Agriculture and meals had been very a lot on the menu at COP28 in Dubai, with each voluntary pledges and negotiated texts starting to replicate their central function in local weather change.
The worldwide stocktake – the “temperature examine” of the Paris Settlement – was the first focus for a lot of on the summit.
However, along with the headline settlement to “transition away from fossil fuels”, the stocktake marked the primary time that meals was talked about in a serious UN local weather change negotiated textual content.
The hyperlinks between local weather change and biodiversity loss additionally featured all through the 2 weeks of negotiations, with a number of of the most important texts referencing the impacts that every has on the opposite.
Deforestation garnered much less consideration at COP28 than it had lately, however the summit nonetheless noticed Brazil’s proposal of a brand new “tropical forests eternally” fund.
A pledge on meals and agriculture signed by practically 160 nations was a serious characteristic within the early days of the summit attended by world leaders.
A variety of different pledges overlaying the whole lot from mangrove safety to methane discount had been unfold throughout the 2 weeks of COP28.
However failure to agree on a textual content for the Sharm el-Sheikh joint work on implementation of local weather motion on agriculture and meals safety was a blemish on the summit from a food-systems perspective, with observers and events each lamenting the shortage of progress a full 12 months into the work’s four-year mandate.
Right here, Carbon Transient supplies in-depth evaluation of all the important thing outcomes for meals, land use and nature in Dubai.
Meals, land and nature in COP28 texts
World stocktake
Forward of COP28, all eyes had been on the first-ever world stocktake (GST).
As a part of the Paris Settlement, nations agreed to evaluate their progress in the direction of local weather targets each 5 years. The evaluation additionally permits nations to establish gaps on the planet’s collective local weather motion and take steps to right the worldwide trajectory.
It’s a key a part of the Paris Settlement’s “ratchet mechanism” for growing local weather ambition.
The summit noticed 12 iterations of texts referring to the GST.
The point out of meals within the GST was a “landmark second”, Clement Metivier, appearing head of worldwide advocacy at WWF-UK, informed Carbon Transient.
Not together with meals methods – that are liable for practically one-third of worldwide emissions – would have been a “missed alternative”, Metivier added.
However the alternative was practically missed, with most mentions of meals methods eliminated within the second set of GST “constructing blocks”, launched on 5 December. Getting meals again into the ultimate textual content took a “true push” from each civil society and governments, Metivier mentioned.
![Aruna Chandrasekhar @aruna_sekhar tweet. Text The only reference to agriculture and food systems in the new stocktale text (100) is under post-2025 finance goal. #COP28.](https://www.carbonbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/twitter.com_aruna_sekhar_status_1731953376064143866.png)
The ultimate textual content consists of six mentions of “meals” – two within the preamble and 4 within the part on adaptation.
![55. Encourages the implementation of integrated, multi-sectoral solutions, such as landuse management, sustainable agriculture, resilient food systems, nature-based solutions and ecosystem-based approaches, and protecting, conserving and restoring nature and ecosystems, including forests, mountains and other terrestrial and marine and coastal ecosystems, which may offer economic, social and environmental benefits such as improved resilience and well-being, and that adaptation can contribute to mitigating impacts and losses, as part of a country-driven gender-responsive and participatory approach, building on the best available science as well as Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge and local knowledge systems;](https://www.carbonbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ragout4-1-1024x349.webp)
Part 55 of the worldwide stocktake addresses resilient meals methods. Supply: UNFCCC
Nevertheless, meals doesn’t characteristic in any respect within the mitigation part of the GST. Patty Fong, programme supervisor on the World Alliance for the Way forward for Meals, informed Carbon Transient:
“It’s a missed alternative, given all of the give attention to fossil fuels, that we didn’t progress as a lot as we should always have [on mitigation in food systems].
“While you take a look at the precise texts, the ‘transition away from fossil fuels’ refers particularly to power methods. So this implies they’re not addressing the place the true enlargement is – and the place they really see the expansion market – the enlargement of oil and fuel within the petrochemical sector.”
Along with the references to meals, the worldwide stocktake textual content references “nature” eight occasions and “biodiversity” 5 occasions.
It “underlines the pressing want” to handle the “interlinked world crises of local weather change and biodiversity loss”. This mirrors language included within the COP27 Sharm el-Sheikh Implementation Plan.
The textual content additionally says that local weather change and nature targets ought to be achieved “in line” with the Kunming-Montreal World Biodiversity Framework, agreed on the COP15 nature summit in 2022. That is necessary, Fong mentioned, as a result of that framework comprises stronger language round sustainable agriculture approaches than the GST.
The worldwide stocktake “emphasises” that halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation by 2030 will probably be key to satisfy the targets of the Paris Settlement – the primary time such a pledge has garnered formal recognition beneath the UN Framework Conference on Local weather Change (UNFCCC).
It additionally “notes” the necessity for “enhanced help and funding, together with by monetary assets, expertise switch and capacity-building” in an effort to meet the deforestation purpose.
Past forests, the GST notes the significance of “guaranteeing the integrity of all ecosystems”, together with the ocean, mountains and the cryosphere. It was essential that the textual content included all of these ecosystems, in response to Manuel Pulgar Vidal, WWF’s world local weather and power lead.
Pulgar Vidal, who previously served as Peru’s setting minister and president of COP20, informed Carbon Transient:
“There’s reference to ecological integrity within the preamble of the present textual content.”
Rhiannon Niven, a world local weather change coverage coordinator at BirdLife Worldwide, celebrated the inclusion of that time period within the GST’s preamble, however mentioned that it ought to have been included within the operational a part of the textual content as effectively. She informed Carbon Transient:
“That’s actually important to make it possible for [the functionality of ecosystems] occurs.”
Niven praised the rights-based strategy the textual content takes in the direction of ecosystem conservation and restoration, in addition to its name for a monitoring system to trace and consider implementation of adaptation measures by 2030. Nevertheless, the shortage of particular finance for these efforts – solely a recognition of the “pressing want” to scale up such finance – considerations her, she mentioned.
The ultimate GST textual content additionally underlines the “important significance of defending, conserving, restoring and sustainably utilizing nature and ecosystems for efficient and sustainable local weather motion”, she added.
On 4 December, whereas GST negotiations had been ongoing, ministers from Colombia, Germany and Granada had been among the many signatories of an open letter calling for the GST to result in extra collaboration on implementing nature-based options and/or ecosystem-based approaches.
Nature-based options and ecosystem-based approaches are particularly talked about in part 55 of the GST, which “encourages” their implementation, alongside different “options” similar to sustainable agriculture and land-use administration.
In addition they characteristic beneath part 63, which “urges” nations to extend ambition and speed-up motion to realize a variety of targets by 2030, together with accelerating using ecosystem-based adaptation and nature-based options. (See Nature-based options for extra on how they featured at COP28.)
