporary slave work and climate change. In Brazil, she also runs Nosso Impacto, a journalism platform focused on sustainability and climate coverage.

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Can Brazil's new carbon market turn tide on decades of exploiting indigenous peoples?

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As companies and governments race to meet emissions offset targets, Brazil has the potential to be one of the largest global providers of carbon credits. That is, if the country manages to guarantee the integrity of its processes.

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-Caden Erickson

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COP28 is the biggest accountability moment for climate action in history.

At COP28, the UN will conclude its first-ever "Global Stocktake," assessing the world's collective progress toward addressing the climate crisis. The Global Stocktake synthesis report released in September 2023 already reveals that the world is far off track from its goal of holding global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) to avoid some of the most disastrous impacts of climate change. The most important issue to watch at COP28 is how leaders from countries, companies, cities and financial institutions respond to the Global Stocktake.

Will it be a moment for mere reflection? Or for decisive action?

The Global Stocktake at COP28

When 193 countries signed on to the Paris Agreement in 2015, they committed to three goals: 1) reduce emissions enough to hold global temperature rise to "well below 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F)" above pre-industrial levels, and ideally 1.5 degrees C; 2) build communities' resilience to the impacts of climate change; and 3) align the world's financial flows with low-carbon, climate-resilient development.

They also agreed to assess their progress toward these goals every five years (beginning in 2023) and strengthen their action in response, a process known as the "Global Stocktake." The first Global Stocktake will conclude at COP28 in Dubai.

From November 30-December 12, 2023, countries' climate negotiators and others will discuss the results of the GlobaI Stocktake and identify what's needed next. For COP28 to be a success, leaders from countries, companies and cities should address action gaps with new emissions-reduction plans, climate finance commitments, renewable energy targets and more.

A Rapid Response Plan to the Global Stocktake

A strong response to the Global Stocktake can be the catalyst for countries to transition to a better economy - one that lifts people out of poverty, provides good jobs, fights the growing hunger crisis, and ensures communities can withstand floods and droughts, all while protecting nature and sharply reducing emissions. While countries should respond to the Global Stocktake with climate solutions across the board, WRI believes it is critical that they take action in three key areas: fossil fuels, food and land use, and resilience.

1) Rapidly and equitably shift away from fossil fuels.

Research shows that the world needs to reduce emissions 43% below 2019 levels by 2030 to avoid some of the worst impacts of climate change. Current national climate plans will only achieve a 7% reduction. Meanwhile, subsidies for fossil fuels - the largest driver of climate change - rose to a record $7 trillion in 2022.
At COP28, governments should signal their intent to move away from fossil fuels and usher in an era of affordable, reliable and sustainable energy for all.
Specifically, national leaders should commit to at least triple renewable energy capacity to 1,500 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, move investments from dirty to renewable energy, and accelerate energy efficiency. Countries should also commit to make two-thirds of passenger travel fossil-fuel free by 2030 by increasing the share of electric vehicles in global car sales to at least 75% and shifting more trips to public transit and bicycling. These targets are in line with the level of emissions reductions needed to hold global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C.

And importantly, leaders must put measures in place to ensure this low-carbon transition leaves no one behind - especially workers and communities reliant on the fossil fuel industry.
More resources on fossil fuels and renewables:
2) Transform food and land use systems and protect and restore forests.

Our food systems are failing us. More than 800 million people face hunger today. Climate-driven droughts and floods threaten farmers' crops and livelihoods. And agriculture itself is fueling climate change by destroying forests and other vital ecosystems.
At COP28, leaders should put forward plans that transform the ways the world produces and consumes food.
National leaders should invest in improving food security while building resilience to the escalating impacts of climate change. They must heed the science by reducing agricultural emissions 25% below 2020 levels by 2030, while also accelerating efforts to halve food waste by 2030 and shift to healthier, lower-carbon diets. Espousing these and other plans in a Food Systems Declaration, expected to emerge by the end of COP28, will help cement governments' commitments to a sustainable food future.

Furthermore, leaders should demonstrate progress on existing commitments such as the Forests and Climate Leaders' Partnership, where more than 140 world leaders pledged to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by the end of the decade. Despite ambitious targets, data shows trends are heading in the wrong direction.
More resources on transforming food and land use:
3) Advance action on adaptation and loss and damage.

The impacts of climate change are increasingly clear, with those least responsible for creating the problem feeling the worst of its effects. Drought in East Africa is pushing millions to the brink of famine. Forest fires are spewing dangerous air pollution and destroying homes and lives. More and more people are dying from extreme heat.

Yet action to help communities build resilience to climate shocks - and the finance to make it happen - continue to lag. Developing countries will need $340 billion annually by 2030 to adapt to the impacts of climate change, but received only $29 billion in international adaptation finance in 2020. Grappling with "losses and damage" - the impacts of climate change so severe they cannot be adapted to, such as destruction of homes, heritage sites and even lives - will require an estimated $894 billion annually by 2030.
At COP28, wealthy nations must provide the finance necessary to make adaptation possible in the countries that need it most, while helping them recover from unavoidable losses and damage.
Countries must operationalize the Loss & Damage Fund agreed to at COP27 in 2022. Developed countries should show real progress toward their commitment to climate-vulnerable nations to double finance for adaptation by 2025, including making finance more accessible and channeling more resources and decision-making power to local communities. And countries must adopt an actionable plan for the Global Goal on Adaptation, including agreeing on an ambitious set of targets to build resilience around the world.
More resources on adaptation and loss & damage:
Putting Cities at the Center of Climate Action

For too long, UN climate summits have focused exclusively on climate action at the national level. That's a major oversight. Urban areas account for roughly 70% of the world's CO2 emissions, and many are particularly exposed to the impacts of climate change. The science shows that all cities must reach net-zero emissions by 2050 to limit warming to 1.5 degrees C. And while some are already making considerable progress, they could go even further by better aligning with national governments through joint climate goals, investment and planning.

Research shows that while urban emissions can be cut 90% by 2050 through existing technologies and policy options, cities alone can achieve only 28% of that potential. Local governments need partnership with national governments and international climate initiatives to fully decarbonize.
At COP28, national, regional and local governments must scale up partnerships to make faster progress on their climate goals and help people in cities meet their basic needs. More resources on climate action in cities:
Specifically, the UN should expand the role of mayors and other subnational actors at COPs. We'll see some progress on that front at COP28 with the first Local Climate Action Summit, second Ministerial Meeting on Urbanization and Climate Change, the mayoral delegation to the World Climate Action Summit, and the Transport-Energy Ministerial, but these kinds of events cannot be one-offs. National governments should also better include urban areas in their climate plans. This means strengthening city-focused targets in their NDCs and National Adaptation Plans - such as by expanding public transit or making buildings more energy-efficient - and ensuring that subnational actors can easily access climate finance. And finally, we'll be watching for new commitments from both cities and national governments to transform critical shared systems, like transport, buildings and land use.

Following Through on Past Pledges

In addition to setting out bold, new plans, countries, companies, cities and others should come to COP28 prepared to demonstrate progress on past pledges. Specifically, we'll be looking for action on issues like:

Cooperative initiatives: The world has seen several high-profile international climate initiatives emerge in recent years, such as the Forests and Climate Leaders' Partnership and the Global Methane Pledge, where more than 100 countries promised to reduce emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane. Leaders should demonstrate progress on these cooperative initiatives at COP28.

National climate plans: Countries committed to increase the ambition of their national climate plans (known as "nationally determined contributions," or NDCs) every five years. Stronger emissions-reductions targets are much-needed by 2030.

Financial pledges: Developed nations pledged to provide developing nations with $100 billion in climate finance annually by 2020, but have yet to make good on this promise. Wealthy nations should demonstrate at COP28 that they are making up the shortfall while offering higher-quality finance, such as grants instead of loans.

A new climate finance goal: The Paris Agreement calls for a new global climate finance goal to be set next year at COP29. Climate negotiators must lay the groundwork for such a goal at COP28 to make next year's deadline realistic.

COP28: The Biggest Moment in History for Climate Action Accountability

The Global Stocktake was created to help keep the goals of the Paris Agreement within reach. COP28 is the first test of whether decision-makers will stay true to its vision.

National leaders - as well as those from companies, cities and more - must not only demonstrate progress on past pledges, but announce new plans that are ambitious enough to rein in escalating climate impacts and protect people and nature.

WRI's experts will be watching to see if decision-makers at COP28 can achieve the necessary outcomes. Check this Resource Hub regularly for ongoing news, commentary and analysis. And for a deeper dive into what needs to happen at COP28, read our article Benchmarks for Success at COP28.

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COP28 is the biggest accountability moment for climate action in history.

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-Caden Erickson

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Bruegel | The Brussels-based economic think tank

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COP28: key issues at stake and indicators of success

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COP28 must convey the importance to governments of better integrating climate considerations into financial decision-making.

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The United Nations COP28 Climate Summit, set to run Nov. 30-Dec. 12 in Dubai, will gather leaders from around the world to discuss issues arising from the combustion of fossil fuels, the challenges facing the energy and environmental sectors, and the effects that a rising average global temperature has on the planet's weather patterns. Equally important will be a discussion on the measures needed to tackle those challenges, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions, encouraging sustainable behaviors, and adapting to a changing climate.

The effects of climate change are unparalleled, affecting people worldwide in ways that range from threatening food production due to changing weather patterns to increasing in the likelihood of catastrophic flooding because of rising sea levels. New policies, innovative technologies, and climate finance are needed to tackle the global energy and climate change challenges for a clean energy transition and to meet the established target of net-zero emissions by 2050.

Justice and equity are key to combating climate change. Given the disproportionate effects of climate change on vulnerable populations, it is essential to advocate for fairness, inclusivity, and responsibility. In addition, adequate and targeted climate funding is essential for helping countries transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient future and for addressing the urgent challenges posed by climate change.

Global Climate Actions Scenarios and Their Impacts

Climate change is already taking place, as evidenced by rising temperatures, an increase in the frequency of extreme weather events like drought and wildfires, a shift in the patterns of rainfall, and the melting of glaciers and snow. Weather events are also getting more extreme; a record-breaking hurricane in southeast Africa, wildfires in Chile and Canada, insufferable heatwaves across Asia, major ice storms in the southern United States, and many other events have all served as stark reminders of climate change's effects. According to a new report published by the U.S. government, 2023 broke the previous record for the number of weather catastrophes in the United States that caused $1 billion or more in damage. There is also a connection between the rise in the average temperature around the world and the rise in sea levels, which in turn threatens communities and infrastructure along the world's coastlines.

Modeling and simulation analysis of climate action can show how it might be possible to combat climate change with shifts in policy regarding energy, land use, consumption, agriculture, and other areas. This report draws its conclusions using the En-ROADS model, which simulates how changes in energy, economic, and public policy could affect climate change and greenhouse gas emissions.

This includes a combination of highly subsidized renewables, nuclear power, and high carbon pricing; a breakthrough for future clean energy technologies; highly increased energy efficiency for transport, building, and industry; subsidies for new electric-powered transport and electric equipment for building and industry; significantly less mature forest degradation and destruction; reduction in greenhouse gases from methane and other gases; and rapid growth in the use of carbon removal technology.

It is possible to meet the average temperature targets established by the Paris Agreement by implementing the global climate actions recommended below. This will help to lessen the effects of global warming, including heat waves, droughts, increased precipitation intensity, and the strength of storms. Keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels is a priority to lessen the severity of climate change's effects.

Climate Justice and Equity

Global climate actions are needed, but the impacts of climate change and its causes are not dispersed equally among countries and groups. There is an immediate and pressing need for a fair and equitable distribution of the costs and benefits associated with the fight against climate change.

The damaging effects of climate change are felt most acutely in places and among populations that are already struggling economically and demographically. For example, rising seas threaten communities and infrastructure along the world's coastlines, which are more susceptible to natural disasters, especially in underdeveloped nations. Competition for water and arable land due to climate change can escalate conflicts and push people to migrate, causing instability and displacement. Water shortages - already prevalent in many developing nations - are exacerbated by changing patterns of precipitation and increasing amounts of water lost to evaporation, which affects access to water for drinking and agriculture. The number of lawsuits related to climate change has doubled in the past five years.

A climate action plan can be developed using new policies and innovative energy technologies, but it is crucial that this plan incorporate climate justice and equity. In order to achieve fairness when allocating resources and opportunities, it is necessary to prioritize nations that are both the most vulnerable to climate change's adverse effects and the least responsible for contributing to climate change. Essential strategies for low-income nations to tackle climate change include adaptation and resilience, assistance with capacity building, climate finance, technology, cooperative activities and partnerships, and climate-resilient pathways.

The concept of climate justice places an emphasis on the moral and social implications of climate change, acknowledging that groups who are already marginalized and disadvantaged are incurring a disproportionately large burden. Climate justice pushes for fair solutions, empowering communities that have been negatively affected and holding responsible parties accountable.

