Geneva Solutions

💵Two weeks after climate talks in Baku ended with a new climate finance target that fell short of demands, United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), an initiative working with private financial institutions, convened in Geneva. Its role in shoring up the funding gap may become more relevant than ever. ✍️ Paula Dupraz-Dobias #sustainablefinance #ESG #climate

🕊️Lama Abu Arqoub, a Palestinian from Hebron, and Yonatan Zeigen, an Israeli from Tel Aviv, both lost loved ones in the 7 October attack and the war in Gaza that ensued. Both also believe that peace is the only future worth fighting for. ✍️ Serge Michel for Heidi.news/ translated by Geneva Solutions #IsraelPalestine #Peace #MiddleEast

Christian Cardon, spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross - ICRC, speaks about Syria’s humanitarian situation following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime and why reuniting long-estranged families is central to the country’s reconstruction. ✍️ Stéphane Bussard for Le Temps / translated by Geneva Solutions #Syria #Missingpersons #RedCross

💱Ahead of this week's loss and damage fund board meeting in Manila, Indigenous representatives at the Cop29 in Baku were pressing for a say in how the fund will operate. Helen Biangalen-Magata, a member of the Kadaclan Indigenous community in the Philippines, told Geneva Solutions that maintaining a system of channelling international funding through governments, has ”perpetuated inequalities and discrimination for Indigenous peoples. If we keep that system, Indigenous peoples will be lost in all of these arrangements and governance systems”. ✍️Paula Dupraz-Dobias #climatechange #Cop29 #Indigenous #lossanddamage

⚖️Historic hearings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) are examining, for the first time, what governments worldwide are legally required to do to protect current and future generations from climate change. However, big emitters are making it clear that they are keen to avoid any further legal repercussions. ✍️Kasmira Jefford #climatechange #climatejustice #internationallaw #humanrights

For the third year in a row, the Cop29 climate conference was held in an authoritarian petrostate, undermining how effective climate outcomes could be within that context. But even for regulars to the yearly Cop events, it was clear that government repression of its domestic critics had not only tightened during the two weeks, but also permeated the venue’s Olympic Stadium. Many participants condemned the incongruity of hosting the talks in a fossil fuel nation, which they blame for “chaotic”, “disappointing, and even “the worst ever” talks, where the presidency cut out representatives of vulnerable populations and developing countries, while prompting many participants to self-censor under the peering eyes and ears of the authoritarian host. Myrto Tilianaki, environment and human rights advocate at Human Rights Watch said that operating within a repressive government meant that “instead of doing a job of keeping governments accountable” and pressuring leaders to achieve more ambitious climate outcomes, “civil society has been spending an incredible amount of time and energy trying to understand what we can or cannot say and what repercussions we may face.” #Cop29 #Baku #Azerbaijan #climate #humanrights @Myrto Tililanaki ✍️Paula Dupraz-Dobias

🇺🇳The UN's freshly appointed aid czar, Tom Fletcher, called on reluctant governments to provide $47 billion to reach millions of people in need of humanitarian assistance next year as global conflicts show no signs of letting up. ✍️ Michelle Langrand

🇦🇿Famil Khalilov, a disabled critic of the government in #Baku who was imprisoned in May over allegations of drug trafficking which he denies, has been on hunger strike for over 100 days in protest of his detention conditions and wrongful charges. His wife tells #GenevaSolutions about his long campaign for justice. ✍️ Paula Dupraz-Dobias #Azerbaijan #Cop29 #FreedomofSpeech #HumanRights

📋 Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has unfinished business to take care of at the World Trade Organization (WTO). The Nigerian former finance chief, who became its first female director general in 2021, will make the case to member states for reappointing her for a second term on Thursday, along with her priorities – and there’s plenty to choose from. There’s a paralysed dispute settlement system that needs fixing; the second part of a fisheries subsidies deal to be concluded; agriculture talks to resuscitate; and a world to convince tomorrow’s problems won’t be overcome without a multilateral trading system and an organisation at the centre to play umpire. Looming large over any four-year plan is also a US administration led once again by Donald Trump, who considers tariffs to be “the most beautiful word in the dictionary” but the acronym “WTO” and all that it stands for less so. With multilateral cooperation at an all-time low, and an incoming US administration unlikely to play by global trade rules, she’ll have a fight on her hands. ✍ Kasmira Jefford #WTO #Trade #DonaldTrump #Multilateralism

🚢As climate change affects vulnerable economies by draining distant maritime passages, trade organisations are veering into the spotlight, to pitch their own climate solutions. But not without pushback. https://lnkd.in/e-ufVQp6