COP29 Nature Statement calls for ambitious nature finance commitments in the NCQG

As Ministers are set to land in Baku to engage in the final negotiations, the group – which includes organizations such as BirdLife International, The B Team, Conservation International, The Global Alliance of Territorial Communities, The Nature Conservancy, WBCSD, and world renowned researchers Carlos Afonso Nobre, Researcher, University of São Paulo, and  Tom Crowther, Professor of Ecology, Crowther Lab – express deep concern about the lack of progress on financing nature over the past year, adding that there is no viable climate or economic solution without nature. 

The statement launches at a critical stage in the negotiations, as governments work to agree on a final NCQG text. Thursday 21st November is set to be Nature & Biodiversity, Indigenous People, Gender Equality, Oceans and Coastal Zones Day at COP29, an important moment to recognise the critical role of nature and Indigenous Peoples in climate action.

Despite nature’s potential, current global financing for nature-based solutions (NbS) to protect, manage, and restore ecosystems is insufficient. NbS remain dramatically underfunded by public and private finance. Research by UNEP shows an investment of US$542 billion per year is needed to meet the Rio Convention targets to limit climate change and protect biodiversity, a tripling of the current US$200 billion per year globally. Finance flows to activities directly harming nature were more than 30 times this amount at $7 trillion. 

Since COP16, more than 80 leaders have provided their steadfast commitment to work with governments globally to deliver a year of united action on climate, nature and food systems.

What the signatories are saying:

James Lloyd, Policy Lead, Nature4Climate, commented: “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,  commented: “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.” 

 “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”, added Kiryssa Kasprzyk.

Daniel Zarin, Executive Director of the Forests and Climate Change Program at Wildlife Conservation Society, said: “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.”

Read the full COP29 Nature Statement:

Nature is a powerful ally for climate action. An ambitious NCQG is crucial in closing the climate and nature funding gap.

Dear Parties to the UNFCCC,

There is no viable climate or economic solution without nature. We the undersigned, representing 100 NGOs, business coalitions, Indigenous Peoples and local community organizations, and influential individuals are writing to express deep concern about the lack of progress on financing nature over the past year. A COP29 outcome, including the New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance (NCQG), that does not adequately recognise nature’s role in climate action risks undermining global efforts to limit global warming to 1.5C.

Nature-based Solutions (NbS) can provide up to one-third of the required climate mitigation by 2030 and are fundamental to underpin climate adaptation and resilience. Additionally, over half of the global economy is highly or moderately dependent on natural resources and healthy ecosystems, with forests alone supporting the livelihoods of 20% of the global population and billions relying on wetlands and the ocean for water and food. 

Despite this, current finance and policy mechanisms still work against climate goals and threaten humanity’s future. Funding for NbS at US$200 billion per year is vastly outweighed by almost US$7 trillion per year of finance directed toward activities that harm nature. Since COP28, only five new nature-related joint private and public commitments to finance and support Nature-based Solutions have been identified, while almost half (48%) of existing commitments show little or no evidence of progress, according to Nature4Climate. This paints a concerning picture of deeply inadequate progress fund efforts to halt the loss of nature, upon which a stable climate and livelihoods depend.

The Global Stocktake decision recognised the importance of conserving, protecting and restoring nature and ecosystems towards achieving the Paris Agreement.

The current NCQG negotiation text rightly emphasizes the need to fund the clean energy transition. This ambition must extend to funding the protection, restoration and sustainable management of nature. Any decision, regulation, initiative or activity must acknowledge and respect the interdependencies between climate, biodiversity, land degradation, and sustainable development goals. Healthy ecosystems are not merely co-benefits — they serve as cost-effective climate solutions that urgently need dedicated funding.

We need to both rapidly decarbonize the world’s economy toward zero emissions and halt the destruction of natural ecosystems.

Climate has already and will increasingly cause losses and damages to vulnerable communities as well as the ecosystems upon which they depend. As governments work to agree on a final NCQG text, we call on them 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 the 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.

The success of COP30 hinges on the groundwork laid at COP29. An equitable and ambitious NCQG is critical to provide the necessary confidence governments need to release 1.5-aligned NDCs early next year that will deliver on the Paris Agreement and support the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework goals. 

A global crisis requires a collective and collaborative response. As a global community, we stand ready to support this vision to unlock critical funding and ambitious action to protect, manage and restore nature and address the interconnected climate and biodiversity crisis.

The time for ambitious action is now. Our shared future depends on it.

Sincerely,

ORGANIZATIONS: 1t.org, American Forests, ABCDE Trust Kenya, Arboretica, Bellwethers Group, BirdLife International, BSR, Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, Campaign for Nature, Capital for Climate, Carbon Tanzania, CDP, Center for Clean Air Policy, CerCarbono, CERIOPs Environmental Organization, Climate-KIC, Conservation International, Comunidad Ixtlán de Juárez, Consorcio de Gobiernos Autónomos Provinciales del Ecuador (CONGOPE), CO_ Systemic, Deep-Ocean Stewardship Initiative (DOSI), Ecological Solutions Foundation, EIT Climate-KIC, Everland, Fauna & Flora, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Global Alliance of Territorial Communities, Global Environment Centre (GEC), Global Mangrove Alliance, Guinee Écologie, Instituto Ekos Brasil, Independiente, Instituto Zág, Intaconnected, International Animal Rescue, International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), KEAN international, LEVEL, Metabolic, Michael Succow Foundation (partner in the Greifswald Mire Centre), Mission 2025, Naia Trust, National Audubon Society, Natura, Nature Iraq, Nature Positive Universities, Nature Tech Collective, NbS Brazil Alliance, Ocean & Climate Platform, Peoples Forests Partnership, PhilanthroPower, Plan Vivo Foundation, Planet Tracker, Proforest, Quantum Leap, Rainforest Alliance, Rare, Regions4, Respira, Restor, Resonance Global, Re:wild, Santaoyála Consultores y Asociados, SEO/Birdlife, Sustain Value, Sustainable Ocean Alliance, Sillman Thomas, TeD, Terraspect, The B Team, The Biodiversity Consortium, The Biomimicry Institute, The Climate Reality Project (Brazil), The Nature Conservancy, Tree Aid, Tribes and Natures Defenders Inc., Tropical Forest Alliance (TFA), We Mean Business Coalition, Wetlands International, Wildlife Conservation Society, Wildlife Works, Woodwell Climate Research Center, WBCSD (World Business Council for Sustainable Development), World Benchmarking Alliance, World Climate Foundation, Youth4Nature, Zoological Society of London.

INDIVIDUALS: Audrey Wagner (Nature-based Solutions Initiative, University of Oxford), Carlos Afonso Nobre (Researcher, University of São Paulo), Divyanshi Yadav (Climate Action Network, South Asia), Elise Buckle (CEO of Climate Bridges, International Gender Champions Climate Impact Group Co-Chair, Founder SHE Builds Bridges), Elva Escobar Briones (Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, UNAM), Eva Zabey (CEO, Business for Nature), Hanna Fiegenbaum, Researcher (Leipzig University), Jane Madgwick (Executive Director, Global Commons Alliance), John Holm (Senior Vice President, Pyxera Global), Karen Sack (Executive Director, Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance), Marco Lambertini, (Convener, Nature Positive Initiative), Naseer Chia (Director, Systemiq), Paul Polman (Net Positive Influencer and business leader), Tom Crowther (Professor of Ecology at ETH Zurich, Crowther Lab).

Notes:

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