Building up the capabilities and institutions of local communities is necessary for effective adaptation and resilience. States must invest in localization and capacity building by providing security and infrastructure. Localization and capacity building are followed by the need for providing training and technical support to local communities, government agencies, and civil society organizations to improve their understanding of the implications of climate change and their ability to respond to those impacts. To implement initiatives and assure the passage of procedures, state administrations must improve their connections with regional, county, and city governments. It is possible to support countries' attempts to adapt to climate change by making it easier for them to acquire financial aid. The implementation of adaptation projects, capacity building, technology transfer, and risk reduction measures are all possible uses for financial resources.

Many nations affected by extreme climactic events will have little choice but to borrow money to finance the costs of recovery and reconstruction, exacerbating what are often already large debt problems. During the 2022 COP27 conference in Egypt, world leaders agreed to establish a Loss and Damage Fund to combat this problem, a significant development that nonetheless needs more work to finalize. Needed details include what public, private, and multilateral funds will contribute and how much; the organization to govern the fund; and the qualifying requirements for the low-income countries. Once funding is secured, it could take years for funds to be distributed.

Countries must negotiate an agreement to establish a suite of finance arrangements, including loss and damage, before developing economies suffering from the severe effects of climate change can then be compensated. In 2009, during the COP15 summit, developed countries pledged to raise $100 billion annually by 2020 to fund climate action in low- and middle-income countries; this goal has not been reached. COP28 attendees likely will work to figure out the specifics of this fund, including who will contribute, how much they will contribute, and how those contributions are made; defining "loss and damage"; agreeing on the governance of the fund; and creating clear qualifying requirements. In these efforts, they should take inspiration from countries such as Denmark, Belgium, Germany, and Scotland - as well as from the EU more broadly - which have already made small but meaningful commitments to compensate for losses and damages.

Policy Opportunities and Recommendations

Science alone is not enough to solve the climate problem; politics plays an important role as well. Power, access to resources and money, and climate justice and equity must all be part of the COP28 discussions, in addition to data and statistics about warming and atmospheric carbon concentration. Climate justice stresses the need for a holistic strategy that considers the interests and rights of all people, especially the most vulnerable, and not just the environmental aspects of climate change. It currently is too difficult for the nations impacted most by climate change to receive the financing they need, and the fact that they are not being allowed to select how available funds are spent is an additional unfairness that worsens an already difficult position.

The committees of the COP28 summit need to figure out the specifics of the Loss and Damage Fund, including the developed countries and big economies that will contribute to this fund; each country's contribution; the total money needed per year; the organization that will manage the funds, such as the Green Climate Fund or Global Environment Facility; the financial help or loss and damage options, such as allocation of funding directly from the fund and debt forgiveness for countries with severe fiscal pressures; and qualification criteria for low-income countries. During the process of allocating finances from the Loss and Damage Fund, it is also necessary to consider that some of the countries most in need do not have stable enough governments to allocate climate funding.

The international community will have to alter the terms and conditions under which global money, technology for clean energy transition, and climate actions and adaptation are supplied. When considering how to combat climate change in developing nations, it is crucial to consider capacity building, access to finance, adaptation, and technology transfer in order to gain access to technologies that are clean and sustainable, develop climate-resilient pathways, and promote partnerships and collaborations for the development of more efficient climate responses.

To advance climate justice, nations must work together and incorporate equity concerns into climate policies and agreements, taking measures to ensure that climate policies do not worsen preexisting social and economic inequities. The goal of putting climate justice first is to create a future that is both sustainable and resilient. There is an urgent need for financial resources to support climate change mitigation, adaptation, and resilience efforts in developing countries. Climate finance helps developing nations undertake climate-related initiatives and migrate to low-carbon, resilient paths.
Prof. Chaouki Ghenai is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow for Energy Strategy and Policy at the New Lines Institute. He oversees new energy initiatives for New Lines Institute, including: Future and Innovative Energy Technologies, Geopolitics of Energy Transformation, Clean Energy Financing, New Energy Policies, and Sustainable Energy and Society. He has more than 25 years of research experience in the energy field and management of Clean Energy Research Programs and Research Funding. Eugene Chausovsky is the Senior Director for Analytical Development and Training. He oversees the institute's publication and content production process, manages institutional training efforts, and guides the development of analytical products. Chausovsky previously served as Senior Eurasia Analyst at the geopolitical intelligence firm Stratfor for more than 10 years. His analytical work has focused on political, economic and security issues pertaining to Russia, Eurasia, and China, as well as global connectivity issues related to energy and climate change. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not an official policy or position of the New Lines Institute.

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COP28: Global Strategies and Policy Opportunities and Recommendations for Climate Justice and Equity - New Lines Institute

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One key point of focus for the COP28 Climate Summit should be to ensure justice and equity for developing and poorer countries that have faced the highest risks from climate change.

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Vulnerable Countries Need Climate Action Now

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Vulnerable Countries Need Climate Action Now

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Failure is deadly: Vulnerable countries need climate action now, says the IRC ahead of COP28 - World

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News and Press Release in English on World and 3 other countries about Climate Change and Environment; published on 26 Nov 2023 by IRC

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The Oceans Role in Combatting Climate Change

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The Oceans Role in Combatting Climate Change

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I would really love to hear more about how other countries and leaders are utilizing the ocean to help combat climate change. There is a lot of opportunity for the ocean and coastal areas to be utilized as a vital resources for carbon storage and carbon emissions reduction in our atmosphere. Wetlands especially are incredibly important for carbon storage.

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MODERATOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Washington Foreign Press Center's briefing on the role of oceans in combatting climate change in the run-up to COP28, which begins later this month. My name is Jake Goshert; I'm the moderator of today's briefing.

As a reminder, the briefing is on the record, and we will post a transcript and a video of this briefing on our website, fpc.state.gov. For those of you joining us on Zoom, please take a moment now to rename yourself with your name and outlet. Our distinguished briefer today is Julie Packard, the executive director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. Before Ms. Packard's opening remarks, one quick reminder: She is an independent subject matter expert, and the views expressed by our briefers who are not affiliated with the Department of State are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the department or the U.S. Government. Their participation in the Foreign Press Center programming does not imply endorsement, approval, or recommendation of their views; they are here as experts.

With that, I am going to turn it over to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Executive Director Julie Packard.

MS PACKARD: Thank you. Thanks so much for taking time to be with us here this morning. Really appreciate it. So just a few weeks ago, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres opened the Climate Ambition Summit with a warning that by failing to act on the climate crisis, he said "humanity has opened the gates of hell." Could not say it more strongly. And he also said, as you may recall, we're moving "toward a dangerous and unstable world."

So with COP28 negotiations starting at the end of the month, I wanted to share some thoughts about why it's absolutely essential to place the ocean front and center in the climate conversation because healthy ocean can be one of our best defenses against climate change, and too often it's not even part of the conversation. It can help us avert catastrophe and shape-adjust a sustainable world where both people and nature thrive.

So the ocean's the largest ecosystem on the planet, and really our first line of defense against the impacts of climate change. It's absorbed 25 percent of the carbon dioxide that gets emitted, and also it's absorbed 90 percent of the excess heat we've put into the atmosphere since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. So that is a huge service that it's providing for us.

The good news is it's resilient. It's resilient. And when we act to restore the health of the ocean where it's been damaged, it responds. And then it can, once again, begin to deliver the vital ocean services that enables life to exist here on the planet. But unfortunately, it's not, quote/unquote, "too big to fail." As land creatures, of course, we are probably not wired much to think about the ocean. We live here on land, we breath air, and we really don't think much about how its cycles are tied to our lives and the ability for life to exist here on the planet, and most importantly, how our choices affect it. And selfishly, we really need to start doing that.

So ocean marine life provides a fifth of the animal protein we eat, and that may be a low estimate. But it is a major piece of food security on the planet. Its waters carry more than 90 percent of the world's trade, moving goods and raw materials more cost-effectively than by any other means. And its shores are home to nearly half the people on Earth.

The ocean is truly, as we think about it, the blue heart of the planet. It's the heart of our planet system most importantly; its currents and winds circulate heat and moisture around the planet, and the weather patterns that we associate it with all the different places where we live are all due to ocean and the stability that we've had in our climate over all this time, which is now being disrupted, as we've been so reminded, especially as the years go by. And of course, climate change is now fundamentally disrupting these ocean processes that sustain life on Earth.

Of course, sea level rise is putting at risk tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions, of coastal people, and often in the most vulnerable communities where there's no protection, no building zoning to enable people to survive severe weather. And of course, intensifying harms as we've seen every day are costing billions of dollars, not to mention endangering lives, including here in the U.S. and everywhere. So it's really - it's time to recognize that human health is directly tied ocean health.

Really, when you think about it, when we protect the blue heart of the planet, we are protecting home to the greatest diversity of life on our planet, and in so doing we're safeguarding ourselves.

Well, so what does protecting the ocean look like? For starters, it means reversing destruction of the coastal habitats, where of course people love to live; creating more global marine protected areas where ecosystems can be intact and have a better chance of surviving and enduring through all the changes happening; and something the Monterey Bay Aquarium has been spending a lot of time and energy on in the past 25 years has been ending unsustainable fishing and aquaculture practices because fishing and our extraction of biomass and marine life from the ocean is kind of our most basic relationship with the ocean that is damaging its ecosystems, and it's something we know how to fix; that's the thing about it.

So along with sustainability of fisheries and aquaculture, I mean, we need to start helping coastal communities prepare for the changes that are already underway and adapt to these impacts of extreme weather and sea level rise. Of course, we need to invest in science, the bedrock of good decision-making, and this has been such an essential piece of moving toward effective fisheries management; when you don't have data, you can't make plans to get things on a good track, and the same is absolutely true for really most of the ocean, especially the deep sea, where we've had very, very little information.

And of course, we need to use the science along - that we've invested with to inform any future plans. Of course, front and center of late is the discussion of mining the sea floor, which is really a case where we just are flying blind. We have so little information about what's there and what disruption we would cause, and we need to hit a big pause, hit the pause button on that, on that front, so we don't rush headlong into the mistakes we've made on resource extraction on land without understanding the consequences.

And of course, something else that the aquarium's been very involved with that's been in the news is the UN global plastic treaty. This has arisen in recent years and has a very fast timeline, and it is absolutely connected to solving the climate crisis. And it's an important thing to do for many other reasons, and right now, as we speak, it's being negotiated in Nairobi because plastic throughout its life cycle, it's a significant contributor to the climate crisis. At least 4 percent, probably more, of global oil production goes to producing plastic. So it is significant. It may be a bigger number than that, even. And also, of course, plastic throughout its life cycle, it's damaging to ocean health and ocean's - the ocean's ability to be resilient in the face of all these other changes.

Then of course, most dramatically, most importantly, we need to reduce our commitment - need to execute on our commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and meet those - meet the ambitions that we have set for COP28.

Also, I couldn't be prouder of the leadership in my home state of California. We are advancing some very ambitious climate solutions and climate policies, moving toward a zero - net zero emission economy and going well. We have the science. We have the political support to be very aggressive on that. And coastal cities everywhere now, as you know, they're starting to factor climate change into their land use planning, which is absolutely essential, and building resilience into where development's happening. And in California, we also created the nation's first statewide integrated network of marine protected areas to protect ecosystem health in state waters.

And then, of course, also innovators in the private sector turning their creativity towards solutions like batteries that don't require continued mining of rare earths on land and on the sea bed. So that's obviously a huge part of the solution, is that innovation. And then, of course, philanthropies are investing in the science and policy work.

So before taking your questions, just a few big picture parting thoughts about the whole idea of nature-based climate solutions; and to really solve the climate change crisis, we've got to turn toward nature-based and community-driven solutions like restoring and protecting animals and habitats that make up healthy ocean ecosystems. The thing is that safeguarding and strengthening these systems is going to help the ocean continue to buffer and protect us from all the damaging impacts of fossil fuel pollution that's happening, and really protect us from the worst impacts. Blue carbon habitats, mangroves, marshes, sea grass meadows, along with other ecosystems like kelp forests - they act as natural carbon sinks. And this is, again, something we've published research on the California coast showing how healthy ecosystem restoration improves the carbon sequestering abilities of these coastal habitats.

And along with it, you're also improving water quality. We're supporting sustainable small-scale fisheries. We're protecting marine biodiversity all around. It's a win-win-win.

And so to maintain the ocean's lifegiving function and to strengthen its ability to bounce back from climate impacts, we need commitments from our leaders, too, and we need to end unsustainable seafood production, treat plastic pollution as the global crisis that it is. And when that's part of the climate crisis and a grave threat to human health in terms of toxins in plastic along with the other issues around plastic that I mentioned, and in all of these arenas, the ocean is truly at the heart of solutions, and ocean action is critical to finding a path forward.

So as a global society, we know what we need to do to get on a sustainable course and build a clean energy future. And we're making progress faster than ever, and we have more tools to do the job than ever. So many of these tools were created in Silicon Valley. And, of course, with my background, I'm an optimist around human ingenuity to solve problems, but also we need to be realistic and really bear down on making sure those solutions are well thought out.