The textual content comprises 9 mentions of Indigenous peoples – “however it doesn’t tackle direct financing for them”, Diego Casaes, marketing campaign director for Indigenous rights at Avaaz, mentioned.
Casaes informed Carbon Transient that having such language within the GST was necessary, however referred to as it “very shallow”, noting that it didn’t undertake a number of the language really helpful by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
For instance, free, prior and knowledgeable consent – when Indigenous peoples have interaction as negotiators in initiatives impacting their lands and supply their consent – is essential when implementing infrastructure and power initiatives, increasing protected areas or working carbon markets in Indigenous territories, Casaes informed Carbon Transient:
“That proper is just not included within the textual content as a result of it creates an obligation that events very a lot don’t need to see in a local weather resolution. They like to make use of language that’s a lot softer and weaker.”
Throughout a Local weather Motion Community press briefing, Eriel Deranger, govt director of Indigenous Local weather Motion and member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in northern Alberta, Canada, agreed that the GST ought to use “a sturdy language to carry states accountable to satisfy their targets”. (See Indigenous recognition and rights.)
Helen Biangalen-Magata, Kadaclan Indigenous rights advocate of the Mountain province within the Philippines, defined:
“If we get authorized recognition inside the GST, [Indigenous peoples] may make it into nationwide stories and plans and see financing flowing to the native degree.”
On non-carbon dioxide (CO2) greenhouse gases, the ultimate textual content requires “accelerating and considerably decreasing” emissions, “particularly methane emissions by 2030”.
A earlier GST draft, launched on 8 December, had included an choice calling upon nations to “take additional actions” to scale back non-CO2 emissions “in an effort to scale back methane emissions globally by at the least 30% by 2030 and 40% by 2035”.
It additionally talked about decreasing nitrous oxide emissions by at the least 13% by 2030 and 18% by 2035, and chopping fluorinated gases by at the least 81% by 2035.
Nevertheless, these numerical targets had been all faraway from the GST by the point the gavel fell. The ultimate stocktake doesn’t particularly point out different non-CO2 gases, apart from methane. (See Methane and non-CO2 gases.)
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World purpose on adaptation
One other important element of the COP28 talks was the worldwide purpose on adaptation (GGA).
The GGA is a “framework” that’s meant to assist information events in constructing resilience to local weather change – lengthy a precedence for essentially the most climate-vulnerable nations.
Established by the Paris Settlement, the GGA obtained little discover at UNFCCC negotiations till COP26 in Glasgow. There, it was given a two-year mandate to “jump-start” the purpose.
Meals, ecosystems and nature featured a number of occasions inside the GGA.
Part 9 of the textual content “urges” events to “improve ambition and improve adaptation motion” in the direction of a sequence of targets, together with decreasing water shortage, decreasing the impacts of local weather change on ecosystems and “growing sustainable and regenerative manufacturing and equitable entry to sufficient meals and diet for all”.
![(a) Significantly reducing climate-induced water scarcity and enhancing climate resilience to water-related hazards towards a climate-resilient water supply, climate-resilient sanitation and towards access to safe and affordable potable water for all; (b) Attaining climate-resilient food and agricultural production and supply and distribution of food, as well as increasing sustainable and regenerative production and equitable access to adequate food and nutrition for all; (c) Attaining resilience against climate change related health impacts, promoting climate-resilient health services, and significantly reducing climate-related morbidity and mortality, particularly in the most vulnerable communities; (d) Reducing climate impacts on ecosystems and biodiversity, and accelerating the use of ecosystem-based adaptation and nature-based solutions, including through their management, enhancement, restoration and conservation and the protection of terrestrial, inland water, mountain, marine and coastal ecosystems;](https://www.carbonbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ragout1-1-1024x533.webp)
The worldwide purpose on adaptation “urges” events to extend their ambition on a sequence of targets. Supply: UNFCCC
The language surrounding meals within the adaptation part of the GST “mainly mirrors” the language within the GGA, Fong identified.
Within the GGA, nature-based options seem twice in a broadly comparable approach to their inclusion within the world stocktake.
Part 9 requires events to speed up using ecosystem-based adaptation and nature-based options. And part 14 emphasises that adaptation motion ought to be steady and guided by the “greatest obtainable science”, alongside making use of ecosystem-based adaptation and nature-based options.
![14. Emphasizes that adaptation action should be continuous, iterative and progressive and be based on and guided by the best available science, including through use of science-based indicators, metrics and targets, as appropriate, traditional knowledge, Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge, local knowledge systems, ecosystem-based adaptation, nature-based solutions, locally led and community-based adaptation, disaster risk reduction, intersectional approaches, private sector engagement, maladaptation avoidance, recognition of adaptation co-benefits and sustainable development;](https://www.carbonbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ragout2-1-1024x287.webp)
Nature-based options seem within the world stocktake. Supply: UNFCCC
Part 14 additionally recognises the contributions of conventional and Indigenous data. The “worldviews and values” of Indigenous peoples are additionally referenced in part eight of the settlement.
The GGA “does have good language” on Indigenous data, fairness and livelihoods, Fong mentioned. One other part of the textual content “encourages the moral and equitable engagement” with Indigenous peoples and “recognises” their roles as stewards of nature.
![22. Notes the findings in the synthesis report on nationally determined contributions that greenhouse gas emission levels in 2030 are projected to be 5.3 per cent lower than in 2019 if all nationally determined contributions, including all conditional elements, are fully implemented and that enhanced financial resources, technology transfer and technical cooperation, and capacity-building support are needed to achieve this;](https://www.carbonbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ragout3-1-1024x244.webp)
The worldwide purpose on adaptation recognises the management of Indigenous peoples and encourages fairness in engagement with them. Supply: UNFCCC
The popularity of water and water-related ecosystems within the GST and the GGA was welcomed by Wetlands Worldwide, a global civil-society organisation devoted to conserving and restoring wetlands.
Francesca Antonelli, head of rivers and lakes at Wetlands Worldwide, informed Carbon Transient:
“Traditionally, freshwater ecosystems have been fairly uncared for by these massive conventions. This has been the very first [COP with a] focus additionally on water, which is one thing we very welcome.”
Total, Antonelli mentioned that the truth that water-related ecosystems are within the GST and the GGA “creates a beneficial situation for these ecosystems to be embedded” into nationwide local weather and biodiversity plans.
Each the GST and the GGA additionally recognise the dangers of transboundary local weather impacts in nature, whereas the GGA suggests a “climate-informed transboundary administration” to stop “cascading dangers”.
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Sharm el-Sheikh joint work on agriculture and meals safety
The Sharm el-Sheikh joint work on implementation of local weather motion on agriculture and meals safety (SSJW), agreed at COP27 final 12 months, is the one formal UNFCCC workstream to handle agriculture and meals methods.
