2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29)

COP29

2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29)

Putting people and nature at the heart of climate action and finance

At the 2024 United Nations Climate Conference (COP29), referred to as the “Finance COP,” 198 countries will convene to set a new global climate finance target. Countries are expected to demonstrate enhanced ambition for stronger national climate commitments (NDCs) due in early 2025, including targets on energy, food systems, and forest, coastal and ocean management. This ambition must be coupled with new & additional financial resources for implementation.

At COP29, Rare will support efforts to encourage political and financial support for locally-led and nature-based solutions for climate action. Empowering fishers, farmers, local leaders and local communities with the rights and resources to lead in preserving nature as a climate solution is critical to ensuring climate resilience globally.

Rare’s events and engagement will highlight:

New and innovative sources of capital for people-centered and nature-based climate solutions
Voices of local leaders building climate resilient communities 
Outcomes of CBD COP16 to support nature & biodiversity in climate solutions, and charting the path from “Cali to Belem”
Transforming food systems for climate action

Where to find Rare at COP29

Innovative financing in blue carbon ecosystems (November 16 – 11:30 am, Side Event Room 5) In partnership with Conservation International, Pew, and the International Partnership for Blue Carbon (IPBC), this event will explore financial mechanisms to protect restore, and manage coastal blue carbon ecosystems (mangroves, seagrasses and salt marshes) for mitigation and adaptation action, and how finance links to biodiversity outcomes.  

Catalyzing sea change: Bridging science, finance, and local action for resilient coastal communities (November 19, 9:00 am AZT, Ocean Pavilion) Hosted with FAO, the Green Climate Fund, Worldfish, and ORRAA, this event will highlight how community-led ecosystem management and nature-based solutions are building resilience in coastal communities and demonstrate the dual powers of science and finance for informing and enabling locally-led action.

Mangroves in NDCs: Scaling up implementation for climate, people, and nature (November 21, 12:30 pm AZT, NDC Partnership Pavilion) Hosted in partnership with High Level Champions Team and the Global Mangrove Alliance, this event will highlight how including mangrove-positive targets in countries’ national climate commitments can be an important catalyst to mobilize action and finance for mangrove conservation and restoration, and further enhance mitigation contributions.

Let’s talk about finance: An open discussion around challenges and opportunities for financing blue carbon projects (November 14, 4:00 pm AZT Commonwealth Pavilion) Hosted with the Commonwealth Blue Charter and ORRAA, this event will be a discussion around the challenges and opportunities around financing blue carbon project from early-stage project development to high-quality implementation.

Achieving the mangrove breakthrough: Scaling global action on mangrove restoration and protection (November 21, 2:00 pm AZT | UAE Pavilion, Blue Zone) Rare Brazil VP Monique Barreto Galvao will participate in this joint High-Level event between The Mangrove Alliance for Climate and The Global Mangrove Alliance, a follow-up from COP28 to report on progress on the implementation of the major partnerships and initiatives behind the Mangrove Breakthrough – representing a transformative initiative at the intersection of conservation, science, finance,
and policy.

Nature-based financing & blue carbon action

Healthy blue carbon ecosystems like mangroves, seagrass beds, and tidal salt marshes, are some of our best nature-based solutions for climate action and sustainable development. But their benefits aren’t singular to sequestering or storing carbon dioxide. They also enhance coastal resilience, biodiversity, local livelihoods, and food security. Rare’s approach to blue carbon financing ensures that projects are designed with local communities’ needs and rights at the forefront, and that financial gains are channeled directly to communities.

Learn more

Food systems transformation

At COP28, over 50 countries signed the Emirates Declaration of Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems & Climate Action. More than 3 billion people in coastal communities depend on small-scale fisheries for their main source of protein and smallholder farmers produce one-third of the world’s food supply. At COP29, Rare will promote our work partnering with fishers and farmers to protect their food security in a changing climate.

Securing food systems

Behavior Change in NDCs

A recent report from World Resources Institute shows how high-emitting countries are using their national commitments, or NDCs, to promote behavior change for climate, a crucial pathway to reducing emissions. The report underscores the growing movement toward including behavior change alongside policy change as levers to a sustainable future.

Rare’s Kevin Green, who leads our Center for Behavior & the Environment, spoke about this dynamic on the OECD A Better Tomorrow podcast.

Listen to the podcast

Resources

The third five-year cycle of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), due in 2025, represents a crucial opportunity to scale up global emissions reductions and strengthen the resilience of communities and ecosystems by integrating environmental integrity considerations into NDCs. The second edition of the Nature4Climate coalition’s Guide for Including Nature in NDCs has been developed to assist national policymakers and technical experts involved in the revision and implementation of 2025 NDCs.

Download the resource

Looking Ahead to COP30 in Belem

The next UN Climate Change Conference – COP30 – will be held in Belem, Brazil in 2025. Just a couple hundred kilometers away, communities along Brazil’s Amazon coast are leading the way in protecting mangroves, a vital nature-based solution to climate change. Meet some of the fishers and local leaders with whom Rare has partnered to safeguard mangroves and wildlife, while also meeting the needs of coastal communities. Rare’s Vice President of Brazil Monique Barreto Galvao will be in Baku for COP29. If you would like to connect with her and about COP30, reach out at mgalvao@rare.org.

Stretching nearly 14,000 square kilometers across northern Brazil, mangroves are a life source for more than 80,000 people. Read about the fishers, local leaders, and communities safeguarding life on Brazil’s Amazon coast.

Read The Guardians of the Mangrove

Resex Soure, an extractive reserve in Brazil’s Pará state, was recently added to IUCN’s Green List as an area “certified as being effectively managed and fairly governed, with long-term positive impacts on people and nature.” Meet Matheus Adams, a Youth Leader in Resex Soure, and hear him describe the relationship communities along the Amazon Coast have with the mangrove forests here

WATCH Matheus’ VIDEO

Mothers of the Mangroves is a four-part video series that explores the fundamental roles many women play as coastal guardians in northern Pará state, nurturing and protecting the ecosystem that supports their lives and livelihoods and helps mitigate our global climate crisis. It is a call to action to conserve this precious resource before it’s too late.

Watch the series

Rare’s Delegation to COP29

Lisa Schinder Murray

Director, Natural Climate Solutions & Blue Innovative Finance

Emily Goodwin

Senior Manager, Climate Policy & Global Development

Monique Barreto Galvao

Vice President, Rare Brazil

2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) | Rare