The climate emergency is a direct consequence of carbon-heavy land-use and agriculture, transport, buildings and industrial processes and polluting energy sources. Without profound changes to these sectors and a drastic cut to carbon footprints, there is little hope of protecting the planet from the devastating effects of a warmer world.
Below are climate-related news and events from the United Nations and partners.
Amid quite slow progress in Baku, there were a few bright spots today at COP29 as negotiations over finance and myriad other issues continue. The Australian government committed US$32.5 million to the loss and damage fund. The fund was created at COP27 to help low-income developing countries offset the damage from natural disasters caused by climate change.
The United States has said it will announce a contribution of US$325 million to the Climate Investment Funds – a set of World Bank managed trust funds for climate action for low and middle-income countries.
The UK, New Zealand and Colombia have joined the international Coalition on Phasing Out Fossil Fuel Incentives Including Subsidies (COFFIS). COFFIS is a Dutch-led coalition of governments working together to remove barriers and facilitate transparency toward the phase-out of fossil fuel subsidies. It now has 16 member countries, including Austria, Costa Rica, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland and New Zealand.
Thirty countries today committed to reduce methane from organic waste such as food. Food loss and waste accounts for 8-10 per cent of total annual greenhouse gas emissions and methane emissions from food waste in landfills are a significant component, representing 3 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions.
The Declaration on Reducing Methane from Organic Waste supports the broader Global Methane Pledge to cut all global methane emissions at least 30 per cent by 2030.
UNEP is also working to reduce methane emissions in the oil and gas sector through the use of big data and satellite monitoring.
Passive cooling, better urban design and Nature-based Solutions – including more green and blue spaces are necessary to stop the spiral of “more emissions, hotter planet, more cooling demand,” UNEP’s Executive Director, Inger Andersen said.
Speaking at a High-level Roundtable – Delivering on the Global Cooling Pledge – yesterday in Baku, she highlighted the need to increase access to cooling to protect human health, reduce inequality and poverty, and allow economies to function and cold chains to “reduce the 12 per cent of food that is lost and the 25 per cent of vaccines that degrade due to lack of proper temperature management.”
Andersen also highlighted the fact that Stronger energy efficiency standards for cooling equipment. And a faster phase-down of climate-warming hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) under the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, could “protect 3.5 billion people from extreme heat by 2050; cut sectoral emissions by over 60 per cent; and reduce electricity bills for end users by US$1 trillion in 2050.”
This event will kickstart the Food Waste Breakthrough in preparation for launch at COP30 in Brazil next year. Its aim? To achieve a 50 per cent reduction in global food waste and a 30 per cent reduction in methane emissions by 2030, accelerating climate mitigation and fostering a sustainable and resilient food system.
With food loss and waste generating 8 to 10 per cent of emissions, it's vital the issue is tackled by the public and private sectors.
The Indus River and the vast Himalayan glaciers that feed it have come to pose an increasingly unpredictable threat: deadly floods, exacerbated by climate change, have struck the river basin repeatedly in recent years.
Those disasters, along with growing concern about environmental degradation, have added urgency to the Living Indus initiative, an ambitious effort to restore the river’s ailing ecosystems and secure the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. Restoration measures are wide-ranging: they cover everything from growing mangroves in the Indus delta to grafting glaciers high in the mountains.
The initiative, led by the Pakistani government, has been recognised as a World Restoration Flagship. The award is part of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and recognises initiatives that are helping to protect and revive the natural world. Read the full article.
Progress remains slow on climate finance in Baku with a general understanding that "trillions" of dollars will be needed to help developing countries both adapt to the climate crisis and transition away from fossil fuels. Yet, there remains issues over who should pay and what form this money should take.
It comes after the G20 - meeting in Brazil - issued a declaration calling for "trillions of dollars" for climate finance, but said that this must come from "all sources", which disappointed some in Baku.
Adonia Ayebare, the chair of the G77 + China, a grouping of developing nations, told AFP that the G77 was “not comfortable” with vague wording saying the money should come from “all sources”. “We have been insisting that this has to be from public sources. Grants, not loans,” Ayebare said.
UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Simon Stiell said that G20 leaders had “sent a clear message to their negotiators at COP29: do not leave Baku without a successful new finance goal”. “This is in every country’s clear interests,” he added.
For Ahumwire Justine, a banana farmer from Shuku, in Uganda’s southwest, a day last October brought home just how vulnerable her plantation was to extreme weather.
That day, a devastating rain and hailstorm destroyed 300 of her banana trees and killed two of her cows. The damage was so bad, she and her family considered leaving their two-hectare plot, which was not insured.
“We had no food, no money for school fees for my children and no food for my animals,” the mother of four says.
The frequency and intensity of storms like the one that destroyed Justine’s crops is increasing due to climate change, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Read the full story.
Last week Nasa scientists revealed that freshwater levels have dropped dramatically since 2014. From 2015 through 2023, satellite measurements showed that the average amount of freshwater stored on land – that includes liquid surface water like lakes and rivers, plus water in aquifers underground – was 1,200 cubic km lower than the average levels from 2002 to 2014.
The reduction in available water can lead to poverty, famine and conflict, as well as an increased risk of disease when people turn to contaminated water sources, according to a UN report on water stress published earlier this year.
At COP29, there are a number of events that focus on this crucial issue including this event tomorrow on accelerating climate action through regional cooperation on water, energy, food and ecosystems. On Thursday there are two water-focused events: this event on how countries can integrate water into their climate plans; and this event which will see the Water Declaration endorsed, which is a call for integrated approaches when combating the causes and impacts of climate change on water basins and water-related ecosystems.
New data compiled by Carbon Brief has revealed that 74 per cent of extreme weather events were made more likely or severe because of climate change. This includes multiple cases where scientists found that an extreme was virtually impossible without human influence on global temperatures.
The most clearly linked events were “heat events” such as wildfires, followed by rain and flooding, followed by drought.
The data highlights the importance of country’s new NDCs – or climate plans – showing reduced CO2 emissions and developing countries getting the finance needed to adapt to climate change and increasingly common extreme weather events.
