These Three Issues Will Determine Whether COP29 Succeeds or Fails
COP29: Climate Finance, Community Empowerment, and Holistic Solutions
As world leaders gather for COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, the conference presents a crucial opportunity to address climate finance, adaptation, and accountability on a global scale. With climate impacts growing more severe, there is an urgent need for actionable steps that reflect the real-world consequences of climate change. This includes recognising oft-overlooked contributors to emissions, as well as ensuring that vulnerable communities receive the support they need. COP29 must deliver on these fronts to foster meaningful climate resilience and justice.
Will the New Collective Quantified Goal Deliver?
The New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) aims to overhaul the outdated $100 billion climate finance target, focusing on a more substantial and needs-based financial framework to support developing countries. While the previous goal was met in absolute numbers, its impact often fell short, with funds quickly flowing back into donor economies and creating new debt obligations for recipients. The NCQG strives to close these gaps by promoting concessional finance, emphasising resilience for the most climate-vulnerable regions, and ensuring financing mechanisms that avoid debt burdens.
Beyond the financial pledge, the NCQG holds the potential to enhance accountability and transparency. With robust monitoring and reporting mechanisms, the goal could address the inefficiencies that plagued previous efforts, ensuring funds reach the communities most affected by climate change. A significant aspect of the NCQG is its potential to mobilise private sector investments by signalling long-term financial commitments, encouraging private entities to align with climate action.
For the NCQG to succeed, the international community must agree on clear guidelines, including transparent reporting and equitable distribution. COP29 presents a pivotal moment for refining the NCQG and delivering impactful climate finance that not only addresses adaptation and resilience but also ensures Indigenous and frontline communities receive the support they need without the bureaucratic red tape that has previously hindered progress.
For Native, the NCQG’s focus on transparency and equitable funding aligns perfectly with its mission to prioritise iIndigenous and local communities in climate action. By emphasising direct, transparent financing, Native similarly aims to cut through the bureaucratic red tape that has long hindered real impact.
Can NAPs at COP29 Overcome Financing Gaps and Empower Communities?
While COP29 emphasises National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) as critical instruments for building resilience against escalating climate impacts, effective adaptation extends beyond physical or technical measures alone. NAPs can offer a structured approach to identifying and addressing climate vulnerabilities through comprehensive, multi-sectoral strategies, encompassing not only infrastructure but also community-based solutions. These plans, developed under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2010, are essential for systematically building resilience, enhancing adaptive capacity, and reducing vulnerability to climate change by making adaptation integral to development planning, decision-making, and budgeting.
Yet, implementing NAPs effectively requires substantial financial and technical support to bridge the adaptation finance gap, which COP29 must prioritise by urging donor nations to fulfil their commitments and exploring innovative funding sources, including private sector investments. As of COP29, countries are assessing their progress on NAPs—an opportunity to acknowledge adaptation efforts, identify persistent challenges, and transition from planning to action. Although many developing nations have advanced in adaptation planning, the pace and extent of NAP implementation remain uneven, often hampered by limited access to necessary finance. COP29 must therefore commit to scaling up finance and capacity-building efforts, empowering iIndigenous and local communities whose invaluable ecological knowledge, developed over generations, can significantly enhance adaptation efforts. At Native, we empower these communities to lead, integrating their cultural insights with sustainable practices, building resilience from the ground up. For COP29 to genuinely propel adaptation forward, it must elevate these community-driven approaches within NAPs, embracing a holistic adaptation framework that goes beyond conventional infrastructure, ensuring that the most vulnerable populations are prepared to face climate challenges head-on.
Can a Triple COP Year Advance Holistic Solutions for Climate and Nature?
As we head into COP29, this year’s alignment of climate, biodiversity, and desertification agendas—often called a “triple COP” year—offers a historic opportunity to address our planet's interconnected crises. With COP29 in Baku focusing on climate, COP16 in Cali, Columbia on biodiversity, and COP16 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on land degradation, world leaders can now consider solutions that acknowledge the deep interdependence between these areas.
This convergence allows for an integrated approach to planetary health, where safeguarding ecosystems, enhancing biodiversity, and fortifying urban resilience are seen as inseparable elements of climate action. Following the recent 12th World Urban Forum, COP can build on its momentum by carrying forward discussions on local leadership and resilience, emphasizing the essential role cities play on the frontlines of climate impacts. Native believes that effective solutions to the climate crisis must be multi-dimensional, recognizing that no single metric or narrow approach can address such complex issues. By supporting holistic, community-driven solutions that empower local leaders and protect diverse ecosystems, Native promotes a robust and inclusive climate response that benefits both people and the planet.