SSJW is the successor to the Koronivia joint work for agriculture, which was established at COP23 in Bonn, in 2017.
The purpose of the SSJW negotiations at COP28 was to determine a roadmap for the joint work.
There have been three important components to this: to agree on a set of subjects for the three mandated workshops to be held beneath the joint work; to determine the web portal for submissions beneath the workshops; and to find out how the work itself ought to be carried out and synthesised.
Underneath the SSJW, as with Koronivia earlier than it, a sequence of workshops brings collectively a variety of voices on a selected subject, with every workshop leading to a synthesis report.Such stories are “a type of suggestion”, mentioned Marie Cosquer, co-coordinator of the Local weather Motion Community’s agriculture working group and advocacy analyst at Motion in opposition to Starvation. She added:
“Even when it’s typically very prime line, it’s nonetheless a political sign for nations to orient and outline their food-systems insurance policies.”
On the primary day of the negotiations, some developed nations prompt that it might be extra constructive to start out with a clear sheet, having failed to return to a consensus on the final session of the subsidiary our bodies in Bonn. However creating nations supported utilizing the casual notice ready in Bonn in June as the premise of negotiations.
Consequently, the negotiations started “very blocked”, Cosquer mentioned. She informed Carbon Transient:
“We had been actually dissatisfied to see that nothing has moved since Bonn.”
Events reportedly “lamented” the shortage of progress within the negotiating rooms over the course of the primary a number of days, with some noting that the Emirates Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture (See: Meals methods transformation) gave added weight and urgency to the work being executed there. Each events and observers mentioned they lamented that one 12 months of the SSJW mandate had already handed, with nothing to point out for it.
![Climate action Network International (CAN) @CANIntl tweet. Text: Agriculture negotiations continue informal, leaving observers struggling to observe. Parties seemingly working on text proposals but not on reaching consensus. #FoodSecurity #COP28UAE (9/)](https://www.carbonbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/twitter.com_CANIntl_status_1731737447199855065-1.png)
There have been two components “gluing up” the negotiations, mentioned Teresa Anderson, world local weather justice lead at ActionAid. She informed Carbon Transient:
“One is the method and the forms entailed in making outcomes. And one is the content material – and, after all, we’d like the proper forms, we’d like the proper methods in place, in an effort to have the proper conversations concerning the content material.”
The G77 plus China negotiating bloc put ahead a proposal for a “coordination group”, which might assist facilitate implementation of the joint work. Developed nations expressed considerations over what that group would obtain and the prices it might incur to implement further conferences.
Anderson famous that it was clear that modifications wanted to be made within the course of in an effort to start to successfully implement the joint work, however “creating nations hadn’t confirmed to developed nations that this [coordination group] is de facto the proper construction to unravel the issue”.
Because the negotiations progressed, the coordination group remained the most important sticking level.
Million Belay, the final coordinator of Alliance for Meals Sovereignty in Africa and a member of the Worldwide Panel of Consultants on Sustainable Meals Methods, informed Carbon Transient:
“The G77 plus China are saying: ‘No. [We have] coordination or there is no such thing as a negotiation.’”
Because the negotiations neared a “important second”, US negotiators tried to bridge the hole between the G77 plus China and the EU, Belay mentioned. He added that the US taking this function was “stunning, as a result of principally they’re a bridge breaker, not a bridge maker”.
Negotiators met a number of occasions in each casual and “informal-informal” consultations on 5 December with out shifting ahead. On the ultimate session that night time, each world north and world south nations expressed their disappointment over the failure to return to an settlement.
In the end, the SSJW negotiations ended with a procedural textual content. This “basically means, ‘we talked, we’ll discuss once more’”, Anderson informed Carbon Transient. She continued:
“There’s a protracted, bloated, complicated textual content now, with all people’s pet items and pet hates all in there. That’s now being recorded as a casual notice, which implies that it may be picked as much as be mentioned once more subsequent 12 months.”
![Sharm el-Sheikh joint work on implementation of climate action on agriculture and food security Draft conclusions proposed by the Chairs 1. The Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) continued their consideration of the elements of the Sharm-el-Sheikh joints work on implementation of climate action on agriculture and food security. 2. The SBSTA and the SBI agreed that the consideration of this matter will continue at SB 60 (June 2023), taking into account the document prepared at these sessions.](https://www.carbonbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ragout1-1024x477.webp)
The draft resolution on the Sharm el-Sheikh joint work on agriculture and meals safety. Supply: UNFCCC
The casual notice that will probably be forwarded to Bonn subsequent 12 months has no authorized standing and should or is probably not used as the premise of the following spherical of negotiations.
Annex I of the casual notice comprises a still-bracketed resolution to determine a coordination group to “facilitate the Sharm el-Sheikh joint work…at some point of the mandate established” at COP27.
Annex II lays out the seven proposed subjects for the three workshops, with two choices for every of the primary two workshops and three for the ultimate one:
Scaling up technique of implementation, together with finance, expertise improvement and switch and capacity-building.
Danger administration, together with early-warning methods for meals safety.
Approaches to sustainable agriculture and meals safety.
Holistic approaches to agriculture and meals safety.
Fisheries and aquaculture.
Understanding sustainable meals methods by local weather motion.
Measuring, monitoring, reporting and verifying local weather motion for agriculture and meals safety.
Clement Metivier, appearing head of worldwide advocacy at WWF-UK, informed Carbon Transient:
“Having a devoted workstream on agriculture is nice, to have some centered work on that particular subject. However now we have to construct the connections between this workstream – that’s clearly very completely different from all of the others – and the remainder of the local weather course of.
“The important thing phrase is implementation. And the massive query is: how can the UNFCCC really assist with implementation on the nationwide and even the native degree? After we speak about agriculture and meals safety, that is very a lot about native points and really concrete options. And, clearly, this [COP] course of may be very completely different from implementation on the bottom.”
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Nature finance
Carbon markets and Article 6
Article 6 of the Paris Settlement covers carbon markets and different “cooperative approaches” that nations can use to satisfy their local weather targets.
“Voluntary” carbon markets – those who sit exterior the UN local weather regime – have lengthy been considered by some as a lawless “wild west”. This 12 months, particularly, voluntary carbon markets and forest carbon offsets have been beneath intense scrutiny, courtesy of a number of high-profile investigations analyzing whether or not they ship on their said carbon-saving targets and their impacts on biodiversity and native communities.
Within the weeks main as much as COP28, as an illustration, a number of stories retailers reported on a “new scramble for Africa”, during which a UAE sheikh with no earlier nature conservation expertise was hanging carbon market offers throughout the continent. One of many offers reportedly covers one-fifth of Zimbabwe’s land mass.
Potential local weather impacts on the ecosystems anticipated to take away this carbon have additionally delivered to the fore fears that any carbon good points polluters are relying on may go up in smoke due to wildfire dangers.
