Every year, a thread of media stories and social posts emerge in November to evaluate what went down at the most recent COP. The good, the bad and — usually — the many unknowns.
These days it’s not just the Climate COP we pay attention to, but also the Nature COP held just beforehand to talk about global efforts to protect forests and waterways, plants and animals.
Both these COPs (COP stands for conference of the parties for both the UNFCCC and the UNCBD) connect with the work we do in some way and decisions made at these meetings can either move global action or stall momentum on the climate and nature challenges we are all working to solve.
We’ve done a little wrap of our own on where these major events landed, and what this could mean for high-integrity community-led forest carbon projects. Spoiler: not too much at this stage.
COP29 — Climate COP (11–22 November)
COP 29 is the Climate COP and it brings together world leaders to make decisions on actions to stop our planet heating to catastrophic levels, and mitigate the damage already done. Hosted by Azerbaijan, this COP sparked controversies well before it began with concerns critical action would be blocked by financial incentives from the oil and gas industries.
Papua New Guinea and many climate activists did not attend, in part for this reason. While the election result in the US raised questions about the longevity of COP29 outcomes.
Article 6: done and dusted
A significant outcome from COP29 was finalising Article 6 from the Paris Climate Agreement. After almost 10 years of negotiations (!!) under Article 6, countries can now trade carbon credits gained through the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to support their national climate targets.
Two main components of Article 6 include:
- Article 6.2 — this enables emissions trading between countries through bilateral and multilateral agreements. This is now operational which allows countries and some private sector actors to trade carbon credits. There is no independent body that oversees the Article 6.2 market which means the sticking to the rules of this article is up to the discretion and good intentions of countries and actors.
- Article 6.4 — this supports the creation of a global carbon market overseen by the United Nations (referred to as Article 6.4 Supervisory Body). The scope of this Supervisory Body is yet to be determined.
There are concerns Article 6 still lacks specific rules, regulations and penalties, which risks greenwashing from big polluters and leaves room for unsustainable and unethical carbon market practices.
Climate Land Ambition and Rights Alliance also note the rules lack transparency, risk double counting and will not prevent human rights abuses. We won't know specifically how the standards and agreed rules will impact the market until 2025, especially for small-scale community-owned carbon projects like ones that work in partnership with Nakau and Live & Learn.
Finance falls short
COP29 was also labelled the Finance COP because one of the main points of this meeting was increasing financial support for lower-income countries impacted by climate change.
In the final hours of COP29, a climate finance agreement labelled the New Collective Quantified Goal (NQCD) was passed, with countries agreeing to raise US$300 billion each year by 2035 to support mitigation and adaptation. This amount falls drastically short of the US$1 trillion scientifically identified — and requested by Indigenous Peoples and countries most impacted by climate change — as the minimum needed to deal with ongoing catastrophic impacts.
In response to this agreement, Vanuatu Climate Action Network said “developed nations systematically dismantled the principles of equity enshrined in the Paris Agreement”.
The Pacific Ocean Climate Assessment reported the structure of climate finance follows traditional colonial patterns of development aid, with global financial institutions and private contractors dispersing the money in the form of loans. Additionally, the current structure does not recognise the need for immediate dispersal of funds in case of climate emergencies.
Carbon financing in the form of carbon credits supported by Article 6 and the voluntary carbon market may provide an alternate source of funding where the NQCD falls short. However, these carbon markets must also acknowledge Indigenous landowners and uphold their rights with a commitment to ethical and sustainable systems.
COP16: Nature COP (21 October – 1 November)
COP16 in Colombia was a more positive meeting overall, with a big win for Indigenous voice and representation on decisions around protecting land and waterways under the stewardship of customary landowners.
This is the Nature COP and it is focused on the Global Goals for Nature which aims to conserve at least 30% of the world’s land, freshwater and seas by 2030, as well as restore 30% of degraded places, also by 2030.
Respecting the rights of local landowners
Working with Indigenous Peoples to protect and restore forests is at the core of the Nakau approach, so there is much in these global goals that are meaningful to our work. It was exciting to see this COP16 formalised a dedicated advisory group of Indigenous Peoples and local communities who will have a say on how these targets are met — their rights, contributions and traditional knowledge further embedded in the global agenda.
The other big news from the Nature COP was the establishment of the Cali Fund which re-directs finance from large-scale biomedical and plant-informed research back to local landowners. This means big international companies, like pharmaceutical companies, will have to contribute to locally-led conservation efforts and give back to the communities that protect the natural resources they need.
This COP also saw 119 countries, 61% of participants, submit national biodiversity targets — but no progress on how to pay to implement the 30x30 plan (outside the Cali Plan) or how to measure success.
This wrap was compiled by Annie Liddy-Corlett, Climate Program Officer with our project partner Live and Learn Environmental Education and Marian Reid from Nakau.