So I think others share my optimism. Costa Rican diplomat Christiana Figueres, who directed the UN Climate Change efforts that culminated in the Paris Agreement - in her words, the world is "already on a journey of exponential transformation," and so am I. We've got to bear down and work on positive results that demonstrate success. So for nearly 40 years now - we're celebrating our 40th Anniversary at the Monterey Bay Aquarium next year. We have been a voice for the ocean, and we've been taking action to improve ocean health, mobilizing the public's awareness around its role and what we need to do. We've been preparing the next generation of ocean conservation leaders who are ocean literate, diverse, ready to act on its behalf.

And working with governments, businesses, and NGOs, we're forging solutions to the biggest threats to the ocean and pursuing a vision of sustainable seafood supply, a plastic free ocean, and ocean policies that are based on the best available science and technology. So together, working across sectors and borders, I'm confident that we can realize our most ambitious vision which is a zero-emission global economy, and the fate and future of 7.5 billion people depend on it.

So thanks for the opportunity to share remarks, and appreciate your questions, and you're doing all you can to expand our world view to what - to our blue ocean planet that we all share. Thank you.

MODERATOR: Thank you for those remarks. We are now going to open up for questions. If you're online, please raise your virtual hand. If you're here in the room, just raise your hand and I'll call on you. A reminder: We no longer use handheld mikes. Do we have any questions in the room? If not, we'll go online to Pearl Matibe. Pearl, if you could introduce yourself - unmute yourself and introduce yourself, please?

QUESTION: Thank you so much for taking my question today. So my question is on South Africa. Director Packard, can you hear me?

MS PACKARD: Yes, we can hear.

QUESTION: Okay. I was hoping you could see me; I was trying to get my video on. But thank you so much to the State Department for holding this briefing, and I appreciate the remarks that you made a few minutes ago. So here's my question with the context.

South Africa lies at the interface of three oceans - the Southern Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and the Atlantic Ocean - and climate change could potentially have devasting effects on its coastal residents in the cities like Cape Town. On its infrastructure and ecosystems, millions of people could be exposed. Could you talk about what role these three oceans - the Southern Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and the Atlantic Ocean - could have on climate change and South Africa?

MS PACKARD: Thank you. I love that question because, being an ocean person, it is an amazing confluence that you have there in South Africa and such a rich and biodiverse habitat. I mean, as I said, what we need to do there is the same things I spoke of. There are shifts happening, as with everywhere, in terms of animals moving north and changing their patterns in terms of wildlife there, which, of course, is more on the animal side. The Southern Ocean is kind of ground zero in terms of climate, just like the Artic, in terms of climate impacts, but we have no science down there.

And one thing - I know this maybe doesn't sound very action-oriented - but one thing actually about the research community is doing is deploying a whole new suite of ocean monitoring buoys. Actually, our research institute in Monterey has contributed the technology on those to understand what's happening in the Southern Ocean. It is considered to be a place where a lot of carbon is taken up from the atmosphere, and it's a key area of ocean circulation.

I think, certainly in South Africa, there's a lot of fairly progressive or at least interest in action towards sustainable fishing and awareness about that. So proper fisheries laws that reduce catch for human use so ecosystems can recover - so important. And all the animals and the ecosystem services in those oceans - it's all one ocean. The aquarium's mission is inspire conservation of the ocean. It's all connected, so you're absolutely right - it's all connected, and we need more science.

We need action on the part of the global community in terms of - and I would say the fishing, the seafood - reducing over-fishing is a really critical issue for ecosystem health. And because a lot of the fish caught in your area get sold on a global market and it effects the ecosystem health there, that's something that our global seafood program at the aquarium is working on in terms of reducing the U.S. market demand for unsustainable seafood, because 90 percent of the seafood we eat in the U.S. is imported from other oceans and affecting other countries and other people and other ecosystems. And there's a lot of progress, positive progress, being made on that, which makes for some interesting stories, but we need to do more.

MODERATOR: Any other questions? Again, if you're online, raise your virtual hand. If you're in person, just raise your hand.

Okay. We do have a submitted question, if I can ask. They wanted to know: "What is the role of private sector individuals and organizations in fighting climate change? Private sector funding is an important part of the COP process, and what are your thoughts on that?"

MS PACKARD: Well, absolutely. We need more funding. We need more government funding. We need more private sector funding, which, of course, can come in two versions. It can come from philanthropies, which has already been an important part of the picture, and then of course there's a lot of investment opportunities that are happening. I'm a little more familiar with the philanthropic investments, which have been significant. I know the U.S. funding foundations have contributed many hundreds of millions of dollars toward climate solution analyses, toward developing policy options, model policies - for example, when countries like China are developing their policies for appliance standards, as people move into the middle class, that can have a huge impact.

And so that's just one example of things private philanthropies are doing. One of the things our foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, is doing is investing in just individual innovators with great ideas about climate solutions and giving them an - sort of open-ended - here's a grant, do whatever you want with it with your great idea - invest in innovators. And I would say there is more and more private philanthropy interest. But - and it's where a lot of risk taking and kind of development of model ideas, mainly around the policy space, can happen.

In terms of opportunities for innovation, I mentioned I think already a huge need for developing batteries that don't rely on so much resource extraction. That's clearly a business opportunity, and a lot of that science - a lot of the basic science happens funded by the government, which is fine. That's how the internet began. I mean, in the U.S., a lot of the basic science innovation has begun at government labs and universities, but there's a lot of tech innovation opportunity and a lot of need a lot of need for more solutions as we move toward needing technologies like offshore wind to be viable and affordable and buildable and low impact. All of those green energy solutions need innovation, and there's business opportunities there, of course.

MODERATOR: Okay. And seeing no more questions, we'll go ahead and we'll end the Q&A session there. And I'll turn it over to you, Ms. Packard, for any last thoughts you might have.

MS PACKARD: Well, I think one of the - I think I made my point about let's focus on the ocean in terms of talking about climate solutions and these nature-based solutions. There's a lot of interesting stories there, a lot of experimentation, but just raising - raising the visibility about that connection. When you're doing something like protecting mangrove forests by limiting development on them or restoring them, you're protecting a coastal city from damaging severe weather, you're also sequestering carbon, you're also providing fish habitat for food security.

So these nature-based solutions - that's an example of what would be called a nature-based solution, and those are such a win all around. And we've lost so much of our coastal habitat to land conversion. Certainly mangroves are a big example of that, that we need to slow down, protect what we have, and restore what's been damaged, because there's benefits all around.

The other thing, just drawing everyone's attention to this UN plastic treaty, which has a very fast timeline that came - kind of came out of nowhere. Five years ago, it was not really on the screen. And what needs to come out of that is a global - what we're hoping will come out of that is a global cap on plastic production and - number one, which is going to be a heavy lift, but there are a lot of countries that are showing a lot of support toward it. We need to invest in waste management and recycling, which of course - plastic recycling, at least in the U.S., is pretty much nonexistent now. People thought it was happening, but it's not. And so - and there's really not - that's not a solution. I mean, we need to reduce production and reduce it at the source.

In California, we just passed a very progressive law about that that'll - we're really excited to see implemented, which does - it's a real extended producer responsibility approach where the idea is just to limit the new single-use plastic coming into the environment, and having the producers have to pay for that impact, which hopefully will be an incentive to come up with other solutions. So the global treaty is an exciting development.

And one new piece of the plastic story that is emerging now that is a big story is the human health impact. And there's a very important study that came out, funded by some foundations, called the (Minderoo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health) report about plastics and human health, and there - no regulation of anything to do - I mean, maybe a couple of constituents, but plastics have literally thousands of additives that are unregulated. And that is something that absolutely needs to be raised up and needs - needs attention, needs to be regulated. We don't know the human health impacts.

And then, of course, you have the human health impacts of, I mean, the microplastics. There's - you've got toxins in plastic. We're consuming things in plastic all the time. And then of course, microplastic gets in the food we eat. It's everywhere. There's microplastic in the deepest part of the ocean. I mean, every - the deep sea in Monterey Bay, which is a marine protected area, should be very clean water - it's a very robust, healthy ecosystem, but there's microplastic there all the way down to the deep sea. So it's everywhere. It's affecting all life on Earth, including ours.

So that's another thing to bring visibility to, and hopefully it will be regulated in some fashion and we can reduce production. Sadly, what is already in the environment is going to be there for hundreds of years. So that's the bad news. The good news: We can do the right thing and regulate it and reduce it.

MODERATOR: Thank you so much, Julie Packard, Monterey Bay Aquarium's executive director. I want to thank you for giving your time today. And to the journalists joining us in person and online, that ends today's briefing. Thank you so much.

MS PACKARD: Thank you.

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Road to COP 28: The Role of the Ocean in Combatting Climate Change - United States Department of State

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THE WASHINGTON FOREIGN PRESS CENTER, WASHINGTON, D.C. MODERATOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Washington Foreign Press Center's briefing on the role of oceans in combatting climate change in the run-up to COP28, which begins later this month. My name is Jake Goshert; I'm the moderator of today's briefing.

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Partners of the Ocean Pavilion at COP28 and associated stakeholders are calling on world leaders to recognize the importance of the ocean in climate and support efforts to expand and improve ocean observations worldwide, including expanding coverage in under-observed regions. TheCOP28 Dubai Ocean Declaration comes ahead of the annual United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP), to be held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, November 30 - December 12, and emphasizes the need for ocean science and observations as critical for understanding ongoing global climate changes.

The ocean plays a critical role in regulating Earth's climate and has absorbed more than 90% of the excess heat and almost 30% of the excess carbon dioxide caused by human activity. Consequences of these changes include extreme weather events, rising sea levels, ocean acidification, coral reef mortality, and an increase in low-oxygen zones. Despite this, international investment in ocean observing systems has not kept pace with the need for critical information to guide decision-making. As a result, a central theme of the COP28 Dubai Ocean Declaration is a call on world leaders to "support and foster efforts to greatly expand and improve ocean observations worldwide."

As the planet continues on a path to exceed 1.5°C increase over pre-industrial temperatures, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has concluded that society may need to bolster emissions cuts with atmospheric carbon dioxide removal to meet the goals laid out in the Paris Agreement. A 2021 report by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine found that natural ocean processes could help, but that accelerated research is needed to assess the benefits, risks, and potential for responsible scale-up of the most promising ocean-based carbon dioxide removal strategies.

The COP28 Dubai Ocean Declaration calls on the parties of the UN Climate Conference to adopt measures that enhance protections of the ocean and include several key points into the two-week long negotiations. According to the Declaration, "As the largest, most dynamic reservoir of carbon in Earth's climate system, the ocean can and must play a central role in efforts to achieve net-negative emissions and meet the goals laid out in the Paris Agreement. As a critical part of other life-sustaining planetary processes, the ocean must also be protected from continued anthropogenic change, including any climate mitigation efforts and especially as the rapidly changing Earth system becomes less predictable."

The Declaration underscores the call for drastic cuts of greenhouse gas emissions and immediate concrete efforts to curb other human-induced damages to the ocean, such as overfishing, habitat destruction, and marine pollution, in addition to advancing ocean-based solutions.

"The immediate priority is to drastically reduce carbon emissions within the next decade," said Peter de Menocal, President and Director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, a co-signer of the Declaration. "At the same time, we must explore ways to remove existing emissions from the atmosphere to meet the goals laid out in the Paris Agreement. The ocean presents viable, scalable opportunities for carbon dioxide removal. But independent science must lead, and this requires a new era of collaborative, international ocean observing to track changes in ocean carbon flows, ecosystem health, and to monitor the vital signs of a vast and rapidly changing ocean upon which we all depend."

Specific efforts spelled out in the COP28 Dubai Ocean Declaration include:

Improve global stocktake estimates and measures of progress towards goals laid out in the Paris Agreement by providing better measures of carbon fluxes through the ocean and a more comprehensive view of Earth's ocean-climate system.

Implement robust, cooperative environmental monitoring, reporting, and verification of new and emerging ocean-based carbon dioxide removal strategies to ensure measurable progress towards net-negative emissions while also protecting critical ocean ecosystems.

Expand observing capabilities to measure the widest possible suite of essential climate and biological variables to better understand and address the impacts of climate change on the distribution of ocean life, marine ecosystem health, biomass, and biodiversity.

Develop capacity among island nations and developing countries and refine methods to account for contributions by the ocean's natural functions and the blue economy to climate stabilization through nationally determined contributions and national adaptation plans.

"We need to scale up ocean observing systems to fully understand climate impacts and build a more resilient society," said Margaret Leinen, Vice Chancellor for Marine Sciences at UC San Diego, and Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography. "With this Declaration, we want negotiators at COP28 to prioritize supporting ocean observations like Argo and other technologies that give us the full picture of what's happening below the surface including changes to ocean ecosystems, and invest in capacity development in small island developing states on the front lines of climate change where critical ocean data could be greatly expanded."

More than 40 international ocean science, policy, and philanthropic organizations have signed the COP28 Dubai Ocean Declaration to date.

