This year, our Not Without Us! project team is once again taking part in the UN Climate Change Conference to advocate for human rights, gender equality and climate justice. COP29 takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 11 November to 22 November 2024. Representatives of UN member states, civil society and the scientific community gather at the Conference of Parties (COP) to negotiate strategies to mitigate the climate crisis and achieve the 1.5°C target.
This year, the conference is being referred to as the ‘Finance COP’, as the focus is on agreeing a new global climate finance target (New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance/NCQG). This goal is intended to support the poorest countries of the global South in combating climate change. The current 100 billion dollar goal expires next year, so a new goal must be negotiated in Baku this year.
VENRO and the Climate Alliance Germany are also calling on the German government to advance comprehensive, scalable and integrated indicators for climate adaptation in the negotiations and to enable direct access for the most vulnerable people to the new Loss and Damage fund. However, these new efforts and the goals of the Paris Agreement must not be undermined by poor decisions on the market mechanisms of Article 6. German government representatives should advocate for the full participation of civil society at COP29 and focus on gender equality and respect for human rights in the negotiations.
The full paper, including contributions from LIFE, can be downloaded here.
LIFE e.V. is also part of the Women and Gender Constituency, which published a letter in September calling on the COP29 Presidency to put gender equality at the heart of the Presidency and COP29 outcomes through the upcoming renewal of a new work programme. The letter has yet to be formally responded to, and in the months since, several announcements have been released by the COP29 Presidency with no mention of plans, strategies or support for a successful renewal of the Lima Expanded Programme of Work and its Gender Action Plan. However, during the pre-COP in early October it was possible to get the Presidency to prioritise gender and climate.
The letter was supported and signed by 122 civil society organisations worldwide and can be downloaded here. As members of the Women and Gender Constituency, we support these demands and are advocate for a reset of global climate policy at COP29 in Baku. We seek significant progress towards a more equitable and inclusive future in addressing the climate crisis.