Some nations are against the concept of carbon markets in precept, whereas offsetting is central to the local weather insurance policies of others. Consequently, Article 6 negotiations are sometimes contentious, reaching a head in Madrid at COP25, the place nations didn’t agree on guidelines that might “make or break” your entire Paris Settlement.
The next 12 months, at COP26 in Glasgow, nations agreed on guidelines for bilateral carbon buying and selling between nations beneath Article 6.2, on a global carbon market beneath Article 6.4 and on “non-market approaches” beneath Article 6.8.
With the foundations written, the Worldwide Emissions Buying and selling Company (IETA) hoped that nations would put “politicised” bickering behind and operationalise the brand new market and 6.2 mechanism at COP28.
In Dubai, nevertheless, nations failed to succeed in an settlement on Article 6.2 and Article 6.4. Each of these had been topic to “rule 16”, that means talks will resume subsequent 12 months.
Nevertheless, an settlement on Article 6.8 was reached and seen as a “victory” by some for ecosystem-based approaches that put native actors at their coronary heart.
Many observers informed Carbon Transient that “no deal was higher than a foul deal” on Article 6.2 and 6.4.
NGO Carbon Market Watch commented that, if the draft choices at COP28 had handed, Article 6 would have “torpedo[ed]” the Paris Settlement.
Nevertheless, not passing the deal or creating sturdy safeguard instruments was additionally worrying to many.
In accordance with the IETA, 50 nations have already signed memoranda of understanding, implementation agreements or pilot initiatives associated to Article 6. During the last 12 months, the primary three offers to switch emissions cuts beneath Article 6.2 have been authorised by Ghana, Thailand and Vanuatu to assist Switzerland meet its local weather targets.
Trishant Dev, local weather change programme officer on the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Setting, informed Carbon Transient:
“Nations have already begun drawing up actions and in search of out bilateral offers beneath Article 6.2 and can find yourself drawing tips from the voluntary carbon market, locking in unhealthy choices till UN-backed guidelines are in place.”
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Article 6.2
Coming quickly.
Article 6.4
Coming quickly.
CDM Transition
Coming quickly.
Article 6.8
Coming quickly.
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Biodiversity and voluntary carbon markets
Coming quickly.
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Debt-for-nature swaps
Coming quickly.
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Biodiversity and the highway to COP16
COP28 hosted an unprecedented variety of high-level occasions on the hyperlinks between local weather change and nature loss.
This spherical of local weather talks was the primary to happen since nations agreed to a landmark new nature deal on the COP15 biodiversity summit, often known as the Kunming-Montreal World Biodiversity Framework (GBF), in December 2022.
Due to this, lots of the new initiatives and pledges introduced had been centered on how nations can higher combine actions to satisfy the targets of each the GBF and the Paris Settlement.In a first-of-its-kind initiative, COP28 president UAE and COP15 president China launched a Joint Assertion on Local weather, Nature and Folks.
![Daisy Dunne @daisydunnesci tweet. Text: NEW: #COP28 host UAE and #COP15 host China have launches a "joint statement on climate, nature and people". It recognises that "urgent" action is required to deliver on he goals of both the Paris agreement and the Global Biodiversity Framework. It is endorsed by 15 countries.](https://www.carbonbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/twitter.com_daisydunnesci_status_1733431100452520436_s20-1-940x1024.png)
It was initially signed by Belize, Brazil, Cape Verde, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Egypt, France, Germany, Ghana, Indonesia, Norway, Palau, Rwanda, Samoa, Senegal, Seychelles, Spain, the UK and the US, in response to an announcement emailed to Carbon Transient.
The assertion “recognised” that local weather change poses a big risk to biodiversity and “famous” that the “continued loss and degradation of nature will increase local weather vulnerability”. (See Carbon Transient’s in-depth piece on the hyperlinks between local weather change and nature loss.)
The nations additionally pledged to make sure “comprehensiveness and coherence” between their subsequent nationwide local weather pledges (“nationally decided contributions” or “NDCs”), resulting from be submitted earlier than COP30 in 2025, and their subsequent nationwide nature plans (“nationwide biodiversity methods and motion plans” or “NBSAPs”), resulting from be submitted earlier than COP16 subsequent 12 months.
Rita El Zaghloul, a former biodiversity negotiator for Costa Rica who now directs the secretariat for the Excessive Ambition Coalition for Nature and Folks (HACN&P), a gaggle of 118 nations which have pledged to guard 30% of Earth by 2030 (“30 by 30”), informed Carbon Transient that this dedication may result in extra nations together with nature of their NDCs. She mentioned:
“Some nations are already doing that. Within the case of Costa Rica, they already embrace nature targets of their NDCs. The purpose is that increasingly NDCs and NBSAPs discuss to one another.”
The joint assertion was launched at a ministerial occasion attended by greater than 15 nation ministers. This was one in all a number of high-level occasions on the summit’s “nature day” on 9 December, El Zaghloul famous:
“This was the primary time we had been participating on 30 by 30 inside a UNFCCC COP. Final 12 months, there have been conversations occurring, however we didn’t have any ministerial or high-level occasions. Right here we noticed a number of curiosity from ministers they usually took time to be on the occasions. I believe that is testomony to the significance of nature – even when we’re at a UNFCCC COP.”
Elsewhere on nature day, China stunned delegates by saying that it was becoming a member of the HACN&P. The announcement got here from COP15 president and China setting minister Huang Runqiu by way of videolink at a high-level session on 30 by 30.
![Daisy Dunne @daisydunnesci tweet. Text: NEW: China has announced it is joining the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People at #COP28. HACN&P is a group of more than 115 countries calling for 30% of Earth to be protected by 2030. Announcement via #COP15 president and China enviro minister Huang Runqiu](https://www.carbonbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/twitter.com_daisydunnesci_status_1733363108909826281_s20-1-689x1024.png)
El Zaghloul informed Carbon Transient that the announcement got here after greater than two years of talks with China, who had been initially reluctant to hitch the initiative whereas nonetheless sustaining the “impartial” function of COP15 president. She added:
“It’s extraordinarily necessary. It’s one of the vital megadiverse nations and the function of China within the adoption of the GBF was extraordinarily necessary.”
Nature day additionally noticed El Zaghloul launch a brand new “30 by 30 options toolkit” and a monetary and technical “matchmaking” service, with the purpose of giving all nations the assistance they should defend 30% of their land and seas by 2030. El Zaghloul defined:
“As a result of it was HACN&P that began the 30 by 30 motion, additionally it is our duty to make sure that nations have the ample help and instruments to satisfy the goal. We all know that it’s an formidable goal, as a result of we’ve to maneuver from roughly 17% on land and eight% on oceans [that is currently protected] to 30% on each. Most of the megadiverse nations are creating nations and small island creating states, so we have to present them with the instruments.”
