With week one wrapped up at COP29, delegates will head to the pavilion in Baku, Azerbaijan with extra pressure to agree on ambitious climate finance targets this week. So far, negotiations have stalled as states squabble over how big the climate finance pot will be, using human rights and gender justice as bargaining chips. With little consensus and roll backs on human rights language, the last week of COP29 promises to be gruelling with civil society and defenders intent on holding the line for climate justice.
The New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) has become a buzzword at COP29 with climate finance being the primary negotiating item as developed states are required to reevaluate their climate contributions to developing countries to support mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage. It is a critical opportunity for developed countries to fulfil legal and moral obligations under the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement that can enable developing nations to cope with the disproportionate impacts of climate change, advance a just transition and safeguard the rights of defenders, Indigenous peoples and those surviving on the frontlines of climate chaos.
Key issues for week 2
During week one, developed countries refused to engage on the quantity of the NCQG, while developing countries were demanding a minimum of 1.3 trillion per year in public finance for mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage. Consensus is hanging by a thread with developing countries stalling other negotiations and rolling back progressive language to pressure developed states to commit to an ambitious goal for the NCQG.
“Unfortunately, the negotiations are fraught with very little consensus. We are far from reaching an outcome on NCQG, and this means people on the frontlines and vulnerable states will continue to suffer and we risk overshooting 1.5 degrees if countries don’t have climate finance to take urgent climate action,” says Sokhna Die Ka, Director of Natural Justice’s West African Hub.
No consensus on the Just Transition Work Programme (JTWP) was reached, so the negotiations continue into Week 2 for further consideration. Parties will need to start from scratch, with no agreed text. The bone of contention revolves around whether developing countries are satisfied with a Just Transition Work Programme that is funded and supported by developed states.
This week, the Women and Gender Constituency (WGC) is reiterated the need for a work programme and Gender Action Plan that is inclusive, intersectional, measurable, cohesive, and resourced. This comes after established and agreed language in the Work Programme on Gender was bracketed, with some states saying they do not want any references to “human rights” or “diversity.” The WGC held a protest opposite the negotiating tables shouting, “Feminist Climate Justice- Hold the line!” and demanding parties deliver an ambitious Lima work programme on gender and stop rolling back their rights.
“Unfortunately, human rights and gender justice are reduced to mere bargaining chips when negotiations are deadlocked, meaning human rights are often gambled away to secure consensus, when fundamental human rights should never be weakened and rolled back, but rather strengthened and expanded,” explained Katherine Robinson, Natural Justice’s Head of Campaigns.
Part of the human rights language under threat of being deleted in the GAP and Work Programme is a reference to women in their diversity including “defenders”, a constituency very seldom cited in the draft texts. Natural Justice and our allies have long been pushing for the inclusion of defenders in order to safeguard their rights in climate action, since reprisals and lethal attacks against land and environmental defenders continue to rise exponentially across Africa and the global south.
“That’s a small win. We will take it!” said Tawonga Chihana, Natural Justice Coordinator of the African Environmental Defenders Initiative. “These small wins are undermined by states failing to make bigger and more meaningful commitments on recognition and protection and participation of defenders and failing to fulfil financial obligations that support defenders on the frontlines.”
This week NJ and our partners will be hosting an official side vent this week on the urgent need for parties to ensure the recognition, participation and protection of defenders for climate justice.
The week that was
On the first day of COP29 groups began to mobilise, demanding an end to fossil fuels and genocide. This year’s global conference takes place amidst a fossil fuel driven genocide in Palestine, war in Lebanon, and billions of US dollars being spent on military aid and to fund wars rather than fulfilling their financial obligations under the Paris Accords while climate finance goals for mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage have never been met and continue to dwindle while the crisis accelerates.
Meanwhile Natural Justice representatives on the ground in Baku, voiced their opinions and work through panels, side events, working groups and supporting actions and observing negotiations.
Lauren Nel, Natural Justice’s Just Energy Transition Action Coordinator, noted that it was clear that we need urgent action to address climate change. “Real solutions mean not placing the already unequal Global South in more debt but providing the necessary financial support for just energy transitions, which should be provided by the Global North in terms of the Paris Agreement. Real solutions mean system change – where the Global South is able to build economies, address inequality, achieve 100% energy access that is affordable and sustainable without communities and Indigenous Peoples’ rights being infringed upon.”
With negotiations hotting up and time running out, Natural Justice and our allies will keeping a close eye on the process, pushing states to keep their promises and ensure these climate talks demand urgent climate finance and action.
