Nearly 65,000 delegates representing nations from around the world converged on the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, from November 11 to 22, 2024.
COP29 took place in a tense political context marked by an unprecedented level of climate urgency. While the collateral damage is mounting, amplifying the social, economic and environmental costs, the window for limiting global warming to 1.5°C is rapidly closing. Nonetheless, this annual meeting remains a critical forum for climate change action, providing a space to stimulate dialogue and multilateral collaboration and to revive the commitments made in the 2015 Paris Agreement (COP21).
Key takeaways:
Dubbed the “COP of climate finance,” COP29 resulted in an agreement for the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance of $300 billion per year by 2035. This amount is intended for developing countries to help them cope with climate change issues.
To achieve the Global Adaptation Goal (GAG) adopted at COP28, governments will need to define clear indicators and raise more funds, especially for developing countries. These issues will be central to the discussions at COP30.
The negotiations required to operationalize carbon markets under the Paris Agreement were concluded in Baku, meaning that countries can now start registering, issuing, and trading carbon credits.
Despite the historic agreement at COP28 indicating “the beginning of the end” of the fossil fuel era, the negotiations failed to produce strong measures to accelerate the exit from fossil fuels.
In 2025, the Paris Agreement will celebrate its 10th anniversary. Countries are required to submit new, more ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) aligned with the 1.5°C goal.
For more information on COP29 and the outcomes of the negotiations:
What was Ouranos’ mission in Baku?
Ouranos gave itself several strategic missions to strengthen international collaborations on climate change adaptation at COP29:
Strengthening our international partnerships with a view to generating scientific collaborations
Promoting the consortium’s work to highlight Quebec’s expertise in regional climatology and climate change adaptation
Promote the new International Network of Boundary Organizations on Adaptation (INBOA), a legacy of the Adaptation Futures 2023 conference held in Montréal, for which Ouranos currently serves as the international secretariat
Focus on INBOA:
In a world in which climate adaptation is essential, boundary organizations play a key role in connecting science to decision-making. To strengthen this interface role, a new international collaborative network was created at the Adaptation Futures 2023 event.
This network, named the International Network of Boundary Organizations for Adaptation (INBOA), provides a forum for mutual learning, allowing boundary organizations specializing in climate change adaptation to share knowledge, build capacities, and advocate for the urgency of adaptation and evidence-based decisions.
Several events held at COP29 provided an introduction to the network
INBOA’s first annual showcase took place on November 15 at the Canada Pavilion. As boundary agencies, three members of the network, along with their government partners, presented examples of successful collaboration at the interface between research and decision-making:
The Quebec Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, with Caroline Larrivée, Director of Scientific Programming at Ouranos, discussed the methods developed to support municipalities in their adaptation processes.
Maritza Jadrijevic Girardi, head of the adaptation department of the climate change division at the Ministry of the Environment of the Government of Chile, and Marco Billi from the Centro de Ciencia del Clima y la Resiliencia (CR2), presented their collaboration on data governance platforms to assess climate risks and adaptation solutions.
And Mariana Trinidad Corvaro, Climate and Resilience Project Manager at Regions4, offered an international perspective on the role of international networks in supporting local adaptation through the example of their RegionsAdapt initiative, in which the Quebec government is participating.
On November 18, INBOA held a networking event in collaboration with one of its members, the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), at the Saleemul Huq Action Research Exchange Hub. This networking event provided an opportunity for boundary organizations and their peers working in adaptation to share ideas and explore potential collaborations.
The series of events concluded on November 19 at the Climate, Peace and Transboundary Resilience Pavilion, with a panel on the roles and challenges of subnational networks in addressing transboundary climate risks. On this occasion, Kawthar Monkachi, head of the capacity-building centre at 4C Maroc and member of the INBOA advisory committee, stressed the importance of international collaboration to strengthen climate action. She highlighted the positive impact of sharing between organizations: pooling the best practices and lessons learned from climate resilience challenges can help effectively address cross-boundary climate issues.
Credit: Nhattan Nguyen
Next steps for the INBOA network
The events organized by INBOA at COP29 aimed to strengthen ties between existing members of the network, highlight the work of boundary agencies, and introduce INBOA to new partners, including potential funders.
In the coming year, in addition to continuing its program of activities, the network will work on a founding concept description, establish a fundraising strategy, and seek to bring in new members.