![Patrick Greenfield @pgreenfielduk tweet. Text: Some good news: Columbia has formally offered to host the @UNBiodiversity #COP16 next year, environment minister @susanamuhamad has announced at #COP28. It comes after Turkey pulled out earlier this year. (vamos!!!)](https://www.carbonbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/twitter.com_pgreenfielduk_status_1734259806884462785_s20-809x1024.png)
Close to the tip of the summit, Colombia stunned delegates by saying it intends to host the following biodiversity summit, COP16, in 2024. (Earlier host Turkey was pressured to withdraw following the financial influence of earthquakes within the nation.)
It got here after Colombia sought to carve itself out as a high-ambition chief on each local weather and biodiversity points on the summit. For instance, it turned the primary main oil producer to signal the fossil gasoline non-proliferation treaty and co-launched a world evaluation of how sovereign debt is stymying local weather and nature progress.
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Meals methods transformations
The World Local weather Motion Summit on 1 December kicked off with the discharge of the Emirates Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Meals Methods and Local weather Motion, signed by 134 events. (By 14 December, the declaration had garnered a further 24 signatures and two additional endorsements.)
On the launch occasion, UAE local weather and setting minister Mariam Almheiri famous that these signatories collectively characterize greater than three-quarters of the world’s whole meals methods emissions.
![Giuliana A. Viglione, PhD @GAViglione tweet. Text: UAE climate + enviro minister announces the emirates declaration, to wide applause at #COP28. 130+ countries have signed on to a declaration that includes: - recognition of climate impacts on agriculture [and] - intention to integrate food systems into NDCs by 2025.](https://www.carbonbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/twitter.com_GAViglione_status_1730544014867181779_s20-1-920x1024.png)
The headline of the declaration was a dedication to incorporate agriculture and meals methods into nations’ NDCs and different nationwide plans “earlier than the convening of COP30”. Many observers, NGOs and food-systems consultants informed Carbon Transient that the pledge to combine meals into nationwide coverage was a welcome one – so long as there was follow-through from governments.
However some rued the shortage of consideration paid within the declaration to the hyperlinks between fossil fuels and agriculture, plus the urgent have to part out fossil fuels. Marie Cosquer, co-coordinator of the Local weather Motion Community’s agriculture working group and advocacy analyst at Motion in opposition to Starvation, informed Carbon Transient:
“All of the declarations, all this flurry of engagements, it’s diverting consideration from the precise multilateral course of and the truth that we’d like a powerful GST [global stocktake] on the finish of the following week, and a fossil-fuel phase-out.”
Million Belay, the final coordinator of Alliance for Meals Sovereignty in Africa and a member of the Worldwide Panel of Consultants on Sustainable Meals Methods, informed Carbon Transient:
“There are some good components there – it’s about transformation…However there’s heavy reliance on ‘expertise will resolve the issue’ form of considering…What sort of expertise? Who owns the expertise?”
On the similar time, the shortage of particular components within the declaration was needed for it to garner such extensive help, mentioned Ed Davey, partnerships director on the Meals and Land Use Coalition. He informed Carbon Transient:
“[These declarations] should not as necessary because the negotiated end result they usually by no means will probably be…[But] they’re a means of signalling that one thing is necessary.”
Prof Tim Benton, analysis director at Chatham Home, added that “to get 100-and-something nations to enroll, you possibly can’t be too demanding of the hurdles that they must go over”.
Greater than 200 non-state actors, similar to analysis establishments, farmers’ teams and philanthropies, signed an accompanying Name to Motion for Meals-Methods Transformation, launched on the identical day. That doc included a name for “transitioning away from fossil gasoline use inside meals methods”.
A number of monetary pledges accompanied the food-systems bulletins, together with $890m to the analysis consortium CGIAR, $57m from the Bezos Earth Fund for meals methods transformation and roughly $47m from Norway in the direction of adaptation, largely for smallholder farmers.
COP28’s thematic meals day, 10 December, noticed the launch of the Alliance of Champions for Meals Methods Transformation, akin to the Past Oil and Gasoline Alliance. Co-chairs Brazil, Norway and Sierra Leone had been joined by Cambodia and Rwanda because the founding members of the alliance.
The 5 governments that make up the alliance have dedicated to “reorienting insurance policies, practices and funding priorities to ship higher meals methods outcomes for individuals, nature and local weather”, in response to a press launch.
Benton described the Alliance of Champions as “elevating the ceiling” on meals methods transformation, whereas the Emirates Declaration “increase[d] the ground of ambition”. He informed Carbon Transient:
“It’s not simply the nations creating their very own plans for food-systems transition, however additionally it is the power of a gaggle of nations to alter the political area and alter the political dynamics at negotiations similar to this.”
Additionally on meals day, the UN Meals and Agriculture Group (FAO) launched a “world roadmap” for reaching meals safety with out crossing the 1.5C threshold. The roadmap is the primary in a sequence of three, with one set to be launched at every of the 2 subsequent COPs.
The creation of such a roadmap – akin to the Worldwide Vitality Company’s Internet Zero Roadmap – was a “good step ahead”, mentioned Patty Fong, programme supervisor on the World Alliance for the Way forward for Meals. However, she added, the roadmap is “problematic for a lot of causes”, together with promotion of bioenergy and a scarcity of consideration to the hyperlinks between fossil fuels and agriculture. She informed Carbon Transient:
“[The roadmap is] mainly selling effectivity first, fairly than wholesale transformation. And, if we’re attempting to have a look at attempting to get to the Paris Settlement, only a sequence of incremental steps that prioritises effectivity gained’t get us to 1.5C.”
Fong mentioned she hopes the FAO will “combine an iterative course of” and interact with a variety of stakeholders in producing the following report, which is ready to cowl implementation pathways.
Total, there was a scarcity of consideration paid to the demand facet of meals methods as a result of financial implications of decreasing consumption, Benton mentioned. He informed Carbon Transient:
“In the end, you get to the purpose the place it’s bloody apparent that the [growth in consumption demand] can’t keep on eternally in a world that’s turning into more and more limiting by way of local weather impacts, in addition to biodiversity loss, and so forth. However there may be nonetheless this inside ideological logic that the longer term is about financial progress.”
The ultimate textual content of the worldwide stocktake does reference the necessity to transition to sustainable patterns of consumption, which Fong described as an “inroad” into addressing diets and the consumption facet of meals methods. However, she added, “it doesn’t point out it particularly”.
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Methane and non-CO2 gases
Methane – the short-lived however potent greenhouse fuel – featured closely in pledges and voluntary finance pushes at COP28.
Nevertheless, most bulletins centered on methane from fossil-fuel manufacturing, fairly than meals methods and agriculture.
