Climate Watch: Countries must double adaptation finance to $40bn, says Antonio Guterres

Climate change directly affects our communities, health, and livelihoods. Yet, media coverage often prioritises politics and business over climate-related stories, leaving crucial environmental news underreported.

Climate Watch seeks to bridge this information gap, ensuring that important climate change stories and mitigation efforts stay on your radar.

Here is a round-up of last week’s climate stories:

• During the opening ceremony of the COP29 world leaders’ climate action summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, Antonio Guterres, UN secretary general, asked global leaders to deliver on their commitments to transition from fossil fuels. Guterres said the “clean energy revolution is here,” adding that governments must ensure that transition is fair and fast. He said the new nationally determined contributions (NDCs) due in February 2025 must include plans to slash global fossil fuel production and consumption by 30 percent in 2030. The UN chief said finance promises must be kept while developed countries must double adaptation finance to at least $40 billion per year by 2025. Read more here.

• At COP29, countries have agreed on a new global carbon market framework that will reward nations cutting down emissions. Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the UN Climate Change, said the operationalisation of carbon markets will accelerate climate action. Stiell, who described the decision as “significant,” emphasised the need for climate investment to flow to where it is most needed. Read more here.

  Advertisement

• Nigeria’s delegation at the ongoing COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, is the largest in Africa despite having a significant reduction from the figure that attended the 2023 edition. An analysis by TheCable shows that Nigeria ranks ninth overall with 634 delegates and has the largest delegation from Africa, followed by Uganda with 412 delegates. Find out more here.

• The world’s top multilateral development banks (MDBs) have pledged to boost climate finance to low- and middle-income countries by $120 billion annually by 2030. The group of 10 MDBs, which includes the World Bank, European Investment Bank, and Asian Development Bank, agreed on the target at the COP29 summit. The new figure is a 70 percent increase in the amount the MDBs allocated to poorer nations in 2023. It includes $42 billion for adaptation to the effects of extreme weather. Read more here.
  
• A climate policy group has called for significant reforms and an overhaul of the UN’s COP process. The coalition includes Ban Ki-moon, former UN secretary general; Christiana Figueres, former executive secretary of the UN climate change; Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland; and climate scientist Johan Rockström. In an open letter, they argued that the current COP framework cannot deliver the exponential speed and scale needed to secure a safe future. The open letter highlighted seven key reforms for COP, adding that it is time for the conference to “shift away from negotiations to the implementation of concrete action.” Read more here.
• A report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) says nitrous oxide (N₂O), a potent greenhouse gas, is rapidly accelerating climate change and damaging the ozone layer. UNEP said nitrous oxide is 270 times more potent than carbon dioxide and accounts for 10 percent of net global warming. The report said by transforming global food production systems and rethinking societal approaches to nitrogen management, the world can cut down nitrous oxide emissions by 40 percent. Find out more here.