#PlatformAtCOP29

From November 11 to 24, the 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was held. The Socioenvironmental Platform of the BRICS Policy Center provided coverage of COP 29 on its social media, also sending two representatives to the conference: Maureen Santos, coordinator, and Maria Beatriz Mello, assistant researcher. This newsletter gathers the main news from the two weeks of coverage by the Socioenvironmental Platform, highlighting the disputes in the negotiations, agreements, and disagreements.

COP 29 Results

Referred to as “the COP of financing,” the main goal of COP 29 was to deliver the new Quantified Common Goal (QCG) for climate financing. There were high expectations for an ambitious target that would provide fair financing for developing countries.

Despite efforts, COP 29 ended with an unsatisfactory agreement for developing countries, reflecting the failure to achieve an ambitious and consistent climate finance deal. The QCG was set at $300 billion per year until 2035. In addition to falling short of the $1.3 trillion requested by the Global South, WWF Brazil highlights that this amount is merely an “inflationary adjustment” of the commitment made in 2009 at COP15, which promised $100 billion annually.

Another major demand from developing countries was not reflected in the final QCG text: the priority for public and grant-based financing, so as not to generate further debt. In the new goal, climate financing is not discriminatory and will include a wide range of sources—public and private, bilateral and multilateral, “including alternative sources.”

While the difficulty in reaching a consensus on climate finance caused the closure of COP 29 to be delayed by 33 hours, the carbon market saw the opposite. On the first day of the COP, countries struck a deal and announced a new agreement on the topic. This agreement concerns the rules that will implement Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. This regulation addresses the international transfer of mitigation outcomes (Article 6.2) – that is, carbon credit trading between countries – as well as a new international carbon market (Article 6.4), with the “Paris Agreement Carbon Credit Mechanism” (PACM).

Negotiations on other topics (such as just transition, adaptation, and mitigation) stalled, and the dialogue was postponed for COP 30.

Brazil Announces New NDC

In the first week of COP 29, Brazil announced its new climate goals, presented by Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and the Brazilian delegation to the UNFCCC. The NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions) are commitments to reduce CO₂ emissions to limit global warming to 2°C, ideally 1.5°C, by the end of the century. Brazil announced a reduction of 59% to 67% of emissions by 2035, compared to 2005 levels, which translates to mitigating between 850 million and 1.05 billion tons of CO₂e per year.

However, the new NDC has faced criticism from environmentalists. The Climate Observatory considers the target misaligned with the country’s fair contribution. The upper limit of 1.05 billion tons was criticized, with experts highlighting that the lower limit of 850 million should be the ambition ceiling. Additionally, there are criticisms regarding the lack of clarity in deforestation policies, pointing to inconsistencies in the numbers presented and the definition of a zero deforestation policy, crucial for Brazil’s primary source of emissions—the land-use change sector, responsible for 46% of national emissions in 2023.

A New “Troika”: The Troika of Indigenous Peoples

The Troika of Indigenous Peoples, formed by leaders from Brazil, Australia, and the Pacific Islands, was launched during COP 29 as a coalition to strengthen participation in negotiations and promote indigenous rights. By the end of the conference, the Indigenous Caucus, a space dedicated exclusively to indigenous populations at COP with over 500 representatives from indigenous peoples and members of local community organizations from various regions of the world, emphasized the need to recognize indigenous peoples as crucial partners in adaptation and just transition actions.

Voices of Civil Society

COP 29 saw strong civil society engagement throughout the two weeks. The conference was heavily criticized by social movements and non-governmental organizations. Not only for the final outcome, the failure to achieve a fairer and more ambitious climate finance deal, but also for restrictions on freedom of opinion and protest both inside and outside COP.

An example of this was seen during Global Action Day, traditionally the largest demonstration at COPs in terms of participation by people and movements. The mobilization was again limited to the conference’s internal space, reflecting a pattern of restrictions on freedom of expression observed in previous editions such as COP 27 in Egypt and COP 28 in the UAE. This year, protests faced even stricter internal rules, including a ban on loud demonstrations and a requirement for silence in the hallways, making it even harder to mobilize and bring visibility to civil society’s demands.

Regarding the final COP assessment, the constituencies of environmentalists (ENGO), workers (TUNGO), and women and gender organizations (WGC) made a brief intervention in the final plenary of COP 29, stating that they refuse to be “complicit in the failure” of COP, which has turned from a Conference of the Parties into a “conference of developed countries. We refuse to legitimize a system that has failed us collectively, benefiting only a few.”

The Indigenous Caucus also stated that “expecting us to be grateful for $300 billion by 2035 is expecting us to be grateful for you profiting from our avoidable deaths.”

Socioenvironmental Platform at COP29: BRICS and Global Climate Governance

The Socioenvironmental Platform was present at COP29! We organized the panel “Just Transition and Climate Ambition: How Committed are BRICS Countries?” held at the Regional Climate Foundations Pavilion (RCF).

The event brought together researchers from BRICS countries for a discussion on the role of these nations in global climate governance and the impact of the expansion of the bloc. The dialogue included Romy Chevalier (South African Institute of International Affairs/SAIIA), Milena Megrè (Instituto E+ Transição Energética), and Maria Beatriz Mello (Socioenvironmental Platform/BRICS Policy Center), moderated by Maureen Santos, coordinator of the Socioenvironmental Platform.

During the panel, the English version of the executive summary “Climate Ambition of BRICS Countries” was also launched.

For full coverage of COP 29, visit our Instagram: @plataformasocioambiental

Credits:

Text: Pedro Paulo Higino da Silva Nogueira and Giovanna Martins
Review: Maria Beatriz Mello
Coordination: Maureen Santos and Paula Sandrin