Vox famous that few of the COP28 methane actions “embrace the biggest driver of methane air pollution: the meals we eat”. (See: Meals methods transformations for extra particulars on how meals featured at COP28.)
The US, China and UAE held a summit on methane and different non-CO2 gases on 2 December in Dubai. On the occasion, the host nation referred to as for nations to submit their subsequent spherical of nationwide local weather plans (“nationally decided contributions”, or “NDCs”) and to make sure they’re economy-wide and canopy all greenhouse gases.
Chatting with reporters on the UAE pavilion on 8 December, the US agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack, informed Carbon Transient that there are a number of “financial causes” for US agriculture to embrace methane discount.
Investing in new applied sciences, tackling meals waste and offering assets to assist scale back agricultural methane are all necessary components of wider methane-reduction efforts, he added.
Agriculture accounts for extra human-caused methane emissions than the power sector, in response to the Worldwide Vitality Company.
On 5 December at COP28, six main meals firms, together with Danone, Nestlé and Kraft Heinz, alongside the US nonprofit the Environmental Protection Fund launched the Dairy Methane Motion Alliance.
Underneath this, the businesses dedicated to report on – and scale back – their methane emissions.
They pledged to launch data on methane emissions inside their dairy provide chains and to place in place a methane motion plan by the tip of 2024.
On the funding facet, governments and the personal sector pledged greater than $1bn in latest grant funding for methane discount “in help” of a “methane finance dash” launched by US president Joe Biden earlier this 12 months, in response to the US authorities.
The US says that this greater than triples the present degree of yearly methane grant funding. Will probably be used to slash methane emissions all over the world throughout all sectors, with a selected give attention to lower-income nations.
Philanthropies such because the Bezos Earth Fund can even make investments $450m over the following three years to focus on methane emissions, Reuters reported.
Additional funding was introduced by the World Methane Hub, which mentioned that greater than $200m in private and non-private funds will probably be put in the direction of analysis into decreasing methane from livestock. The cash got here from private and non-private funders, together with Danone.
Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and three different nations signed as much as the World Methane Pledge, which commits to decreasing methane emissions worldwide by 30% by 2030. This has now been signed by 155 nations because it was first introduced at COP26 in 2021.
Dozens of firms additionally signed as much as the Oil and Gasoline Decarbonisation Constitution, flagged months upfront, to hurry up decarbonisation of the oil and fuel business, to finish routine flaring and to “zero-out” methane emissions by 2030.
Dr Stephen Cornelius, the deputy world local weather and power lead at WWF, informed Carbon Transient that motion to scale back flaring particularly is “the form of factor [companies] ought to be doing anyway” for environmental and financial causes.
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Indigenous recognition and rights
Indigenous representatives from internationally raised their voices at COP28 to demand the safety of their rights inside the local weather negotiations and, particularly, the worldwide stocktake.
At a Ladies’s Earth and Local weather Motion Community (WECAN) press briefing, Indigenous girls referred to as for pressing motion to guard the Amazon rainforest. They mentioned the rainforest is in a “dire disaster” as a result of mixture of deforestation, biodiversity loss, “devastating assaults” on their rights dedicated by authorities leaders and gender violence brought on by extractive industries.
Célia Xakriabák, an Indigenous activist and member of the legislature in Minas Gerais, Brazil, denounced the burning alive of Indigenous individuals in Guaraní-Kaiowá territory weeks in the past. Within the Yanomami territory, younger girls endure bodily and sexual violence, she mentioned. Xakriabák informed the press:
“The Amazon is a lady, all of our biomes are girls, and so the therapeutic [of the planet] additionally takes place by us.”
![Célia Xakriabá @celiaxakriaba tweet. Text:](https://www.carbonbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/twitter.com_celiaxakriaba_status_1732110501839085982_s20.png)
On the briefing, the ladies urged world leaders to cease the assassinations of Indigenous environmental defenders and to halt mining and oil extraction in Indigenous territories.
Elsewhere at COP28, Indigenous representatives from North America famous that local weather change has pushed “exacerbated impacts” of their territories. In addition they took a stand in opposition to Article 6 and what they termed “false options” to local weather change, similar to carbon dioxide removing and carbon seize and storage.
Eriel Deranger, govt director of Indigenous Local weather Motion and member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in northern Alberta, Canada, mentioned species can not thrive in her Arctic neighborhood. She mentioned:
“We’re a part of these species. We can not tolerate weak insurance policies.”
At that press convention, Indigenous peoples organisations expressed “severe considerations” about Article 6, since carbon markets have “far-reaching damaging results”, similar to double-counting and air pollution. (See: Carbon markets and Article 6.)
In addition they questioned using non-market-based approaches, which may enable the personal sector to finance environmental providers, debt-for-nature swaps and expertise transfers.
![tweet from Indigenous Environmental Network (@IENearth) commenting on Indigenous recognition and rights at COP28](https://www.carbonbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/twitter.com_IENearth_status_1734558530873545176_s20-729x1024.png)
In a gap assertion, the Worldwide Indigenous Peoples’ Discussion board on Local weather Change – the caucus for Indigenous peoples within the UNFCCC – warned that carbon markets and offsets “don’t lower emissions” and “as a substitute create new types of colonisation, militarisation, criminalisation and land loss”. The discussion board as a substitute referred to as for events to decide to the 1.5C goal and a phase-out of fossil fuels.
Alongside 9 Pacific Island nations, together with Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Tonga and Fiji, Indigenous peoples referred to as for a fossil gasoline non-proliferation treaty to finish coal, oil and fuel enlargement.
For Indigenous peoples, it was necessary that the negotiations at COP28 took a human-rights strategy, Deranger mentioned throughout a Local weather Motion Community briefing.
Solely eight nations, together with Canada, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nepal and Panama, immediately recognised Indigenous peoples’ rights inside the second submission of their NDCs.
Furthermore, stories have revealed the shortage of local weather finance flowing to those communities. Solely 2.1% of the $1.7bn pledged to Indigenous peoples at COP26 in Glasgow reached them immediately, in response to the World Alliance of Territorial Communities. In the meantime, the UN Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples may solely finance the participation of 15 Indigenous leaders at COP28 – out of 700 functions.
![Yanine Quiroz @yaninequiroz tweet. Text: The UN Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples @un_indigenous supports Indigenous Peoples to attend UN meetings. At #COP28, the Fund received about 700 applications but could only support 15. Morse Caoagas, secretary of the fund, called on countries to finance the fund. 1/4.](https://www.carbonbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/twitter.com_YanineQuiroz_status_1734064807337136156_s20-829x1024.png)
Helen Biangalen-Magata, Kadaclan Indigenous rights advocate of the Mountain Province within the Philippines, mentioned that Indigenous peoples welcomed the brand new pledges to scale up local weather finance, together with the loss-and-damage fund and the variation fund, however she cautioned that these assets haven’t made it to Indigenous peoples and referred to as on monetary working entities to be clear about how the cash is being invested.
