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CUTS Daily Bulletin # 08 | November 20, 2024
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Campaign for the Global Alliance for Leveraging Innovative Finance (GALIF)
 Climate change has dominated headlines, yet its inextricable link with biodiversity remains curiously muffled. This disconnect, despite both issues falling under the purview of most environmental ministries, underscores a dangerous silo mentality. To ensure a future worth inheriting, we must address these intertwined challenges in unison, guided by pragmatism and global equity.
CUTS International's 'Fund of Funds' proposal leverages diverse financing sources, creating a “Global Alliance for Leveraging Innovative Finance” (GALIF) that advocates an agnostic Fund of Funds and seeks to streamline financing, boost investments, and effectively channel resources toward climate and biodiversity initiatives, ensuring a more impactful and comprehensive approach to address these pressing global challenges. To join the campaign please write to us at: galif@cuts.org
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More than 30 countries have endorsed the COP29 Declaration on Reducing Methane from Organic Waste, including eight of the 10 largest emitters of methane from organic wastes.
“Countries commit to setting up sectoral targets on food wastes within their future Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC),” Yalchin Rafiyev, the Lead Negotiator for COP29 Azerbaijan, said at a press conference. The declaration will focus on five priority areas — NDCs, regulation, data, finance, and partnership.
Countries have opportunities to include targets for the waste sector in the NDCs, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme Inger Andersen said at the presidential event. There is also a need for regulation and understanding the best practices in other countries, she added.
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While the statement from the world’s leading economies—and biggest emitters—stopped short of explicitly referring to ‘transitioning away from fossil fuels’, to which all nations agreed last year at COP28 in Dubai, the G20 leaders did ‘welcome the balanced, ambitious outcome’ of those talks.
The G20 communiqué comes as the clock ticks down on COP29, which is set to wrap up this Friday in the Azerbaijan capital, Baku. The complex negotiations on new and significantly scaled-up funding for loss and damage and accelerated clean energy goals are moving slowly, as some countries dig into their positions while waiting for others to pull back from their own.
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Today on the sidelines of the UN Climate Conference in Baku (COP 29), the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Colombia joined the international Coalition on Phasing Out Fossil Fuel Incentives Including Subsidies (COFFIS).
COFFIS is a coalition of governments working together to remove barriers and facilitate transparency toward the phase-out of fossil fuel subsidies.
“Our mission is to make the UK a clean energy superpower, getting off the rollercoaster of international fossil fuels and switching to homegrown energy in the hands of the British people. “By joining the Coalition on Phasing Out Fossil Fuel Incentives Including Subsidies, we are showing the UK is back in the climate business and committed to working with partners to tackle this generational crisis.”
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Day Eight of COP29 in Baku was dedicated to Food, Agriculture, and Water – critical pillars in addressing climate change. As negotiations progressed into what some call the “valley of death,” the challenge was palpable, yet glimpses of optimism and progress shone through.
The day’s agenda was underscored by a renewed urgency to tackle emissions from agriculture and waste. The COP29 presidency announced the “Reducing Methane from Organic Waste Declaration”, targeting emissions from landfills, which account for 20 percent of human-related methane emissions. Yalchin Rafiyev, the lead negotiator, emphasised the significance of this initiative: “Reducing methane emissions this decade is our emergency brake in the climate emergency.” Over 30 nations, representing nearly half of global methane emissions from organic waste, endorsed the declaration, marking a critical step forward.
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The Ministerial Roundtable on Delivering the Global Cooling Pledge, organised by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)-led Cool Coalition and the United Arab Emirates COP28 Presidency, reaffirmed the commitment to collective action on one of climate change’s most tangible challenges: the rising demand for cooling.
Speaking at the Ministerial Roundtable, Her Excellency Dr Amna bint Abdullah Al Dahak, UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment, said: "The Global Cooling Pledge is not just an agreement; it's a lifeline, with the potential to collectively reduce emissions by nearly 78 billion tonnes by 2050. With extreme heat waves and temperatures soaring, sustainable cooling is no longer a luxury, but a necessity for survival and prosperity.
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Analysis shows that hundreds of lobbyists for industrial agriculture are attending the COP29 climate summit in Baku. They include representatives from some of the world’s largest agribusiness companies, including the Brazilian meatpacker JBS, the animal pharmaceuticals company Elanco, and the food giant PepsiCo, as well as trade groups representing the food sector.
Overall, 204 agriculture delegates have accessed the talks this year, analysis by DeSmog and the Guardian reveals. While the total number has dropped compared with the record highs at Cop28, the figures show climate cops remain a top priority for businesses working in agriculture, a sector that accounts for up to a third of global greenhouse gas emissions.
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The rich world will not pony up the funds needed for large-scale mitigation. India and other countries should focus on carbon dioxide removal tech, where R&D is already advanced.
India has been a part of the chorus at COP29, for more funds from developed countries for climate change mitigation. Mitigation here means reducing or avoiding fresh greenhouse gas emissions. This is fundamentally misconceived, on par with joining the mob running pell-mell and shouting, ‘thief, thief ’, blessedly unaware that the thief had himself started the full-throated chase, to divert attention.
Besides, carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is the only way to arrest climate change before warming reaches deadly proportions. Every year, humanity adds 40-odd gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions to the 2,400 Gt, give or take 10%, emitted over the period 1850-2019. It was estimated, in 2019, that further emissions of 500 Gt would be all it took to raise the average global temperature to more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial times.
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