N4C COP29 Daily Brief (Nov 21): On Nature Day, 80 Leaders and Organizations Call for Ambitious Nature Finance in NCQG
Nature4Climate
Nature4Climate aims to increase action on natural climate solutions in support of the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
Today is Nature, Oceans, Indigenous Peoples and Gender Day and we’re making ourselves heard. More than 80 organizations have come together to call on the UNFCCC Parties to properly recognize and finance nature’s role in addressing the climate crisis, or risk undermining global efforts to limit global warming to 1.5C. The message is simple: We need to rapidly decarbonize the world’s economy toward zero emissions and halt the destruction of natural ecosystems. The COP29 Statement for Nature, coordinated by Nature4Climate, emphasizes the need for countries to deliver an ambitious and actionable New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance, recognizing that healthy ecosystems are not merely co-benefits — they serve as cost-effective climate solutions that urgently need dedicated funding. We need every supporter and ally to help carry this message forward, so please look below to see how you can get involved.
This comes as the negotiations reach a critical phase. By the time this reaches your inbox, we expect that many important new texts, including for the NCQG, will have been released, and reactions should be coming in shortly. It seems very unlikely, given where things stand, that we should expect the COP to finish on Friday afternoon.
We have reached the point where Parties need to put their cards on the table, and developed countries need to be clear about how much finance they are willing to provide. There is also still a serious distance to cover in order to bridge gaps in other areas of the negotiations, including for adaptation, loss and damage, Article 6, and the Mitigation Work Programme, where decisions could expand on how to implement key agreements from last year, including provisions to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030.
As we near the end of COP29 it is clear that people working hard for nature and climate are feeling the strain. Gathering together the collective voice of so many organizations and individuals for our letter calling upon global leaders to keep their commitments to nature and the climate should give us renewed vigor. We're here to work, connect, to live with nature. There's no other option. As a community let's continue to collaborate and support each other so we can say we left nothing on the table as we strive to put nature back where it belongs at the heart of global climate action this COP.
Lucy Almond
Chair, Nature4Climate
SPOTLIGHT: COP29 Statement for Nature
As negotiations in Baku reach a critical stage, a global group of over 80 NGOs, business coalitions, companies, Indigenous Peoples organizations and influential individuals has issued an urgent ‘COP29 Nature Statement’, calling for countries to deliver an ambitious and actionable New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance that recognizes nature's role in climate action.
Specifically, the signatories are calling on governments to:
1. Deliver a fair, ambitious, and actionable New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance that is adequate to the urgency and scale of needs and priorities of developing country Parties, ensures social and environmental integrity, and leaves no one behind. The NCQG must exceed US$1 trillion per year. It must accelerate efforts to scale down public and private flows that run counter to climate objectives, including fossil fuel subsidies and harmful incentives that drive deforestation and threaten biodiversity. The NCQG must encourage Parties and other relevant actors to explore the use of and scale-up of innovative sources of nature finance, such as debt-for-nature/climate swaps, green bonds and high-integrity voluntary carbon markets.
2. Maintain the recognition of the crucial synergies between the Rio Conventions and the interdependencies between finance for climate, biodiversity, land degradation and sustainable development goals.
3. Ensure that climate finance delivery respects, promotes and considers the rights, needs and priorities of Indigenous Peoples and local communities as key actors of change, as well as secures improvements in their ability to directly access funding. The outcome must acknowledge the climate leadership and actions of Indigenous Peoples and local communities to steward nature and make sure they have the requisite rights and resources to do so effectively.
CALL TO ACTION: HELP SPREAD THE WORD
Please voice your support for the COP29 Nature Statement by helping us spread the word. You can download the full social media kit below to share on your social media channels, and please also share it with your colleagues and networks!
WHAT THE SIGNATORIES ARE SAYING
💬 James Lloyd , Policy Lead, Nature4Climate: “This is a critical moment for climate finance. We are already at 1.2C, and nature’s ability to help us to adapt to and mitigate climate change is under threat. With a few days remaining to deliver an ambitious deal, we ask Ministers and negotiators to focus all their efforts on securing an ambitious climate finance goal of at least $1 trillion. This goal must also end all financial flows that harm nature and run counter to climate objectives. Nature is a powerful ally in the climate fight, and investment in nature makes economic sense. With just days remaining, we need radical and bold action from all corners of society to take action with nature to tackle the climate crisis.”