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Deforestation pledges
A number of new measures to deal with deforestation had been introduced by nations at COP28.
Brazil, which can host COP30 because the “tropical forests COP” in 2025, turned heads by saying a brand new “tropical forests eternally” fund proposal on 1 December.
Launched by setting minister Marina Silva and finance minister Fernando Haddad, the proposal goals to offer 80 tropical nations with finance to assist keep timber, with annual funds based mostly on hectares conserved or restored, in response to Reuters.
The newswire added that Brazil hopes to boost $250bn for the fund from sovereign wealth funds and different buyers, together with the oil business.
In accordance with Deutsche Welle, Silva mentioned when saying the initiative:
“It’s a really inventive proposal. We need to create situations for developed nations to guard the forest with out it being charity. They may get a return.”
Chatting with Carbon Transient, Fran Worth, world forest lead at WWF, mentioned the initiative, whereas missing element, is “the form of considering we’d like”. She added:
“We want new finance mechanisms. Current [climate finance] mechanisms aren’t well-suited for safeguarding forests. And we’d like extra mechanisms which can be being designed in global-south governments.”
Elsewhere, French president Emmanuel Macron used his look on the summit on 1 and a couple of December to substantiate funding for 3 forest finance packages, together with $100m for Papua New Guinea, $60m for the Democratic Republic of Congo and $50m for the Republic of Congo, in response to the COP28 presidency.
Not less than a few of this funding will come from “verifiable carbon credit score transactions”. (Learn Carbon Transient’s latest in-depth explainer on the present dangers and pitfalls related to carbon offsets.)
The UK pledged a further $38m to Brazil’s Amazon fund on 2 December. In accordance with the South Atlantic newswire MercoPress, this makes the UK one of many prime three contributors to the fund.
![Daisy Dunne @daisydunnesci tweet. Text: UK enviro minister @SteveBarclay speaking now at #COP28. By May, Uk will publish a "countrywide response" to GBF. Says "we will be making good on our commitment" on 30x30. Touts lots of old pledges inc. ending illegal deforestation in supply chains in UK.](https://www.carbonbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/twitter.com_daisydunnesci_status_1733378424532615336_s20-1-820x1024.png)
In a while, UK setting secretary Steve Barclay arrived to tout the nation’s pledge to ban the sale of merchandise with unlawful deforestation of their provide chains. On the summit, his division introduced that the foundations would apply to palm oil, cocoa, beef, leather-based and soya.
Reacting to the information, Clare Oxborrow, forests campaigner at Mates of the Earth, mentioned:
“It’s definitely optimistic that a number of the greatest drivers of deforestation, similar to beef, soya, palm oil and cocoa, are coated by the brand new regulation. However merchandise linked to unlawful deforestation gained’t be eradicated from UK supermarkets fully except all high-risk commodities, together with espresso, rubber and maize, are captured by the laws.
“What’s extra, the proposed regulation solely accounts for unlawful deforestation, which is notoriously tough to find out and will see some nations weakening their very own protections to scale back the variety of merchandise impacted by the ban.”
On Twitter, Prof Simon Lewis, a world change scientist from the College of Leeds and College Faculty London, famous that there was a “hanging distinction” between the ambition of Brazil’s tropical forests eternally initiative and the smaller packages introduced by particular person nations.
![Simon Lewis @simonlewis tweet. Text: The contrast between President Lila announcing yesterday the ambition for a $250 billion Tropical Forests Forever Fund to cover 80 countries, and the very small country packages announced today is really striking. #COP28.](https://www.carbonbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/twitter.com_SimonLLewis_status_1730905583878824444_s20-1.png)
On COP28’s “nature day”, the presidency held an occasion to showcase progress from the Forest and Local weather Leaders’ Partnership, an alliance of 26 nations pledging to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030 that was launched at COP27.
(The initiative is designed to construct on the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use, made the earlier 12 months at COP26. Nevertheless, as Local weather Residence Information famous throughout COP27, the preliminary settlement had the backing of 145 nations representing over 90% of the world’s forests – suggesting most nations declined to up their deforestation commitments by signing on to the brand new initiative.)
This occasion noticed a variety of new small bulletins and updates.
This included a coalition of 17 nations committing to advancing insurance policies to help “low-carbon development and improve using wooden from sustainably managed forests within the constructed setting”.
The coalition consists of Australia, Canada, the Republic of Congo, Costa Rica, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Japan, Kenya, South Korea, Norway, Pakistan, Sweden, the UK and US.
The occasion additionally noticed 15 governments launch a “roadmap” for scaling funding in forest carbon offsets.
Talking at a press convention on 10 December, Tom Goldtooth, govt director of the Indigenous Environmental Community, mentioned that “carbon markets have didn’t ship” for Indigenous individuals and native communities, including:
“We do not need time for defective expansions.”
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Ecosystem restoration
Consultants and civil-society teams at COP28 pushed for the worldwide stocktake to recognise the function of ecosystems in addressing local weather change.
Conservation of round 30 to 50% of land, freshwater and ocean ecosystems will assist defend biodiversity, scale back catastrophe danger and keep ecosystem providers, similar to carbon sequestration, in response to the sixth evaluation report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Local weather Change (IPCC). (See: Biodiversity and the highway to COP16.)
Though fossil gasoline phase-out was central to the negotiations, defending and restoring ecosystems is simply as necessary in addressing local weather change, Rhiannon Niven, world local weather change coverage coordinator at BirdLife Worldwide, informed Carbon Transient.
A number of political pledges on ecosystem restoration had been made at COP28.
On nature day, 18 nations, together with Belize, Costa Rica, Germany, the UK and US, issued a Joint Assertion on Local weather, Nature and Folks to help using ecosystem-based approaches and the implementation of land-restoration plans.
COP28 additionally noticed updates of two world commitments to restoring ecosystems: the Mangrove Breakthrough and the Freshwater Problem, which focuses on rivers and wetlands.
The Mangrove Breakthrough – a world pledge made at COP27 to revive and defend 15m hectares of mangroves by 2030 – launched a monetary roadmap in the direction of fulfilling the pledge. It estimated that round $4bn is required by 2030 to “safe the longer term” of mangroves.
The Freshwater Problem introduced that one other 30 nations, together with the UK, Canada, the US and UAE, had joined the initiative. The Freshwater Problem is a name to revive 30% of Earth’s degraded freshwater ecosystems by 2030 and was launched by six nations, together with Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mexico, on the UN Water Convention earlier this 12 months.
At a facet occasion on high-carbon ecosystems, Femke Tonneijck, from Wetlands Worldwide, referred to as for a “world peatland push” to equally preserve and finance peatlands.