The Ocean Pavilion is a dedicated space in the Blue Zone at COP28 that returns for a second year to put the ocean center-stage at a crucial time in international climate negotiations. The pavilion brings together diverse and influential partners who will call for ocean-focused solutions to be recognized as critical in the world's response to the climate crisis. Throughout the two-week conference, the pavilion will feature more than 80 events, meetings, and in-depth discussions that elaborate on a set of conference themes, including Rising Seas, Climate & the Living Ocean, and Blue Economy & Finance. Visitors will also be able to learn more about the work of Ocean Pavilion partners and to speak with scientists, thought leaders, and students engaged in the search for solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges.

More information about the Ocean Pavilion and COP28 UAE can be found on the pavilion website and by signing up to receive email updates from COP28.
About UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography: About Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution:
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is a private, non-profit organization on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930, its mission is to understand the ocean and its interactions with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate an understanding of the ocean's role in the changing global environment. WHOI's pioneering discoveries stem from an ideal combination of science and engineering-one that has made it one of the most trusted and technically advanced leaders in fundamental and applied ocean research and exploration anywhere. WHOI is known for its multidisciplinary approach, superior ship operations, and unparalleled deep-sea robotics capabilities. We play a leading role in ocean observation and operate the most extensive suite of ocean data-gathering platforms in the world. Top scientists, engineers, and students collaborate on more than 800 concurrent projects worldwide-both above and below the waves-pushing the boundaries of knowledge to inform people and policies for a healthier planet. Learn more at whoi.edu.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego is one of the world's most important centers for global earth science research and education. In its second century of discovery, Scripps scientists work to understand and protect the planet, and investigate our oceans, Earth, and atmosphere to find solutions to our greatest environmental challenges. Scripps offers unparalleled education and training for the next generation of scientific and environmental leaders through its undergraduate, master's and doctoral programs. The institution also operates a fleet of four oceanographic research vessels, and is home to Birch Aquarium at Scripps, the public exploration center that welcomes 500,000 visitors each year.

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Ocean Pavilion Partners Unveil COP28 Dubai Ocean Declaration in Advance of UN Climate Conference

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Partners of the Ocean Pavilion at COP28 and associated stakeholders are calling on world leaders to recognize the importance of the ocean in climate and support efforts to expand and improve ocean observations worldwide, including expanding coverage in under-observed regions.

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Grantham Research Institute on climate change and the environment

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The distinction between loss and damage from climate change and the 'Loss and Damage' policy debate

Loss and damage refer to the negative consequences of climate change on human societies and the natural environment. Climate change is affecting the frequency, intensity and geographical distribution of extreme weather events such as storms, floods and heatwaves, and slow-onset events such as sea level rise, ocean acidification, loss of biodiversity and desertification. All of these result in loss and damage, both economic and non-economic. Economic loss and damage may include damage to crops, homes or infrastructure. Non-economic loss and damage may include harm to human health and mobility; loss of access to territory, of cultural heritage and of indigenous and local knowledge; and loss of and damage to biodiversity and habitats.

'Loss and Damage' has a distinct but contested meaning in the international climate change policy debate. It is predominately about how to support developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. This is explained further below.

How is climate change causing loss and damage?

The impacts from extreme weather events and slow-onset events that are harming human societies and infrastructure and the natural environment arise through a combination of both anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change and natural climate variability. The scientific consensus is that human-caused climate change increases the frequency and severity of climate-related events overall and can also compound the effects of natural climate variability, such as El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycles. These factors are leading to more destructive climate impacts and higher risks of loss and damage. Attributing specific losses and damage to human-caused climate change is a challenge, although 'attribution science' is a fast-growing research field﻿. A better understanding of the extent to which loss and damage are attributable to climate change can provide a stronger evidence base for decision-makers to implement policies and actions to avert, minimise and address loss and damage.

The extent of loss and damage

Some loss and damage from climate change are unavoidable. This is for two reasons. Firstly, some climate change impacts are inevitable as they are already 'locked in' to the Earth's system due to the extended period over which emitted greenhouse gases fully affect the climate system. Secondly, there are limits to how far we can adapt to climate change impacts. Loss and damage may occur where﻿ adaptation has not been optimally implemented or where adaptation limits are reached - because actions are unaffordable, not physically or technically possible, socially difficult or simply not sufficient to prevent some harm to humans, the environment and assets.

As an example of the financial cost of damage caused by extreme weather events linked to climate change, the extreme flooding in Pakistan﻿ in 2022 is estimated to have caused losses costing up to US$40 billion dollars. Climate change exacerbated the flooding﻿ by increasing the intensity of rainfall by an estimated 50 to 75%. The floods affected 33 million people, cost 1,600 lives, destroyed over 2 million houses, and damaged 13,000km of roads and of cropland with crop losses estimated at US$2.3 billion.

Depending on the extent of global efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change, loss and damage from climate change﻿ that go beyond adaptation could cost developing countries a total of US$290-580 billion in 2030 and reach US$1-1.8 trillion in 2050.

Loss and Damage in the international climate negotiations

Loss and Damage in the international policy debate broadly refers to efforts to "avert, minimise and address loss and damage associated with climate change impacts, especially in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change" (UNFCCC Decision 3/CP.18). Generally, the terms 'avert' and 'minimise' are used to refer to mitigation and adaptation respectively, whereas the term 'address' refers to actions to deal with climate change impacts that have not been or cannot be avoided.

The Loss and Damage debate has been contentious within the international climate negotiations because of questions of fairness and equity﻿, and proving historical responsibility for climate change. Developing countries claim that developed countries have historical responsibility for climate change. As such, they have called for compensation from developed countries to help them address loss and damage that have already occurred and to minimise future loss and damage. However, calls to pay compensation have been a major red line for many of these wealthy nations, which consider addressing Loss and Damage as ex-ante adaptation, namely advance measures to minimise loss and damage. In focusing on minimising future harm, developed countries have sought to treat Loss and Damage as a sub-component of adaptation within the UNFCCC negotiations. This is addressed through the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage﻿ established at the COP19 UN climate conference in 2013. The role of the Mechanism is to address the issue of loss and damage in developing countries by enhancing knowledge of risk management approaches, strengthening coordination to address losses and damage, and increasing action and support, including finance, technology and capacity-building (the need for which is recognised in Article 8 of the Paris Agreement﻿).

During the review of the Mechanism in 2019 at COP25, many developing countries called for its role to be strengthened and for it to deliver finance to vulnerable, developing countries to minimise and address loss and damage. However, consensus was not reached on developed countries' obligation to finance loss and damage. In 2021, at COP26, further debate on Loss and Damage finance culminated in the establishment of the Glasgow Dialogue on Finance for Loss and Damage﻿.

At COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, upcoming at the time of writing, discussions on Loss and Damage are likely to focus on finance and capacity-building for developing nations and the operationalisation of the Santiago Network on Loss and Damage, which aims to provide technical assistance to vulnerable, developing nations.

Reducing loss and damage from climate change

Ways to reduce loss and damage from climate change include increasing resilience before the occurrence of an extreme weather or slow-onset event - for example, by strengthening flood defences - and establishing mechanisms to provide financial or social protection support to those who have already experienced loss and damage. Insurance is one important tool﻿ but is not affordable or accessible to all. There are also opportunities to reduce loss and damage after extreme weather events by incorporating resilience into recovery, such as rebuilding infrastructure to be more climate-resilient in the future.

Specific actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change are essential in both developing and developed countries, to avert and minimise the extent of loss and damage they experience. But broader policy and governance arrangements also play a significant role. This is because communities' vulnerability and exposure to climate change is influenced by a multitude of factors, such as land-use planning, access to education and health services, quality and location of infrastructure, and disaster preparedness, to name but a few, which requires a response across different policy areas. Key to this is pursuing the "role of sustainable development in reducing the risk of loss and damage" (Article 8﻿ of the Paris Agreement). This involves﻿ targeting the most vulnerable communities and developing policies that address the root causes of their vulnerability, to build resilience against future loss and damage.

The figure below shows example actions that can help minimise and address loss and damage at different geographical scales.

This explainer draws on 'Addressing the impacts of climate change through an effective Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage' by Rebecca Byrnes and Swenja Surminski, published by the Grantham Research Institute in 2019, and was updated by Adeline Stuart-Watt in October 2022. For a comprehensive overview of Loss and Damage also see 'Loss and Damage from Climate Change: Concepts, Methods and Policy Options' (Springer, 2019; open access), co-edited by the Institute's Head of Adaptation Research, Swenja Surminski.

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What is climate change 'Loss and Damage'? - Grantham Research Institute on climate change and the environment

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The distinction between loss and damage from climate change and the 'Loss and Damage' policy debate Loss and damage refer...

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The 2030 target is one of several contentious proposals at negotiations in the Dominican Republic this week over a new loss and damage fund
Developing countries want "at least" $100 billion a year by 2030 for the loss and damage caused by climate change.
The 14 developing country members of the committee drawing up rules for a new international loss and damage fund included the target in their joint proposal, ahead of a crunch meeting in the Dominican Republic this week.

Citing a UN-commissioned report that foresees climate-related loss and damages reaching $150-300 billion a year by 2030, the proposal says $100 billion "is not meant as a ceiling but rather as a minimum commitment".

Adao Soares Barbosa is a member of the committee from the south-east Asian nation of Timor-Leste. He told Climate Home that ideally money should flow sooner. "We need it now," he said.

ActionAid campaigner Brandon Wu told Climate Home $100 billion "is quite scant in contrast to the actual need" but is "at least the right scale to begin the conversation".

A rival proposal by the US and European submissions does not include a target. In climate talks, $100 billion is a highly charged symbol as rich nations promised and failed to deliver $100 billion a year in climate finance by 2020.

Zoha Shawoo, a researcher from the Stockholm Environment Institute, said that while a target is "useful for accountability purposes", it "has little meaning when it isn't legally binding".

Given that, she said, "I wonder if its's more useful to have a target that actually reflects the full scale of the needs". A 2019 study put it at $290-580 billion a year by 2030.

Tricky talks

Loss and damage refers to the destruction caused by climate change, that cannot be prevented or adapted to. After decades of pressure from vulnerable countries, rich countries agreed last year to set up a fund to address the costs of this destruction.

A group of 24 negotiators from around the world are meeting in Santo Domingo for the third of four meetings to hash out how the fund will work, ahead of Cop28 in Dubai in December. Talks will be held largely behind closed doors, to encourage frank and free conversation on thorny topics.

The documents published yesterday reveal the battle lines.

Cooking the books: cookstove offsets produce millions of fake emission cuts

The US and developing countries disagree over who should pay into the fund, who should get money from it, what the money should be spent on, how much money should flow, whether it should be delivered as grants or loans and how the fund should be governed.

Even the name is controversial. While developing countries want it to be known as the Loss and Damage Fund, the US has suggested calling it the Resilient Futures Fund.

Who pays in?

The question of who pays into the fund is among the most contentious.

When the European Union opened the door to a fund at the Cop27 climate talks last year, climate chief Frans Timmermans said large economies like China should also pay.

Kenyan president William Ruto courts logging controversy

But the EU eventually approved the fund without that condition. China and other developing countries remain opposed to asking any countries to pay in other than those the UN classified as developed in 1992.

The developing country proposal says that the fund will be given money by developed countries and "may also receive voluntary financial contributions from other parties".

The US proposal just leaves a placeholder for the topic with a footnote explaining that "there are currently differences of views" so "this needs to be discussed".

A shorter submission from the French government calls for funding from "high income/high emitting developing countries" as well as developed nations, the private sector, charity and possibly taxes on polluting sectors.

Soy, beef and gold gangsters: Why Bolivia and Venezuela won't protect the Amazon

A joint submission from Germany and Ireland says that while "developed countries have historic responsibility, all countries with responsibilities for loss and damage and in a position to do so should contribute to the fund".

Under these criteria, wealthy, polluting countries like Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Israel could be asked to pay in.

The case for China and India to contribute is far weaker, as their average incomes and historic emissions per person are much lower than developed countries'.

Who takes out?

The issue of who gets help from the fund is similarly controversial.

Rich nations stipulated money should go to "particularly vulnerable" developing countries - language agreed at Cop27. The US proposes tasking the fund's board "to develop a system for allocations based on vulnerability".

The developing country representatives argue they all suffer from climate impacts and should be eligible for funding "without discrimination or any form of exclusion".

US aims to limit loss and damage fund

Board membership

This board, the US says, should have 29 members. Under the US's proposal, 15 of the 29 are likely to be from developed countries with 10 from developing nations.

The remaining four would represent civil society, the private sector, philanthropy and indigenous peoples.

The developing country proposal says there should be an "equitable" balance between developed and developing countries and have one co-chair each from developed and developing countries.

Harjeet Singh from Climate Action Network told Climate Home the US proposal "tilts power towards wealthy nations" and "represents an ethical failing".

Debt traps

Developing countries are keen to receive money in a way that doesn't add to their debt while wealthy nations would rather raise money in a way which doesn't permanently deplete their coffers.

The developing country proposal says "the fund will be primarily sourced through grant-based public financing". The US says the money should be grants and concessional loans, which are loans given on better terms than the market offers.

The US envisions that the fund will have three sub-funds. One for slow onset events like sea level rise, one for recovery and reconstruction after climate disaster and one for small countries with a population of less than five million.

