IPU highlighting the role of parliaments in COP29: Will finance take centre stage?
In the lead-up to COP29, the UN Climate Change Conference, parliaments are focusing on actions they can take to advance climate finance — the economic engine that funds actions to limit rising temperatures and transition to a low-carbon future.
This year’s COP, set for 11-22 November 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan, is being unofficially billed as “the finance COP” because its agenda prominently features discussions of public and private capital for climate action.
The main objective of this COP will be to negotiate the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG), which will set a financial target for supporting countries in their climate actions after 2025.
Parliaments have a special role to play in combating climate change because of their power to pass laws, and implement regulatory frameworks and fiscal measures, that promote climate finance.
As in previous years, the IPU will be hosting a parliamentary meeting at the COP, in partnership with the Azerbaijan Parliament, to connect parliamentarians to the UN process. Given the critical role of parliaments in advancing climate action, including climate finance, the IPU is eager to amplify the voice of parliamentarians in global climate negotiations.
“Much effort has to come from national governments,” said Waven William, a member of the National Assembly of Seychelles and President of the IPU’s Standing Committee on Sustainable Development. “When we look at the way trends are going in terms of accessing foreign financing [for] climate change, we have to make our own homegrown financial architecture projects to show that we are also contributing towards solving our own problems.”
Climate finance will be indispensable for funding renewable energy projects, and for promoting energy efficiency, sustainable agriculture and climate change adaptation, especially for developing countries.
Next year’s COP in Brazil will mark the 10-year anniversary of the Paris Agreement, an international treaty on climate change aimed at limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
As signatories to the treaty, countries must submit national climate action plans and update them every five years, with the next one due in 2025. In these plans, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), countries outline the actions they will take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, along with actions to adapt to the effects of climate change.
Parliaments have a number of tools at their disposal to help build their national plans. They can enact climate finance legislation that incentivizes climate finance initiatives. For example, in 2008, the United Kingdom passed its landmark Climate Change Act, which provided a framework for low-carbon investments.
Parliaments can also push for the development of green bonds by establishing criteria on what qualifies as a green investment. In 2023, European Union negotiators struck a deal creating the European Green Bond Standard, the first best-in-class standard for the issuing of green bonds.
Parliaments can also work with financial regulators to set up climate finance regulatory networks; promote green budgeting; and monitor their governments’ commitments to make sure they are on track to meet their goals.
High on the agenda of COP29 will also be the operation and oversight of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, an instrument to help the poorer countries that often bear the brunt of climate change.
The Fund was agreed upon at COP27, set up at COP28, and at COP29, mechanisms for raising and distributing the money will be a focus of discussion. The IPU is keen to see parliamentarians help shape policies that will enable quick, fair and transparent distribution of the Fund’s resources.
The World Meteorological Organization reports that, since the 1970s, extreme weather has brought a sevenfold increase in reported disaster losses.
Lower-income countries need significant concessional financial resources to address climate change. The NCQG, which is expected to be agreed in Baku, aims to provide a more realistic and ambitious financial framework to meet these demands. Technical discussions at COP29 will delve into the NCQG’s timeframes, the amounts and sources of the finance involved, and transparency concerns.
Climate adaptation is becoming more expensive as the magnitude of climate change sets in. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, countries may need to spend up to US$ 300 billion a year by 2030 on adaptation measures and US$ 500 billion a year by 2050. These estimates are up to ten times higher than current funding flows.
“We’re looking at 20-plus years since COP started,” said Trinidad and Tobago Minister of Planning and Development Pennelope Beckles. “I think that it is true to say there have been significant improvements, significant achievements. COP29 must deliver on an ambitious global finance goal to enable vulnerable countries such as small island States to address climate change.”
Watch the IPU’s recent webinar on climate finance.
Find out more about the IPU’s campaign to mobilize parliaments to act on the climate emergency.
Crops damaged by parrots, whose migration patterns have changed due to climate change. © Neil Palmer
