- Avoided emissions has become a significant area of discussion across different sectors – in particular companies that are producing products and solutions which help to lower emissions for their customers wish to establish some methodology for recognizing the carbon benefits achieved. Also, recognition of avoided emissions can help crystalize greater volumes of transition finance.
- There was significant focus on greenwashing risk which has becomes an area of concern for corporates attempting to achieve net zero across their value chain by 2050.
- The climate: health nexus has become an important part of the global climate agenda because of the impact that climate is having on global healthcare and also because of the emissions coming from the healthcare sector.
- Nature & Biodiversity did not feature as heavily as expected at COP29, despite (and possibly because of) COP16 (the Biodiversity COP) taking place immediately ahead of it. The key themes at COP29 around e.g. finance, implementation of national plans and transition plans were also key discussions at COP16 (but from a nature viewpoint) with many key businesses pointing to the need for a more holistic approach to these two key issues, recognizing their critical linkages.
Overall takeaways from COP29
Despite not making as much progress as hoped for on the New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance or on the phase out of fossil fuels, there are many reasons to be positive about COP29. It is very clear that non-state actors are moving in a constructive direction to address key challenges on the mitigation and adaptation agendas. Overall, there was more positivity than expected and a real sense of momentum across various fronts.
While COP29 was described as the “Finance COP” which it very much was, the other critical issue that dominated discussions was the requirement for signatories to the Paris Agreement to produce third generation Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and the need for greater levels of ambition by February 2025 (though it is likely most countries will delay past this date).
There was significant focus on aligning NDCs with local country corporate transition plans and developing investable NDCs, highlighting the intersection of the climate finance and climate policy agendas.
Cross-cutting themes for the Business Community
Value creation: There was broad acceptance that there needs to be an underlying value proposition if meaningful progress is going to be taken. This is important in the context of future policy developments in particular e.g. carbon taxes. Similarly, there was growing awareness that the transition to a low carbon economy presents an unprecedented economic opportunity.
Collaboration: Overall much greater sense of the need for increased collaboration across the agenda. This can be seen across many different areas including industrial decarbonization, climate finance for emerging markets, transition plans and linkages with Nationally Determined Contributions and Climate Action Plans and more.
Harmonization: There is an acknowledgement that due to the significant scale of varying national and international standards, and the increasing burden on organizations reporting against them, that harmonization across standards, and a focus on strategic action rather than just disclosure, is increasingly critical.
Resilience: Businesses recognize the importance of developing climate and decarbonization strategies that provide resilience against both transition and physical risks of climate, as well as potential future uncertainties.
Explore 10 key takeaways from COP29:
Other key topics at COP29
The road to COP30
The focus in the run up to COP30 in Belém, Brazil, will be on keeping 1.5C alive, and enhancing adaptation and resilience globally.
This focus in particular will be around the delivery of enhanced ambitions through the NDCs, tied to real economy commitments via National Transition Plans and Corporate Transition Plans. Leveraging finance in line with commitments made at COP29, as well as calling climate finance actors to work towards scaling up finance to at least $1.3 trillion to developing countries from all public and private sources – the “Baku to Belém Roadmap to 1.3T”, including through grants, concessional and non-debt instruments.
Brazil have also announced that nature will be one of the key themes on the agenda of the Brazilian Presidency and their invitation for countries to consider a joint work program across the biodiversity and climate conventions is an early signal to the importance they are putting to bringing a more integrated approach to these issues.
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Mike Hayes
Climate Change and Decarbonization Leader, Global Head of Renewable Energy
KPMG in Ireland
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