The board will be tasked with allocating money to each of these sub-funds "in a balanced way that takes into account factors that include vulnerability and demand", the US proposal says.

Ecuadorians reject Amazon oil drilling in historic referendum

The developing country proposal does not address what the money should be spent on, saying they will outline their thoughts this week in Santo Domingo.

Both proposals want the World Bank to act as trustee for the fund, managing its finances.

But the US one goes further in making the World Bank the host of the fund, providing the staff running the organisation. Developing countries want the fund to have a separate dedicated secretariat.

Wu said that getting the bank to run the fund would be a mistake because the fund "could be subject to aspects of [the World Bank's] governance and policies that run counter to key climate justice principles, particularly around equity".

"The Fund could be much more innovative and fit-for-purpose as a fully independent entity," he added.

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Developing countries call for $100 billion loss and damage target

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The 2030 target is one of several contentious proposals at negotiations in the Dominican Republic this week over a new loss and damage fund

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Your latest briefing on the road to COP28 in Dubai

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sign up here .More warnings Still the pre-COP warnings and assessments come. The latest by way of critical context for the summit came from theUN Environment Programme (UNEP) and their emissions gap report.

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Dr Sultan al-Jaber is president of the climate summit and the head of the United Arab Emirates' state oil company

The United Arab Emirates planned to use its role as the host of UN climate talks as an opportunity to strike oil and gas deals, the BBC has learned.

Leaked briefing documents reveal plans to discuss fossil fuel deals with 15 nations.

The UN body responsible for the COP28 summit told the BBC hosts were expected to act without bias or self-interest.

The UAE team did not deny using COP28 meetings for business talks, and said "private meetings are private".

It declined to comment on what was discussed in the meetings and said its work has been focused on "meaningful climate action".

The documents - obtained by independent journalists at the Centre for Climate Reporting working alongside the BBC - were prepared by the UAE's COP28 team for meetings with at least 27 foreign governments ahead of the COP28 summit, which starts on 30 November.

They included proposed "talking points", such as one for China which says Adnoc, the UAE's state oil company, is "willing to jointly evaluate international LNG [liquefied natural gas] opportunities" in Mozambique, Canada and Australia.

The documents suggest telling a Colombian minister that Adnoc "stands ready" to support Colombia to develop its fossil fuel resources.

There are talking points for 13 other countries, including Germany and Egypt, which suggest telling them Adnoc wants to work with their governments to develop fossil fuel projects.

The briefings show the UAE also prepared talking points on commercial opportunities for its state renewable energy company, Masdar, ahead of meetings with 20 countries, including the UK, United States, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Brazil, China, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Kenya.

COP28 is the UN's latest round of global climate talks. This year it is being hosted by the UAE in Dubai and is due to be attended by 167 world leaders, including the Pope and King Charles III.

These summits are the world's most important meetings to discuss how to tackle climate change.

The hope is COP28 will help limit the long-term global temperature rise to 1.5C, which the UN's climate science body says is crucial to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. But that will require drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, it says - a 43% reduction by 2030 from 2019 levels.

As part of the preparations for the conference, the UAE's COP28 team arranged a series of ministerial meetings with governments from around the world.

The meetings were to be hosted by the president of COP28, Dr Sultan al-Jaber. Each year the host nation appoints a representative to be the COP president.

Meeting representatives of foreign governments is one of the core responsibilities of COP presidents. It is the president's job to encourage countries to be as ambitious as possible in their efforts to cut emissions.

The leaked briefing documents seen by the BBC were prepared for Dr Jaber - who is also CEO of the UAE's giant state oil company, Adnoc, and of the state renewables business, Masdar.

The UAE is one of the world's largest oil producers

The documents contain a summary of objectives for the meetings, including information about the minister or official Dr Jaber was due to meet and what issues he should raise in the UAE's efforts to progress the climate talks.

For more than two dozen countries, the documents also contain talking points drawn up by Adnoc and Masdar:

The Brazilian environment minister was to be asked for help "securing alignment and endorsement" for Adnoc's bid for Latin America's largest oil and gas processing company, Braskem. Earlier this month, Adnoc made a $2.1bn (£1.7bn) offer to buy a key stake

Germany was to be told by Adnoc: "We stand ready to continue our LNG supplies"

Adnoc suggested the oil-producing nations of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela be told "there is no conflict between the sustainable development of any country's natural resources and its commitment to climate change"

The BBC has seen an email exchange in which COP28 staff members are told Adnoc and Masdar talking points "always need to be included" in the briefing notes. The COP28 team said it was "simply untrue" that staff had been told this.

It is not clear on how many occasions Dr Jaber and his colleagues raised the talking points in COP28 meetings with foreign governments.

We know, on at least one occasion, a nation followed up on commercial discussions brought up in a meeting arranged by the UAE's COP28 team.

However, 12 nations have told the BBC there was either no discussion of commercial activities during meetings, or a meeting did not take place.

These included the UK. The leaked documents show the COP28 president had been briefed to "seek government support" to more than double the size of a wind farm off the coast of Sheringham in Norfolk in which Masdar has a stake.

Attempting to do business deals during the COP process appears to be a serious breach of the standards of conduct expected of a COP president.

Those standards are set by the UN body responsible for the climate negotiations, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The UNFCCC says the "cardinal principle" for COP presidents and their teams is "the obligation of impartiality".

It told the BBC that COP presidents are "expected to act without bias, prejudice, favouritism, caprice, self-interest, preference or deference, strictly based on sound, independent and fair judgement".

"They are also expected to ensure that personal views and convictions do not compromise or appear to compromise their role and functions as a UNFCCC officer," it continued.

Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, the head of the COP20 summit in Peru in 2014, worries a collapse in trust could mean no progress on tackling climate change in Dubai.

"The president of the COP is the leader of the world, is trying to build consensus on behalf of the planet," he told the BBC.

"If any president of the COP tries to bring a particular interest, [including] commercial interest, that could mean the failure of the COP."

The annual COP summits bring together leaders from almost every nation on earth

Prof Michael Jacobs of Sheffield University, who is an expert on UN climate politics, told the BBC the COP28 team's actions looked "breathtakingly hypocritical".

"I actually think it's worse than that," he said, "because the UAE at the moment is the custodian of a United Nations process aimed at reducing global emissions. And yet, in the very same meetings where it's apparently trying to pursue that goal, it's actually trying to do side deals which will increase global emissions."

Several of the proposed projects mentioned in the briefing documents appear to represent new oil and gas developments. The International Energy Agency, a global watchdog, has said that to keep temperature rises to the 1.5C target, no new oil and gas fields should be developed.

At a press conference last month, COP28 director-general Majid al-Suwaidi said the UAE's climate summit team was "fully independent" of both Adnoc and Masdar.

COP28 has been "very clear about our independence" in discussions with the UNFCCC, he added.

In a statement, the COP28 team told the BBC: "The fact that Dr Sultan al-Jaber holds a number of positions alongside his role as COP28 president-designate is public knowledge and something we have been transparent about from the outset.

"Dr Sultan al-Jaber is singularly focused on the business of COP and delivering ambitious and transformational climate outcomes at COP28," the statement said, adding it would be a "distraction" to suggest that the work he has undertaken has not "been focused on meaningful climate action".

These are serious allegations but ultimately the success of the UAE's leadership of the climate talks, and of the COP28 president himself, will be judged by the results achieved at the summit, experts say.

The COP28 summit is due to end on Tuesday 12 December.

Additional reporting by Adam Eley and Sophie Woodcock

More on the COP28 climate summit

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COP28: UAE planned to use climate talks to make oil deals

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Leaked documents show how the COP28 host planned to use its role to strike fossil fuel business deals.

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As COP28 approaches, there will be mounting calls on the UAE Presidency to secure for a text that explicitly recognises the importance of exiting coal. Photo by Bart van Dijk on Unsplash

All fossil fuels must peak immediately and start to decline this decade. Coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, is the single largest source of carbon emissions and a major contributor to air pollution that takes a devastating toll on public health.

COP28 will see global efforts to accelerate away from fossil fuels and into clean energy. Tripling installed renewable energy capacity, doubling energy efficiency, and the phasing out of all fossil fuels are all being proposed. Continued progress on coal increases the chances that governments will also consider specific commitments to an immediate end to new coal power at COP28.

What we need to see on coal at COP28

The Glasgow Climate Pact marked historic progress as the first time the UNFCCC process had explicitly called upon parties to reduce fossil fuels through "accelerating efforts towards the phasedown of unabated coal power". However, this year's Global Stocktake (GST) demonstrated the need for countries to embark on a "major course correction" on climate action.

As COP28 begins, leading governments have called for a text that explicitly recognises the importance of exiting coal. Negotiators must harness this momentum to push for coal language that strengthens previous COP commitments and reflects the repeated recommendations from the IEA and IPCC, that:

No new unabated coal power stations should enter construction; and

coal power must be phased out not down, by 2030 in the world's richest countries, and by 2040 everywhere else.

Progress on coal is a crucial companion to clean energy commitments

Global targets on tripling renewables and doubling energy efficiency will play a vital role in replacing fossil fuel use, but alone they are unlikely to rapidly reduce coal power. Indeed, most of the increased capacity from tripling renewables is projected to cover electrification in the economy, rather than displacing fossil fuels.As the IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol has said, a target on renewable energy alone is "far from enough" to keep the 1.5C goal within reach.

A coal exit must happen alongside renewable energy deployment and energy efficiency efforts if we are to avoid catastrophic climate change. Explicit COP28 commitments on coal would reflect this shift from the assumed displacement of coal by renewables, to an active and managed transition.

COP commitments reflect real-world trends

COPs are both a signal-setting exercise, and a reflection of real-world progress. Countries were able to support the unprecedented COP26 language on the "phasedown of unabated coal power" because it reflected a real-world economic trend away from coal power.

Two years on, the shift away from coal power has continued, creating an opportunity for further progress on coal at COP28. Governments and international bodies have recognised coal's decline, with investments in clean energy far outstripping those flowing to fossil fuels, and in particular coal.

The scale of proposed new coal power projects outside China stands at around 100 GW, down from 600 GW in 2015, with most planned coal projects concentrated in just a handful of countries. It's no coincidence that the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, the IEA, the US, the European Commission and the G7 have all called for an end to new coal plants. Calls for 'No New Coal' are growing not just because it's essential for the climate, but because it is feasible.

As shown above, China is home to 70%+ of the world's proposed new coal power capacity, and growing. China's detour puts the entire global coal transition at risk. Governments should keep pressing China to deliver on President Xi's previous pledges to "strictly control" new coal plant approvals, phase down coal consumption, and end public financing of overseas coal projects.

Beyond China, only India is also aiming to substantially increase its coal power capacity. Across the rest of the world, there are just 31 other countries still considering proposals for new coal plants, with 13 countries home to only one remaining project. Countries still considering new coal are now in a massive minority across all negotiating blocs, even the G77 + China.

As the urgency to address climate change grows, it's clear the world must move faster to phase out coal as a first proof point that fossil fuel phase out is possible. Strengthened coal commitments at COP28 would further signal coal's demise and set the stage for a decisive move towards a coal-free, and liveable future.

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COP28: clean energy will help show coal the exit

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All fossil fuels must peak immediately and start to decline this decade. Coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, is the single largest source of carbon emissions and a major contributor to air pollution that takes a devastating toll on public health. COP28 will see global efforts to accelerate away from fossil fuels and into clean energy.

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To avoid the most devastating impacts of climate change, we must urgently do more. COP28 presents a chance to accelerate energy transition, protect the vulnerable, and transform international finance provision. Despite geopolitical and domestic challenges, German diplomacy can have a significant impact. To maximize this, demonstrating credibility, presenting a strong international offer, and strategically leveraging [...]

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Brazil's National Bank on Climate Financing

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Brazil's National Bank on Climate Financing

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Protecting the Amazon is pivotal in the global fight against rising temperatures. As the first Black woman to lead the second-largest bank in Latin America in over two centuries, I firmly believe that financial institutions play a crucial role in transitioning to a low-carbon economy. To counter deforestation, we must create sustainable economic opportunities for the Amazon's inhabitants.

As leaders converge in New York for the 78th session of the UN General Assembly, we have a vital opportunity to come together and assess the strategies employed by governments, investors, and companies. We must prevent the Amazon from reaching a point of no return. Scientists warn that 26% of the Amazon has already undergone severe degradation, rendering forest rehabilitation an immense challenge.

To reverse this alarming trend, it's essential to restore pastures with varying degrees of degradation so that agricultural activity doesn't grow at the expense of the rainforest. Investments are set to allow us to nearly double the country's cultivated area, expanding it from 128 million acres to over 222 million acres in the next decade.

Today, renewable sources account for 83% of Brazil's electricity matrix. The country's capacity to generate carbon credits holds the potential to yield approximately 577 billion reals by 2030. We have been at the forefront of a global campaign for decarbonization, with major corporations playing a pivotal role in hastening progress.