![Earth Negotiations Bulletin @IISD_ENB tweet. Text: Nature-based solutions must be integral parts of our greener future. Among these solutions, #peatland conservation, restoration, and management have great potential to keep the #climate goals of the #ParisAgreement on track.](https://www.carbonbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/twitter.com_IISD_ENB_status_1734063461678678431_tCM_PoyYBX45xm7e50gEDOAs19.png)
On 2 December, Siaosi ‘Ofakivahafolau Sovaleni, the prime minister of Tonga, introduced the Unlocking Blue Pacific Prosperity initiative. The purpose of the initiative is to guard 30% of the “Blue Pacific Continent” by 2030.
The announcement was accompanied by as much as $100m of finance from the Bezos Earth Fund for marine conservation in Pacific small island creating states. The World Setting Facility additionally “supplied” $125m in the direction of implementing marine protected areas within the Pacific, Bloomberg reported.
That very same day, a number of philanthropies introduced $250m of latest funding for the Ocean Local weather Resilience Alliance, centered on defending “susceptible marine areas, ocean-based mitigation efforts and analysis on local weather impacts”.
At a WWF press convention on 8 December, Dr Stephanie Roe, world local weather and power lead scientist at WWF Worldwide and a lead creator on the IPCC AR6 report on mitigation, famous that there’s a hole in finance for nature. She added that there must be funding mechanisms from completely different stakeholders for conservation, sustainable administration and restoration. She additionally referred to as for eradicating dangerous subsidies to nature.
Francesca Antonelli, head of rivers and lakes at Wetlands Worldwide, informed Carbon Transient that for the reason that political pledges introduced at COP28 should not legally binding, nations would require “a little bit of time” to create plans for a way they may implement their measures to revive and preserve ecosystems.
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Nature-based options
At COP27 final 12 months, for the primary time, the COP “cowl resolution” talked about nature-based options – referring to using nature and ecosystems to assist mitigate local weather change and adapt to its impacts.
The controversial idea was additionally a dividing challenge for a lot of nations on the UN biodiversity summit COP15, held in Montreal final December.
At COP28, Carbon Transient understands that whereas some nations most popular the time period “ecosystem-based approaches” over “nature-based options”, or vice versa, few had been staunchly in opposition to the idea in precept.
Leila Yassine, a world advocacy supervisor for nature on the world nonprofit the Rainforest Alliance, mentioned that whereas nature-based options are “good for mitigation [and] adaptation”, their worth for biodiversity and other people can typically be missed at local weather COPs. She informed Carbon Transient:
“It’s nice to have a look at ecosystems and nature-based options from a local weather perspective as effectively, however we shouldn’t neglect that inside there, there’s nature. And nature can be biodiversity and it’s additionally land.
“Nature-based options are at all times appeared into as a software, like nature is a software for mitigation. Nevertheless it’s not solely this…We need to protect ecosystems as a result of they’ve a number of advantages [and] I believe typically this doesn’t transpire sufficient within the world stocktake and the ultimate textual content.”
Nature-based options are sometimes a key element in nations’ plans for local weather adaptation and mitigation, that includes in 57 nations’ nationwide local weather pledges beneath the Paris Settlement, in response to information from ClimateWatch.
On 30 November, Honduras’ opening assertion at COP, issued on behalf of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations, “reiterated the significance” of nature-based options and referred to as for a constant reporting methodology throughout industries, in response to the Earth Negotiations Bulletin.
As a part of a raft of nature bulletins at COP28, greater than 150 firms and monetary establishments mentioned they’d improve investments in nature-based options.
Chatting with a small group of reporters in Dubai, together with Carbon Transient, Rhiannon Niven, world local weather change coverage coordinator at BirdLife Worldwide, mentioned that it’s a “huge win” to see these approaches included within the world stocktake. (See: World stocktake.)
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Biofuels
Whereas the COP28 presidency promised that meals can be on the coronary heart of negotiations, biofuels had been anticipated to get appreciable consideration at COP28, pushed partly by a World Biofuels Alliance launched by India on the G20 summit in September and backed by the US, Brazil and the UAE.
India’s prime minister Narendra Modi referred to the alliance in his speech on the COP28 opening ceremony on 1 December, highlighting the nation’s contributions to world local weather motion. The nation’s local weather minister, Bhupendra Yadav, additionally referenced the alliance in India’s nationwide assertion to COP28.
Yesterday, the highlight on the World Biofuels Alliance at COP28, culminated in a spectacular show on the Burj Khalifa at 8:40pm#GlobalBiofuelsAllianceAtCOP28 #GBAatCOP28 pic.twitter.com/y7gUSDp327
— Ministry of Petroleum and Pure Gasoline (@PetroleumMin) December 4, 2023
Though low-carbon fuels, together with biofuels, are cited within the mitigation part of the stocktake as a part of the answer in the direction of decreasing emissions in “this important decade”, many consultants warning that emissions from biofuels underestimate their land-use footprint.
One latest examine discovered that CO2 emissions from biofuels exceed these of fossil diesel, beneath present land-regulation insurance policies. Heated debates on utilizing meals as gasoline have additionally continued within the face of conflict and document ranges of starvation all over the world.
Undaunted, the biofuel business had a big footprint at COP28.
In an interview with the Monetary Instances at COP28, ExxonMobil chief govt Darren Woods mentioned that UN local weather talks “have centered on renewable power for too lengthy”, neglecting the function to be performed by biofuels, hydrogen and carbon seize. COP28 marked the primary identified time an ExxonMobil chief govt attended a COP.
Carbon Transient analysed the COP28 participant lists and located that Brazil, Libya, Slovakia and Madagascar all despatched delegates concerned in work on biofuels.
Executives with the Brazilian Biofuels Producers Affiliation and Acelen Renewables had been registered as a part of Brazil’s “get together overflow”, NNPC Fairness Biofuels Firm with Nigeria’s, MHP with Ukraine’s and foyer group Ethanol Europe with Hungary’s.
At a particular “Majlis” – an Arabic phrase for a sitting room – convened on 10 December to resolve the negotiating logjams between events, COP president Al Jaber additionally spoke of the necessity to “increas[e] the provision of biofuels” in an effort to hold 1.5C inside attain.
In a press briefing that Carbon Transient attended on 10 December, US agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack mentioned that the aviation business wished an “acceleration of the manufacturing of biofuels” derived from a wide range of feedstocks. He added:
“It’s not simply the farmers who’re asking for this, the airways are asking for it. The truth is as nice as electrical automobiles are, we’re not prone to have battery-powered planes or hydrogen-powered planes flying long-distance within the foreseeable future.
“If the aviation business within the US goes to be aggressive and sustainable, they must have low-carbon fuels and low-carbon feedstocks.”
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Mountain ecosystems
Coming quickly.
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Greenwashing and lobbying by ‘massive ag’
Coming quickly.
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