💬 Juan Carlos Jintiach - Executive Secretary of the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities: “As we look to COP30, we need to move towards urgent actions for land tenure rights, the only way to make all of this effective. If we want to keep 1.5°C within reach or to connect climate and biodiversity, all of it needs Indigenous Peoples and local communities with strong tenure rights, our lives protected, and our traditional knowledge recognized and respected. This is how we will make COP29—and the trillions of dollars being allocated to address the climate crisis—effective.”
💬 Kiryssa Kasprzyk, Conservation International ’s director of climate policy: “The numbers don’t lie: Nature holds at least one-third of the solution to climate change, yet it receives only a fraction of global climate funding. We simply cannot afford to continue to leave nature out of the equation. The new collective finance goal must be in the trillions, have a defined public funding target and include a promise to support nature. It’s known that nature-based solutions offer a tangible, immediate way to address climate change and biodiversity loss in tandem – money must flow to both. If we get this right, the opportunity is profound – for both people and the planet."
💬 Daniel Zarin , Executive Director of the Forests and Climate Change Program at Wildlife Conservation Society: “Maintaining and improving ecological integrity–ecosystem structure, function, and composition –are central to addressing the climate crisis. The importance of ecological integrity is recognized in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Paris Agreement. Negotiations on synergies among the Rio Conventions should include focus on the ecological integrity of nature as a critical thread connecting the 3 conventions.”
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Today is Nature Day @ COP29
Going beyond a celebratory day, Nature Day at COP29 highlights the need to secure the financing and commitments required to make nature central to climate solutions. We've recapped major moments and share insights from a cadre of nature champions to inspire us all to continue pushing forward with nature integrating nature into climate policies, financing, and business strategies.
SPOTLIGHT: Guide for Including Nature in NDCs
At COP29, we've launched the second edition of the Nature4Climate coalition’s Guide for Including Nature in NDCs to assist national policymakers and technical experts involved in the revision and implementation of 2025 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). This edition includes 15 recommendations to effectively integrate environmental integrity considerations and Nature-based Solutions (NbS) more prominently into NDCs, along with additional resources and case studies of success. Read the executive summary bellow:
📅 Join us today at The NDC Partnership Pavilion from 14:00-15:00 AZT for, COP29: Nature in 2025 NDCs - Enhancing Ambition through Forestry, Food Systems, and Other Nature-Based Solutions, an event Nature4Climate will co-host with TNC, WWF Nature4Climate Climate Focus, and Conservation International to learn more about the guide and how it can help put nature at the heart of climate action.
📰 FEATURED NEWS
The Independent reports that campaigners at COP29 say countries have not sufficiently incorporated nature protection and restoration into their national climate action plans, or into multilateral negotiations on finance, adaptation and mitigation. Over 80 organizations and individuals signed an open letter, coordinated by Nature4Climate, calling for nations to settle on an increase in funding to restore and support nature. The letter said an agreement that does not adequately recognize nature’s role in climate action “risks undermining” global efforts towards the 2015 Paris Agreement.
BusinessGreen shares new analysis showing that a failure to link climate and nature policies together could lead to heightened risks to economies and the environment.
Mongabay reports on the Brazilian delegation's new program proposed at COP16 under Brazil's newly revised initiative to restore native ecosystems. The program would reforest 12 million hectares of land — about 30 million acres, or half the size of the U.K. — by 2030.
Reuters covers controversy at COP29 on trading carbon credits. While an early deal last week saw nations agree on some quality standards, points still to be hammered out include what a global registry to track trades and label carbon credits would look like, and what information projects will need to disclose.
Carbon Pulse shares that developing countries have rebuffed the idea of a $200 billion annual climate finance target for wealthy government coffers, calling it a "joke" as ministers rushed to bridge persistent differences in the last stretch of COP29 negotiations.
Reuters carries commentary arguing that business leaders are pushing for climate action, citing a We Mean Business Coalition letter signed by over 260 companies calling for a shift from fossil fuels.
📸 ANNOUNCEMENTS
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