The institution I lead boasts one of the most substantial portfolios of sustainable businesses globally. I am traveling to New York to engage in discussions with external investors and multilateral organizations. The aim is to forge alliances and secure funding for environmental protection. Leveraging the progress of ongoing operations and negotiations, I plan to secure over 23 billion reals (circa $5 billion) for the Brazilian market in collaboration with global development banks in the first half of 2024. These funds will support initiatives related to climate finance, renewable energy, energy efficiency, and environmental restoration.

As a financial institution based in Brazil, our ambition is to set an example of environmental responsibility across all biomes, particularly the Amazon. Our unwavering commitment is not only to preserve the forests and rivers but to also enhance the quality of life for local residents.

The world's largest rainforest spans eight South American countries, including Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. In August, Brazil hosted a conference aimed at bolstering regional cooperation among Amazon nations.

And we are not alone. At the Amazon Summit, we joined the Green Coalition, a collaborative effort of several Brazilian banks working to find financial solutions that support inclusive and sustainable productive activities.

In addition to the numerous discussions revolving around credit and investment negotiations in the capital market, we need an economy that can be both compassionate and inclusive. To this end, we proudly support three major human rights movements of the Global Compact Network Brazil, focusing on gender equality, inclusion of Black and indigenous populations, and fair wages.

As we address the Amazon's challenges, we must remain committed to social development. Banks must seek to harmonize financial returns for shareholders with social and environmental advancements to reduce inequality.
Tarciana Medeiros is the CEO of Banco do Brasil, a government-owned Brazilian bank. Medeiros is the first woman president of Brazil's oldest bank, Banco do Brasil (BB), the second-largest bank in Latin America.
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

Subscribe to the new Fortune CEO Weekly Europe newsletter to get corner office insights on the biggest business stories in Europe. Sign up before it launches Nov. 29.

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Banco do Brasil CEO: 'Brazil is responsible for half of the Amazon rainforest. Here's how we're finding the money to save it'

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'Banks must seek to harmonize financial returns for shareholders with social and environmental advancements to reduce inequality,' writes Tarciana Medeiros.

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Day one is largely ceremonial and procedural, and kicks off the World Climate Action Summit which runs across the 1st and 2nd December. It's the moment to gauge whether there's going to be any sort of dispute over the agenda. In itself, that doesn't prevent discussions.

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Tomorrow, COP28 begins in Dubai, the year's largest climate summit, where thousands will gather to tackle the most pressing challenges of our time. Here's an all-you-need-to-know resource kit by the ACT2025 consortium - experts representing perspectives from climate-vulnerable countries - providing valuable insights, explainers and benchmarks to make COP28 a success.

1. ACT2025's Call to Action for COP28

This go-to reference serves as your compass for what needs to be delivered at COP28 across the Global Stocktake, mitigation, adaptation, finance, loss and damage, and more.

2. The Global Stocktake: A Reckoning for Leaders

Explore this paper to understand the Global Stocktake outcomes that are crucial for limiting warming to 1.5˚ C and fostering climate-resilient development. Gain insights into how leaders should respond to the world's first ever stocktake of the implementation of the Paris Agreement at COP28 and beyond.

3. Understanding the Global Goal on Adaptation

Delve into this informative article that breaks down the Global Goal on Adaptation, explaining what it is, why it matters, and what elements should be integrated into the goal's framework.

4. Making Sense of Article 2.1C

Uncover the nuances of Article 2.1(c) on climate finance, a critical yet often perceived as vague goal of the Paris Agreement. This explainer describes what it is, how it interacts with other finance mandates, and what's needed to put it into action.

5. Podcast Episode on COP28

In just 16 minutes, this podcast brings together ACT2025 experts to discuss the topics dominating the COP28 agenda, including fossil fuels, finance, and loss and damage. It's your quick guide to essential insights for a successful COP28.

6. A Clarion Call for Climate Leadership

Watch this high-level webinar where speakers stressed the urgent call for renewing the global commitment to the Paris Agreement at COP28. They called for action on fossil fuels, emphasized the $100 billion climate finance goal, urged developed nations to rapidly scale up their support, and emphasized that supporting those on the frontlines of the climate crisis is not an option - it's an absolutely necessity.

Visit wri.org/ACT2025 for access to all resources. We encourage you to share this kit with your networks and reach out if you have any questions or suggestions for further collaboration.

Senior Advisor, Global Climate Program and the Finance Center
World Resources Institute, partner of the ACT2025 consortium

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Tomorrow, COP28 begins in Dubai, the year's largest climate summit, where thousands will gather to tackle the most pressing challenges of our time. Here's an all-you-need-to-know resource kit by the ACT2025 consortium - experts representing perspectives from climate-vulnerable countries - providing valuable insights, explainers and benchmarks to make COP28 a success.

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Hybrid capital. Equity-to-loan ratio. Shareholder guarantees. These are the levers the World Bank is pulling to release more money for climate action. Shareholders approved a package of reforms this week, in Ajay Banga’s first annual meeting at the helm of the bank.

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BRUSSELS, June 7 (Reuters) - The European Commission and the United Arab Emirates' presidency of this year's COP28 climate summit pledged on Wednesday to seek support for global goals to expand renewable energy, which they said would help countries to shift from unabated fossil fuels.

The two sides will work to "ensure maximum support on global 2030 targets for the tripling of renewable energy and doubling of energy efficiency," a statement agreed after a meeting of officials in Brussels said.

"These targets would support the transition towards energy systems free of unabated fossil fuels."

Unabated fossil fuels are those that do not use technology to capture the CO2 emissions produced from burning them.

The EU and COP28 hosts UAE will also work together on establishing a fund to address irreparable damage climate change is causing in vulnerable countries, they said. Countries agreed last year to launch that fund, but have yet to negotiate how it will work and where the money will come from.

At last year's COP27 U.N. climate summit, countries failed to agree a deal on phasing down the fossil fuel consumption that causes climate change.

A proposal by India to do so won support from more than 80 governments, but Saudi Arabia and other oil- and gas-rich countries opposed it.

Some countries, including members of the European Union, hope to revive the proposal ahead of this year's U.N. climate summit, which begins on Nov. 30 in Dubai.

But countries have already clashed over wording.

The UAE's incoming COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber - who is also the head of the country's national oil company - last month urged countries to focus on "phasing out fossil fuel emissions".

That could allow countries to keep using fossil fuels, while using technology to capture their emissions.

Other nations want a clear commitment to gradually stop using oil, gas and coal.

"We must bring the fossil fuel era to an end and phase out fossil fuels," the Netherlands, Chile, New Zealand and climate-vulnerable island states, including the Marshall Islands, said in a joint letter last month.

Reporting by Kate Abnett; Edited by Benoit Van Overstraeten, Sharon Singleton and Barbara Lewis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Kate Abnett covers EU climate and energy policy in Brussels, reporting on Europe's green transition and how climate change is affecting people and ecosystems across the EU. Other areas of coverage include international climate diplomacy. Before joining Reuters, Kate covered emissions and energy markets for Argus Media in London. She is part of the teams whose reporting on Europe's energy crisis won two Reuters journalist of the year awards in 2022.

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EU, COP28 host UAE pledge to rally support for renewable goals

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The European Commission and the United Arab Emirates' presidency of this year's COP28 climate summit pledged on Wednesday to seek support for global goals to expand renewable energy, which they said would help countries to shift from unabated fossil fuels.

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DUBAI, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Countries will for the first time assess how far off track they are to curb global warming at this year's COP28 climate change summit, a process known as the "global stocktake".

Governments will look at progress so far as well as what action is still needed to get the world on track. The aim is to yield a plan by the end of the two-week U.N. conference in Dubai.

The assessment could become politically divisive as it sets the stage for the next few years of global action in cutting planet-warming emissions.

Here is what you need to know about the stocktake.

WHY IS A GLOBAL STOCKTAKE IMPORTANT?

Each country sets its own targets and policies for meeting the 2015 Paris Agreement's overall goal of holding global warming to within 2 degrees Celsius of preindustrial times, and aiming for just 1.5 C of warming.

Under the 2015 pact, countries must gauge their progress as of this year, and then every five years afterwards. Based on the results, countries may be pressed to set more ambitious climate policies or to contribute more financing to help developing countries adopt clean energy.

This year's stocktake could also offer important guidance as countries prepare to update their emissions-cutting targets again by 2025. For example, the stocktake could advise that CO2-cutting targets should cover a country's entire economy, not just certain sectors.

IS THE WORLD OFF COURSE IN MEETING CLIMATE GOALS?

In September, the United Nations offered an early stocktake assessment that revealed countries were far behind in meeting climate goals. It said action was required "on all fronts" to keep the global average temperature rise limited to 1.5 C - the threshold beyond which scientists say more severe and irreversible climate impacts will occur.

Alex Flores walks on a dry area of Lake Titicaca, Latin America's largest freshwater basin, as it is edging towards record low levels, on Cojata Island, Bolivia October 26, 2023. REUTERS/Claudia Morales/File Photo

Despite a huge increase in the number of countries setting CO2-cutting targets since the Paris Agreement, current emissions plans still put the world on track to warm by at least 2.5 C, the U.N. estimates.

Many countries also have yet to set strong enough short-term policies to steer their economies towards emissions targets for 2030 and 2050.

The global average temperature has already warmed by 1.2 C since pre-industrial times, which is causing widespread drought along with more frequent deadly heat waves, wildfires and storms around the world.

HOW WILL THE STOCKTAKE DRIVE CLIMATE ACTION?

Before the stocktake has even started, countries are squabbling over the scope of future plans - including whether they should commit to phase out fossil fuel use, end investments in new coal power plants or triple renewable energy capacity within this decade.

COP28 delegates will also need to decide if the stocktake should recommended action for specific sectors, such as the energy or manufacturing sectors.

The U.N.'s report in September urged countries to cut CO2-emitting coal power by 67% to 82% from 2019 levels by 2030.

The report also called for more finance to help poorer countries adopt clean energy, and noted that billions of dollars were still being invested in fossil fuels every year.

The European Union wants the stocktake to produce "concrete policy signals" for countries to follow.

Some developing countries have suggested the stocktake should focus on pressuring wealthy nations to do more, since they have contributed the most emissions to the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution, diplomats said.

"This is where we take stock and see where we are - where are the gaps between the targets and our ambitions, and the actual action. What then needs to be decided... what do we then do from here," Dan Jorgensen, Denmark's Global Climate Policy Minister, told Reuters.

Reporting by Kate Abnett, editing by Katy Daigle and Josie Kao and Miral Fahmy

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Kate Abnett covers EU climate and energy policy in Brussels, reporting on Europe's green transition and how climate change is affecting people and ecosystems across the EU. Other areas of coverage include international climate diplomacy. Before joining Reuters, Kate covered emissions and energy markets for Argus Media in London. She is part of the teams whose reporting on Europe's energy crisis won two Reuters journalist of the year awards in 2022.

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How will countries measure climate action at COP28?

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Countries will for the first time assess how far off track they are to curb global warming at this year's COP28 climate change summit, a process known as the "global stocktake".

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Nov 27 (Reuters) - Following a year of record heat and drought, this year's U.N. climate summit will feature a contentious set of issues for countries working to find common ground in tackling climate change, including whether to phase out fossil fuels and how to finance the energy transition in developing countries.

Here are the key issues in the two-week COP28 negotiations starting Nov. 30 in Dubai.

TAKING STOCK OF CLIMATE PROGRESS

The main task at COP28 is a first-time assessment of countries' progress towards meeting the 2015 Paris Agreement's goal of limiting the global temperature rise to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius, while aiming for 1.5C.

With global efforts lagging, countries will try during this "global stocktake" to agree on a plan to get the world on track to meet climate goals, which could include urgent steps towards cutting CO2 emissions or boosting green technology investments.

As the COP28 talks begin, countries are at odds over whether this exercise should put the onus on all countries or just the world's wealthiest countries to do more because they released the most planet-warming emissions historically.

Countries are expected to update their national emissions-cutting targets and plans by 2025.

FUTURE OF FOSSIL FUELS

The toughest talks at COP28 may focus on the future role of fossil fuels, and whether countries should commit to start phasing out the use of CO2-emitting coal, oil and gas.

Countries agreed at COP26 to phase down the use of coal, but they have never agreed to quit all fossil fuels - the main source of planet-warming emissions.

The United States, European Union and many climate-vulnerable countries are insisting on a final COP28 deal that commits countries to phase out fossil fuels. But the Group of 20 failed to agree on this point at their summit in July, and countries including Russia have said they would oppose a fossil fuel phase-out.

While the UAE's incoming COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber has said the phase down of fossil fuels is " inevitable", countries are waiting to see if the UAE will push other oil-rich nations to back the idea at COP28. Jaber has faced criticism for his dual role as head of the UAE's state-owned oil and gas company ADNOC, and incoming president of the climate talks.

TECHNOLOGIES TO TACKLE EMISSIONS

The UAE and other countries whose economies are dependent on fossil fuels want COP28 to include a focus on nascent technologies designed to capture and store CO2 emissions underground.

