The RSPB attended COP29 to ensure nature was on the agenda throughout global climate negotiations.
The Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) came to a close on 24 November 2024, two days later than planned, after lengthy discussions ran through the final night.
The RSPB attended COP29 to ensure the urgent need for nature protection and restoration was well reflected in the Baku Climate Unity Pact – a set of agreements from this year’s climate negotiations. One of the successes of last month’s biodiversity COP16 was the strong progress made on the need to tackle biodiversity and climate in tandem as one joint crisis, and we hoped the momentum would follow through to be reflected in the climate talks.
We also wanted to raise concerns on investments in bioenergy as a ‘renewable energy’ source, aiming to highlight the harmful impacts it can have on nature and the climate.
COP29 was dubbed ‘the finance COP’; countries gathered to agree their new climate finance target. It is intended that richer countries, who have caused the problem of climate change through 200 years of industrialisation, will financially support developing countries as they seek to adapt to the changing climate and address its causes.
Last year at COP28, countries reviewed their collective progress towards achieving the climate goals of the Paris Agreement. This was known as the Global Stocktake, repeated every five years from 2023 onward. This year was a chance to take forward the outcomes from this review and strengthen climate ambition and progress in every country.
Put simply, COP29 did not achieve strong outcomes for the climate, people or nature – and the conference itself was deeply divisive. Here’s what we saw:
Richer countries have promised to help poorer countries adapt to and fight climate change by raising funding to $300bn per year. However, this amount is still far off that which had been identified as needed. The world's poorest and most vulnerable nations, in particular, were dismayed by the limited amount to help ensure the survival of their peoples. In fact, at one point, the Alliance of Small Island States and the Least Developed Countries bloc walked out of the negotiation room.
Biodiversity loss and climate change need to be tackled together as one joint crisis. We'd hoped to see a continuation of the positive work started as the biodiversity COP (COP16) progress at COP29. Initially, there were positive interlinking mentions of nature and climate within COP29's finance package. However, they were lost from the draft after the tenth day and never reappeared.
A separate strand of negotiations on the implementation of the Global Stocktake collapsed and are to be picked up at COP 30 next year. This was a lost opportunity to bring nature into the conversation.
While our efforts to raise awareness of the impacts of bioenergy were brought to the fore in a number of press conferences, they struggled to get cut through in the negotiations.
Last year at COP28, the countries made a commitment to ‘transition away from fossil fuels’. Yet the texts produced in COP29 removed any mention of fossil fuels.
All eyes are now turning to COP30 in Brazil in 2025, where nature will be one of the key themes on the agenda of the Brazilian Presidency. Let’s hope this focus on nature will produce more positive outcomes. Brazil’s invitation for countries to consider a joint work programme across the biodiversity and climate conventions is a welcome signal.
At the RSPB, we will be working with key countries over the next year to champion critical outcomes at the negotiations in Brazil, including the joint work programme and a new Expert Group to bring nature expertise into the UN climate space. These big conventions are the only global ways to tackle global problems, and we remain determined to work at every level to tackle the nature and climate crisis.
