What Is at Stake for CIDSE at COP29?

CIDSE Delegation to Advocate for Ambitious Climate Finance and National Climate Plans in Baku.

Together with partners from the Global South and North, a CIDSE Delegation will attend the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, from November 11-22. The delegation calls on world leaders to make bold and transformative decisions in response to the climate crisis. The message is clear: to protect our common home, we must progressively phase out fossil fuel production and accelerate a just energy transition toward renewables, backed by transparent and accessible needs-based climate finance.

COP29 must deliver the necessary resources and support to ensure all parties can strive for the highest possible climate ambition. This will require a commitment to equity and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, considering each country’s unique circumstances.

CIDSE’s key demands for COP29 include the urgent phase-out of all fossil fuels and the establishment of an ambitious New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance (NCQG). This must be sufficient to address the scale and urgency of the climate crisis while considering the needs and priorities of developing countries, and emphasising the need for funding allocations to the Loss and Damage Fund, first established last year at COP28 in Dubai.

Additionally, CIDSE emphasises the need for parties to commit to more ambitious and revised Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Countries must align their NDC 3.0 targets with the 1.5°C goal, aiming for a 68% reduction in global emissions by 2035, with detailed plans to be submitted by February 2025. Also, clear and effective strategies to achieve the Global Goal on Adaptation – helping countries assess, manage, and reduce the unavoidable impacts of climate change – are necessary.

Below is an overview of CIDSE’s key advocacy demands:

“With critical milestones such as the Global Stocktake, the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), and the revision of NDCs approaching, COP29 offers a pivotal opportunity for the Global North to step up on climate finance and commit to adequate funding and climate ambition needed to keep global temperature rise below 1.5°C. This effort must consider the diverse needs and priorities of countries and be accompanied by broader reforms to provide climate finance and reshape the global financial system.”
Lydia Machaka, Energy & Extractivism Policy Officer, CIDSE

On Global Stocktake (GST) Outcomes

“The Global Stocktake decision at COP28 gave us the long-needed commitment of the global community to phase out fossil fuels. The success of COP29 must be measured by its ability to deliver on this promise and to specify how countries will contribute to the global fossil fuel phase-out, with rich countries taking the lead. This is critical to achieving a rapid energy transition and protecting the world’s most vulnerable communities, who suffer the most from the climate crisis.”
David Knecht, Programme Manager Energy & Climate Justice, Fastenaktion

On Climate Finance & New Collective Quantified Goals (NCQG)

“As the needs assessment of developing countries as well as the IPCC tell us, financial support for climate action in the Global South needs to multiply still in this decade. Rich countries have the obligation to support a grants-based financial core goal, with minimum floors for mitigation, adaptation and addressing loss and damage. These public investments pose an incredible financial challenge, but they are essential for a stable and prosperous future for all of us.”
Martin Krenn, Advocacy Officer, KOO

“COP29 will be judged by the success or failure of the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance. If we are to stand any chance of achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement, developing nations need urgent, non-debt creating financial support from the rich countries that have overwhelmingly caused the crisis. Ahead of the Jubilee Year in 2025, major polluter countries and companies must step up to their responsibility.”
Liz Cronin, Climate Change Policy Lead, CAFOD

On Fossil Fuel Phase Out

“The Global Stocktake decision from Dubai last year gives a clear direction of what countries need to include in their NDCs: a clear plan on how to phase out fossil fuels consumption and production and targets to move to  renewable energy systems. Setting dates for phasing out coal, gas and oil, as well as for fossil fuel subsidies will allow the necessary reliability of planning for current and future infrastructures.”
Madeleine Wörner, Expert for Renewable Energies and Energy Policy, Misereor

On the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)

“COP29 is a crucial moment for utilising the final years of the Decade of Action in a meaningful way. This requires integrity in commitments and implementation. The upcoming NDCs offer the opportunity to reorganise structures and systems in such a way that the phase-out of fossil fuels and ramp-up of renewable energies does not happen on the backs of the most vulnerable. Climate protection is possible – but currently only with considerable individual effort against fossil structures, as show-cased by my travel #BakubyBusBahnBike. This must change.“
Madeleine Wörner, Expert for Renewable Energies and Energy Policy, Misereor

“The next round of NDCs needs to take on board the lessons learned from the first Global Stocktake. Countries have to for example include sectoral targets for emission reductions, indicate when their greenhouse gas emissions are peaking and outline how their NDCs align with their long-term strategies.”
Bettina Duerr, Energy and Climate Justice Programme Manager, Fastenaktion

On the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage

“The Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage was first agreed at COP27 and operationalised at COP28. But despite $700m being pledged already to it, not a penny has yet flowed to communities facing devastating climate impacts. It is vital that money starts to flow quickly to the communities who need it most as quickly as possible, and that the fund is set up in a way that meets holistic needs of families now and long into the future. However, we also know that the $700m already pledged is but a drop in the ocean compared to the scale of the need. At COP29, it is essential that the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance includes an explicit target for Loss and Damage finance that meets the real level of need, helps make sure that polluters pay and delivers climate justice.”

On Food systems and Agriculture

“Food systems transformation is an essential part of climate action. To date smallholder farmers, Indigenous Peoples and those at the frontline of climate breakdown have heard little more than lip-service from successive COPs. COP 29 should address the neglect of these communities and the relevance of their locally led adaptation solutions by launching a genuinely inclusive and representative dialogue on just transition in food systems.”
Michael O’Brien, Policy Advisor, Trócaire