While the International Energy Agency says these emissions-abatement technologies are crucial for meeting global climate goals, they are also expensive and not currently used on a large scale. The EU and others worry they will be used to justify continued fossil fuel use.

BOOSTING CLEAN ENERGY CAPACITY

Countries will consider setting goals to triple renewable energy capacity and to double energy savings by 2030 - a proposal made by the European Union, United States and the UAE's COP28 presidency.

This looks set to win broad support, with G20 major economies including China already backing the renewables goal. But the EU and some climate-vulnerable countries insist on pairing this pledge to boost renewables with phasing out fossil fuels, setting up a clash.

FINANCING FOR THE COSTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Tackling climate change and its consequences will take an astonishing amount of investment - far more than the world has budgeted so far.

Developing countries will need at least $200 billion every year by 2030 to adapt to worsening climate impacts like coastal sea rise or storms, according to the U.N.. Additionally, they will need funding to help replace polluting energy with clean sources.

There are also the costs of the damage already being caused by climate disasters. At COP28, countries will be tasked with setting up a "loss and damage" fund to help with this, which developing nations say should unlock at least $100 billion by 2030.

These enormous price tags make the U.N. climate talks tense.

Vulnerable nations want more money spent on adapting to a world that is sure to become warmer over the next few decades. They want wealthy nations, whose past CO2 emissions largely caused climate change, to pay up.

The EU and U.S. have said they will put money in the climate damage fund at COP28, but they also talk about the need for private finance to help. Wealthy countries also face pressure to prove they have met an overdue climate funding pledge to provide $100 billion per year to developing countries.

'SIDE DEALS'

Outside of the official U.N. negotiations, governments and companies will be making their own announcements.

The United Arab Emirates plans to launch a voluntary pledge from oil and gas companies to cut emissions, in a bid to bring the fossil fuel industry into the climate fight.

Other initiatives set to be announced on the sidelines of COP28 include pledges to curb emissions of the greenhouse gas methane, limit emissions from air conditioning and restrict private finance for coal plants.

Reporting by Kate Abnett; Editing by Katy Daigle and Josie Kao

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Kate Abnett covers EU climate and energy policy in Brussels, reporting on Europe's green transition and how climate change is affecting people and ecosystems across the EU. Other areas of coverage include international climate diplomacy. Before joining Reuters, Kate covered emissions and energy markets for Argus Media in London. She is part of the teams whose reporting on Europe's energy crisis won two Reuters journalist of the year awards in 2022.

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COP28: What key issues will be discussed at UN climate change conference?

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Following a year of record heat and drought, this year's U.N. climate summit will feature a contentious set of issues for countries working to find common ground in tackling climate change, including whether to phase out fossil fuels and how to finance the energy transition in developing countries.

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The US Center: Dear World Leaders Message from Youth Event

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The US Center: Dear World Leaders Message from Youth Event

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Heare from youth leaders and NOAA at this event from the US Center.

K. Gabel

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COP 28: Dear World Leaders: A Message from Youth

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COP28: What sea level rise will look like in the cities that have hosted global climate summits | CNN

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A new analysis shows the cities of COP's past could soon be inundated - if not entirely submerged - by rising ocean waters.

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C40 city mayors will attend COP28 to call for fossil fuel phaseout, halving emissions by 2030 and more direct investment in cities to accelerate the fair and just transition to tackle the climate crisis.

Cities contribute over 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions; rapid city-focused action is crucial to meeting Paris Agreement targets.

COP28 President-designate Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber and UN Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions Michael R. Bloomberg will host a historic Local Climate Action Summit at COP28, recognising the critical role of cities in tackling the climate crisis.

At the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28),an international delegation of mayors and city officials led by C40 Co-Chair Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, the Mayor of Freetown, Sierra Leone, will unite to drive the urgent phaseout of fossil fuels, address climate injustices and call on world leaders to work with them as critical partners in tackling the escalating climate crisis.

For the first time ever, COP28 will open with a Local Climate Action Summit (LCAS), providing a formal platform for mayors at the heart of the multilateral negotiation space for mayors that are part of C40 and its sister organisation, the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy. The first-of-its-kind local summit at COP, hosted by the COP Presidency and Bloomberg Philanthropies in the COP28 Blue Zone, will recognise the critical role of local leaders in driving down emissions, addressing climate risk and driving climate progress at the national level.

Cities are responsible for 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions and have a critical role to play in reducing emissions and reaching critical climate goals, but are facing an over US$3 trillion gap in urban climate finance at the same time that fossil fuel subsidies are at the highest level ever. Mayors will unite in offering to continue leadership to halve emissions this decade, while advocating for global and national leaders to grant cities the critical funding, powers and support from national governments. This offer seeks to help limit global heating to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. This call was echoed today in an open letter by C40 Co-Chairs Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and Mayor of Freetown, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr to Heads of State. The letter called for collective action to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, which is at the root of the climate crisis.

Today, C40 announced an updated Cities Climate Transition Framework in response to the UN Secretary General's High-Level Expert Group recommendations. It offers a clear plan for cities to follow in their fight against the climate crisis. This framework aims to help C40 cities cut their fossil fuel usage in half by 2030 and create 50 million green jobs. It emphasises the need for cities to collaborate with local communities, businesses, financial groups and government bodies to transform urban areas into net-zero emission, climate-resilient and prosperous places for everyone.

Cities, home to more than half of the global population, are acting to reduce fossil fuel use in highly polluting sectors. Their initiatives range from expanding and electrifying public transport that is accessible to all, to enhancing energy efficiency in homes and reducing energy use and costs. C40 cities are at the forefront of the climate movement, demonstrating a tangible blueprint for an equitable transition.

Every week a city experiences a new first in climate impacts. There is no clearer example that encapsulates this urgency for action than the recent unprecedented heatwaves of over 50°C in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Nearly all C40 cities report that they have faced, and continue to face, severe climate threats that jeopardise their economic and social prosperity. Mayors are calling for this COP to serve as a platform to propel adaptation and resilience efforts worldwide to ensure our cities remain liveable.

The message is clear: COP28 must be the COP of cities as well as national governments. It must close the urban finance gap and unlock investment that flows directly to cities to enable a win-win scaling up of critical inclusive climate action to improve livelihoods and limit global heating.

Mayor of Freetown and C40 Co-Chair, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr said:"The situation that confronts us today is grave. It's nothing less than self-harm on a planetary scale. For too long, we have let the fossil fuel industry run rampant, and it's this industry that has created the very conditions of the climate crisis that we witness today. Across C40 cities our residents are struggling to access or afford energy and dealing with polluted air and water as a result of fossil fuels.

"The tide must turn. We call for the end of investment in polluting fossil fuels and the unlocking of local investments to shift to clean and equitable economies. In doing so, national leaders can work hand in hand with cities to seize the opportunity of climate action that creates more jobs, resilient economies, and healthier communities."

Lord Mayor of Copenhagen and C40 Vice Chair Sophie Hæstorp Andersen said: "COP28 presents a crucial opportunity to confront the fossil fuel industry's role in the climate crisis. Cities are on the frontlines in the battle to overcome the climate crisis. However we cannot do this alone, we call on global leaders to end fossil fuel subsidies and prioritise the transition to renewable energy sources."

Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes said:"No human on earth should endure over 50 degree heat but this is the reality that my residents now have to cope with. This extreme weather affected all areas of life, from the young people losing precious school hours to the heat, workers who were unable to do their jobs, the most vulnerable who became unwell and those who sadly lost their lives.

"As we grapple with this crisis and head into COP28, we carry the unequivocal call for climate justice and the phasing out of fossil fuels that drive the climate crisis.

"We in the global south personally feel the devastation of unchecked emissions and urge COP28 leaders to hear us loud and clear: without adequate and direct funding to the world's cities, we will remain dangerously off limiting global temperatures to 1.5°C. There is nothing greater at stake."

C40 Executive Director, Mark Watts said: "At COP28 global leaders must agree to begin rapidly phasing out fossil fuels which are the primary cause of the climate crisis. This is the 28th COP and still there is no agreement to stop investing in oil, gas and coal. Mayors are doing their bit and taking action to reduce demand for fossil fuels through things like clean air zones and green building regulations. We need to make it cheaper and easier for people to live a lower carbon lifestyle, and difficult and expensive for vested interests in the fossil fuel industry to keep dominating economies. The impacts of the climate crisis are not a future problem - they're happening now. Nearly all C40 cities have already faced extreme weather events which jeopardise their economic and social prosperity."

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The cities' COP: Mayors head to Dubai to say cities can help keep 1.5°C alive - C40 Cities

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Mayors will attend COP28 to call for fossil fuel phaseout, halving emissions by 2030 and more direct investment in cities to accelerate climate action

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Declaration to Triple Nuclear Energy at COP

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Declaration to Triple Nuclear Energy at COP

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Countries launch joint declaration to triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050 at COP28

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Declaration draws on NEA analysis which shows that that tripling nuclear energy capacity by 2050 provides the world with a realistic and practical path to meet net zero carbon emissions goals.

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Declaration the Triple Nuclear Energy full text

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Declaration the Triple Nuclear Energy full text

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Recognizes that energy transition needs to happen fast and that nuclear energy is already present as a low-carbon and small land footprint resource.

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DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - During the World Climate Action Summit of the 28 th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change today, more than 20 countries from four continents launched the Declaration to Triple Nuclear Energy.The Declaration recognizes the key role of nuclear energy in achieving global net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and keeping the 1.5-degree goal within reach. Core elements of the declaration include working together to advance a goal of tripling nuclear energy capacity globally by 2050 and inviting shareholders of international financial institutions to encourage the inclusion of nuclear energy in energy lending policies.Endorsing countries include the United States, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Ghana, Hungary, Japan, Republic of Korea, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom. The full text of the Declaration is below.

Declaration to Triple Nuclear Energy
02 December 2023

Recognizing the key role of nuclear energy in achieving global net-zero greenhouse gas emissions / carbon neutrality by or around mid-century and in keeping a 1.5°C limit on temperature rise within reach and achieving Sustainable Development Goal 7;

Recognizing the importance of the applications of nuclear science and technology that contribute to monitoring climate change and tackling its impacts, and emphasizing the work of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in this regard;

Recognizing that nuclear energy is already the second-largest source of clean dispatchable baseload power, with benefits for energy security;

Recognizing that analyses from the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and World Nuclear Association show that global installed nuclear energy capacity must triple by 2050 in order to reach global net-zero emissions by the same year;

Recognizing that analysis from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows nuclear energy approximately tripling its global installed electrical capacity from 2020 to 2050 in the average 1.5°C scenario;

Recognizing that analysis from the International Energy Agency shows nuclear power more than doubling from 2020 to 2050 in global net-zero emissions by 2050 scenarios and shows that decreasing nuclear power would make reaching net zero more difficult and costly;

Recognizing that new nuclear technologies could occupy a small land footprint and can be sited where needed, partner well with renewable energy sources, and have additional flexibilities that support decarbonization beyond the power sector, including hard-to-abate industrial sectors;

Recognizing the IAEA's activities in supporting its Member States, upon request, to include nuclear power in their national energy planning in a sustainable way that adheres to the highest standards of safety, security, and safeguards and its "Atoms4NetZero" initiative as an opportunity for stakeholders to exchange expertise;

Recognizing the importance of financing for the additional nuclear power capacity needed to keep a 1.5°C limit on temperature rise within reach;

Recognizing the need for high-level political engagement to spur further action on nuclear power;
The Participants in this pledge:
Commit to work together to advance a global aspirational goal of tripling nuclear energy capacity from 2020 by 2050, recognizing the different domestic circumstances of each Participant;

Commit to take domestic actions to ensure nuclear power plants are operated responsibly and in line with the highest standards of safety, sustainability, security, and non-proliferation, and that fuel waste is responsibly managed for the long term;

Commit to mobilize investments in nuclear power, including through innovative financing mechanisms;

Invite shareholders of the World Bank, international financial institutions, and regional development banks to encourage the inclusion of nuclear energy in their organizations' energy lending policies as needed, and to actively support nuclear power when they have such a mandate, and encourage regional bodies that have the mandate to do so to consider providing financial support to nuclear energy;

Commit to supporting the development and construction of nuclear reactors, such as small modular and other advanced reactors for power generation as well as wider industrial applications for decarbonization, such as for hydrogen or synthetic fuels production;

Recognize the importance of promoting resilient supply chains, including of fuel, for safe and secure technologies used by nuclear power plants over their full life cycles;

Recognize the importance, where technically feasible and economically efficient, of extending the lifetimes of nuclear power plants that operate in line with the highest standards of safety, sustainability, security, and non-proliferation, as appropriate;

Commit to supporting responsible nations looking to explore new civil nuclear deployment under the highest standards of safety, sustainability, security, and non-proliferation;

Welcome and encourage complementary commitments from the private sector, non-governmental organizations, development banks, and financial institutions;

Resolve to review progress towards these commitments on an annual basis on the margins of the COP;

Call on other countries to join this declaration.

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At COP28, Countries Launch Declaration to Triple Nuclear Energy Capacity by 2050, Recognizing the Key Role of Nuclear Energy in Reaching Net Zero

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Declaration Recognizes the Key Role of Nuclear Energy in Keeping Within Reach the Goal of Limiting Temperature Rise to 1.5 Degrees Celsius

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My overarching question:

How do the values of Indigenous Peoples in the U.S. compare to the values of top U.S. leaders?

How is the U.S. showing up at COP28?

- Adelynne Dadivas

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Indigenous Environmental Network | Respecting and Adhering to Indigenous Knowledge and Natural Law

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COP28 Article 6 Fact Sheets | Indigenous Environmental Network

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COP28 - FACTS! On this page you will find concise overviews of the facts in Article 6 that, and other proposals and agreements from the ratification of the 2015 Paris Agreement, will continue to be market-based, heavily in favor of the chemical, agriculture, fossil fuels, and hard rock mining industries.

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Cop28 officially opens on 30 November in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, and the conference is scheduled to end on 14 December, although is likely to run later. World leaders will attend the world climate action summit segment on 1 and 2 December and after they depart the crunch negotiations will be done by their representatives, environment ministers or other high-ranking officials.

Sultan Al Jaber, Cop28 president

Sultan Al Jaber, the president-designate of Cop28, is minister for advanced technology in the government of the UAE, and the co-founder in 2006 of its government-backed renewable energy company, Masdar. Much more significantly, Al Jaber is also the head of the UAE's national oil company, Adnoc.

This is the first time the chief executive of any company has acted as Cop president - the job usually goes to career cabinet-rank politicians such as the foreign minister. To have the head of an oil company take on the role is not only unprecedented, but for many campaigners - and some other countries - a travesty.

Al Jaber has taken the criticism in his stride. He argues that he can bring a "business mindset" to the talks, and who better to bring fossil fuel interests to the table than someone who speaks their language and knows their business intimately?

Contradictions abound. He has said " the phase-down of fossil fuels is inevitable and necessary ", but Adnoc is still planning a massive expansion of capacity. He will hold a special summit segment on cutting methane, but the Guardian has discovered that Adnoc is flaring methane - contrary to its own claims. Al Jaber hopes to bring together fossil fuel companies into a "decarbonisation accelerator", but their main goal may be to cut their own emissions, not sell less oil and gas.

The UAE is closely allied with Saudi Arabia - one of the most obstructive nations in 30 years of these talks - if Al Jaber can bring about a change of tone from his Gulf state allies, that could at least be a welcome sign.

António Guterres, UN secretary general

The UN secretary general is probably the most outspoken senior figure on the world stage on the climate crisis. He has talked of humanity committing "collective suicide" and targeted fossil fuel companies who "have humanity by the throat". This year, amid rapidly rising temperatures, he said: "The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived."

Guterres will champion developing nations at Cop28, encouraging and berating rich countries into providing more support. He is likely to be equally outspoken to leaders of countries with high emissions and inadequate reduction plans, and most of all to the fossil fuel executives who are expected to turn up in large numbers.

Simon Stiell, Grenada's minister for climate resilience

This will be Stiell's second conference of the parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as executive secretary of the treaty - the official title of the UN's top climate official. As the former environment minister for the island nation of Grenada, he has long experience of Cops so knows the negotiations inside out. His job will be to work closely with the UAE presidency, acting as an honest broker to all 198 parties, and guiding an agreement through the complexities of the UNFCCC process.

Mia Mottley, prime minister of Barbados

The prime minister of Barbados, under whom the country removed the British crown as head of state to become a fully fledged republic, has been an electrifying presence at recent Cops and her missions to force the restructuring of international financial institutions has already borne fruit, with a new World Bank president and promises of reform.

Mottley wants to go much further and secure the flow of trillions of dollars of investment each year to the developing world, to transform the global economy and provide protection for those most at risk of climate disaster. She has forged close ties with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who held a climate finance summit in June, and her Bridgetown agenda is now widely accepted as a potential blueprint for future action.

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Ajay Banga, World Bank president

This will be the first Cop for Banga, who took over as president of the World Bank this year after the resignation of David Malpass, a Trump appointee who was forced to resign after a series of gaffes appeared to reveal a degree of climate denial. Banga faces a difficult task: Mottley, the former US president Al Gore, and a substantial number of developed and developing countries want serious reform of the bank, which they say has failed to take the steps necessary to lead the world out of the climate crisis.

Joe Biden, US president

It is unlikely that Biden will attend Cop this year, though his appearance last year was greeted with enthusiasm. The Inflation Reduction Act is now beginning to have an impact on the US and the global economy and it has spurred not only investment in the US but reactive models from the EU, the UK and other developed countries. But Biden has also presided over a massive expansion of oil and gas drilling across the US, and is so hamstrung by a Republican House there seems small chance of the increase in climate finance that developing countries are - quite reasonably - clamouring for from the world's biggest historical emitter.

John Kerry, US special presidential envoy for climate

As secretary of state, Kerry signed the Paris climate agreement for the US, with his granddaughter on his lap. The former US senator and presidential candidate, now Biden's special envoy on climate, is one of the biggest beasts at Cops, and gets on well at a personal level with his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua, with whom he had a cordial meeting earlier this month resulting in a declaration that the world's two biggest emitters would cooperate further on the climate. Kerry will have some tough questions to answer from developing countries, however: the US has consistently come up short in climate finance and is now the world's biggest exporter of oil and gas, despite Biden's publicly green stance and the achievements of the Inflation Reduction Act.

Wopke Hoekstra, EU climate commissioner

When the former Dutch foreign minister, Frans Timmermans, resigned this summer to fight in the Dutch general election, he left an outsize vacancy. Timmermans, the vice-president of the European Commission, was one of the most energetic figures at the Cop talks, squeezing sometimes squabbling EU member states into unity - the EU negotiates as a bloc at Cops - and invoking drama at tense moments. His place is taken by Hoekstra, still largely an unknown entity, whose job will be to try to hold the course on the EU green deal and climate action against attacks from the resurgent populist far right.

Xie Zhenhua, China's climate spokesperson

The veteran Chinese climate envoy has been a key figure at Cops for more than a decade, and he enjoys a cordial relationship with Kerry. China, the world's biggest emitter, is pivotal at Cop talks, but its national plans on emissions - called nationally determined contributions, under the Paris agreement - have been criticised for not going far enough. However, there are encouraging signs in the form of a surge in renewable energy capacity that could soon herald a peaking of emissions - if China's strong coal interests do not stage a successful fightback.

Rishi Sunak, UK prime minister

Sunak snubbed the UN general assembly this year where an invitation-only meeting of world leaders was convened by Guterres. He will attend Cop28, but in the shadow of recent U-turns on key climate policies, which the government's climate watchdog said would damage the UK's ability to meet its legally binding net zero targets, and of his vows to "max out" the North Sea.

These policies are unlikely to endear him to world leaders and have provoked outrage, even from members of his own party. He will face charges of recidivism and betrayal. A roll call of UK heavyweights have poured criticism on him: Lord Stern, the economist, excoriated Sunak's record of "backsliding" on the climate recently in the House of Lords; Lord Deben, the former Tory environment secretary, has decried his hypocrisy; and Lord Turner, the former chief of the committee on climate change, said the UK's green light to a new coalmine was encouraging coal proponents in other countries.

Perhaps more concerning for Sunak, opinion polls appear to show that his anti-green rhetoric has turned off even more voters.

King Charles III

As Prince of Wales, Charles made his first public speech on the environment in 1970 and has been a staunch advocate of conservation and other environmental causes since, assembling groups of businesses to commit to emissions targets. Ahead of Cop26, he launched Terra Carta, asking organisations to sign up to environmental principles, and has hosted business leaders, dignitaries and diplomats, including Kerry, with whom he gets on well. He has attended previous Cops, including the Paris summit of 2015 and Cop26. The ban on his appearing at last year's Cop27, initiated by Liz Truss and reinforced by Rishi Sunak, came as a bitter blow to many who applaud his advocacy and convening power. The UAE's ruling family, which has close ties to the UK's monarchy, was keen to have Charles deliver a keynote speech this year and he will relish the opportunity.

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Who's who at Cop28: the leaders with the world's future in their hands

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From fossil fuel chiefs to an outspoken UN secretary general, a look at who will attend the UAE's climate summit

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It has been another catastrophic climate year, with supercharged extreme weather events striking every corner of the globe: the deadliest-ever Mediterranean cyclone dropping unprecedented rainfall in Libya, severe drought threatening Indigenous communities and ecosystems in the Amazon, and a surge in heat deaths in Phoenix, Arizona.

Record-breaking global temperatures have played a major role in this summer's epic ocean storms, wildfires, flooding and droughts, so it is a perverse reality that the countries and communities which have contributed least to the greenhouse gases warming the planet are suffering the most - and are least equipped to cope with the escalating death and destruction.

What is loss and damage?

Loss and damage refers to the irreversible costs of extreme weather and slow-onset disasters such as sea level rise, ocean acidification and melting glaciers caused by global heating. It is about holding the biggest fossil fuel polluters liable for the pain and suffering already caused by climate breakdown. Climate finance for loss and damage is considered separately, and in addition to, securing funds for mitigation and adaptation to help developing nations prepare for what is coming.

The Gamoo Bhr glacial lake pools in front of the Darkut glacier, Yasin valley, in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan, October 2023. Melting of the glacier threatens nearby villages. Photograph: Akhtar Soomro/Reuters

Costs can be both economic - resulting from lost lives, livelihoods, infrastructure, homes and territory - and non-economic and harder to quantify, such as lost culture, identity, biodiversity and sovereignty, among others. The demand for loss and damage funds has become a central tenet in demands for climate justice. In other words, people are demanding climate action that addresses the inequities behind the cause and effect of the climate breakdown.

Where are we?

For more than 30 years, developed rich countries have used an array of tactics to block loss and damage funding to the most affected - and least responsible - nations. Finally, last year at the Cop27 summit in Egypt, there was a formal agreement to establish a new, broad fund and funding arrangements.

The victory was thanks in large part to the Egyptian Cop27 presidency and unwavering pressure from the G77 block of developing countries (plus China) led by Pakistan, where unprecedented floods had left a third of the country under water. But agreeing to set up the fund was just the first step.

What's happened since Cop27?

A transitional committee was tasked with creating a set of recommendations about what the loss and damage fund should look like and how it will function. After a year of testy negotiations in which developed nations sought to minimise their contributions while maximising control over who benefits, both rich and poor nations were forced to make major compromises.

For instance, the final package of recommendations for countries to consider at Cop28 includes the World Bank temporarily hosting the new fund - something which developing countries were steadfastly against. In the end, the US, EU and other rich nations got their way, but only after developing countries secured crucial conditions such as direct access for countries, communities and Indigenous people and a level of transparency that the World Bank is unaccustomed to.

Bilangbilangan, where rising sea levels are exacerbating the impact of earthquake and typhoon, is one of the sinking islands in the Philippines. The Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior, visited it on 17 November 2023. Photograph: Chris J Ratcliffe/Greenpeace/Getty Images

Another key battle was over eligibility, and rich countries tried - but ultimately failed - to limit access only to countries classed as small island developing states and the UN list of least developed countries, a move which would have excluded vulnerable countries such as Pakistan, Colombia and the Philippines.

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Will there be new money for loss and damage?

The transition committee's recommendations do not include mention of scale or startup funding, so it has yet to be decided how much money will be available. It's also unclear who will contribute how much and when, but the fund's focus will be on "priority gaps". In other words, loss and damage money should complement and link into existing funding arrangements like humanitarian aid and the Green Climate Fund. It should be available as grants not loans, and therefore help break the climate-debt nexus.

It is worth noting that the transition committee's recommendations do not acknowledge the symbiotic relationship between the three strands of climate finance, yet the money needed for loss and damage going forward will depend on the resources and effort spent on mitigation and adaptation now, according to Harjeet Singh, the global engagement director at the fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty initiative. It also omits any requirement that the fund's operations adhere to human rights obligations.

Cuba - a nation facing multiple climate threats - will chair the G77 plus China bloc and play an important role at Cop28. Havana was flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Idalia in August. Photograph: Ernesto Mastrascusa/EPA

What happens now?

In the end, the transition committee agreed on a set of imperfect recommendations for countries to consider in Dubai. Advocates say that the details of who will pay for the fund, and how it will work, should be a cornerstone outcome for Cop28.

The transition committee's recommendations could be adopted in full, or opened up for further negotiation, but failure to agree on the central principles of how this fund will be run and managed would be considered a failure by climate-vulnerable countries.

The G77 plus China will again play an important role, and the bloc is this year chaired by Cuba, an island nation facing multiple climate threats including sea level rise, drought and increasingly destructive hurricanes. The loss and damage in developing countries is already estimated by some studies to be greater than $400bn annually - and expected to rise - so time is of the essence.

But the devil will be in the details, and making sure the fund is fair and fit to meet the needs of developing countries now and in the future could be one key step to achieving climate justice.

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Why loss and damage funds are key to climate justice for developing countries at Cop28

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Nations contributing least to greenhouse gas emissions are least equipped to deal with climate-related destruction