Tag: COP28

Brazil President Lula da Silva and the COP28 Presidency also announced a two-year partnership to mobilise new resources and political support for nature on the road to COP30 in Belem….reports Asian Lite News

During the World Climate Action Summit, the COP28 Presidency and its partners on Sunday presented a series of new and ambitious initiatives with an initial $1.7 billion of committed finance to simultaneously meet climate and biodiversity goals.

Brazil President Lula da Silva and the COP28 Presidency also announced a two-year partnership to mobilise new resources and political support for nature on the road to COP30 in Belem.

“Ensuring that nature in its total and most holistic form is recognised, supported, and funded as a prerequisite to climate action has been a priority for the COP28 Presidency,” said Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, the UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP28.

“This remarkable political leadership coupled with support and finance from non-state actors is a testament to the fundamental role of nature not just for this COP but for all future COPs to come.”

In the session, heads of state and government unveiled national and regional investment plans and partnerships focused on nature-climate action to deliver on the Paris Agreement and the recently adopted Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Al Mubarak announced that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) would contribute $100 million of new finance for nature-climate projects, with an initial $30 million investment in Ghanaian government’s ‘Resilient Ghana’ plan.

‘Resilient Ghana’ was launched by Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo with an additional $80 million of support from Canada, Singapore, the US and other private sector aligned initiatives such as the LEAF Coalition, supplementing the UAE’s $30 million.

Siaosi ‘Ofakivahafolau Sovaleni, the Prime Minister of Tonga, announced $100million of finance for Pacific Small Island Developing States (P-SIDS) from the Bezos Earth Fund for the ‘Unlocking Blue Pacific Prosperity Plan’ to protect 30 per cent of the countries’ waters and exclusive economic zones by 2030 — representing an area larger than the surface of the moon.

A group of philanthropies, including Bloomberg Philanthropies, Builders Vision and Oceankind, announced $250 million of new finance under the Ocean Resilience Climate Alliance (ORCA), targeting protection for vulnerable marine areas, ocean-based mitigation efforts, and research on climate impacts.

President Emmanuel Macron of France confirmed funding for three forest finance packages, including $100 million for Papua New Guinea, and $50 million for Congo, to drive private finance of conservation and local development through verifiable carbon credit transactions.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store highlighted a $100 million partnership in support of Indonesia’s pioneering FOLU Net Sink 2030 plan.

The Asian Development Bank, along with the OPEC Fund, Saudi Arabia, AFD, France, and the ASEAN Catalytic Green Finance Facility at the Green Climate Fund, announced the Nature Finance Hub, a new initiative committing to mobilise $1 billion from development partners, with the intention of mobilising a further $2 billion in additional private finance capital by 2030 into nature-focused climate projects.

These nature-climate plans also drive progress on previous commitments, including COP26’s Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration, which saw 145 countries agree to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030, as well as the landmark Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework agreed last December, which saw 196 countries agree on a common framework to halt total nature loss by 2030.

Addressing nature-loss can save $104 billion in adaptation costs and has the potential to provide upwards of 30 percent of the CO2 mitigation action needed by 2030.

Additionally, as around 50 percent of global GDP is directly or indirectly dependent on nature and other ecosystem services, the conservation and restoration of natural ecosystems supports economic prosperity, with the potential to create nearly 395 billion more jobs and to protect one billion people whose livelihoods are directly dependent on nature.

$777B For Diseases

Global donors at the 2023 Reaching the Last Mile Forum have pledged a collective more than AED2.6 billion (US$777.2 million) to help control, eliminate, and eradicate neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), to accelerate progress towards achieving the goals outlined in the World Health Organisation’s 2030 roadmap on NTDs.

Uniting efforts with NTD-endemic countries, donors answered the urgent call to step up the fight against NTDs in the face of climate change, and to work together to improve the lives of the 1.6 billion people worldwide affected by these devastating yet preventable diseases.

The pledging event was hosted by Reaching the Last Mile (RLM), the global health initiative driven by the philanthropy of President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in partnership with the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation. The forum took place on the first ever Health Day during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28).

H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs, was joined by world leaders including Samia Suluhu Hassan, President of Tanzania; and Dr. Austin Demby, Minister of Health and Sanitation for Sierra Leone, in a demonstration of endemic country leadership against NTDs.

Bill Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation, and H.H. Sheikh Theyab bin Mohamed Al Nahyan, Chairman of the Office of Development and Martyrs Families Affairs at the Presidential Court, which oversees Reaching the Last Mile, were also in attendance, alongside ministers and global health leaders.

Reaching the Last Mile joined with the Gates Foundation and global partners to announce a milestone expansion of the Reaching the Last Mile Fund (RLMF) from more than AED367 million to more than AED1.8 billion (US$100 million to US$500 million). The expansion will increase the reach of the fund from seven countries to 39 across Africa and Yemen, with the ambitious goal of eliminating two NTDs, lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis (river blindness), from the continent of Africa.

The funding builds on the pioneering success of the RLMF, which launched in 2017 as a 10-year, multi-donor fund, to establish a model for eliminating the two diseases in sub-Saharan Africa.

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The COP28 presidency UAE is committing $100 million to loss and damage, an important milestone in building resilience for people suffering the devastating impacts of climate change….reports Asian Lite News

A decision to operationalise a loss and damage fund, particularly for nations most vulnerable to the climate crisis within a year of its establishment, was adopted as leaders began talks on Thursday at the two-week-long United Nations Climate Conference (COP28) with the host UAE committing $100 million.

“We’ve delivered history today,” COP28 President, Sultan Al Jaber, remarked.

“The first time a decision has been adopted on day one of any COP. And the speed in which we have done so is also historic.

“Getting this done demonstrates the hard work of so many, particularly members of the transitional committee who worked tirelessly to get us to this point.

“This is evidence that we can deliver. COP28 can deliver. And colleagues, this now sets a clear ambition for us to deliver a comprehensive GST (global stocktake) decision over the next 12 days.”

The COP28 presidency UAE is committing $100 million to loss and damage, an important milestone in building resilience for people suffering the devastating impacts of climate change.

During COP28, the world is set to unite, act together and deliver actionable solutions to the climate crisis.

Parties to the COP28 approved the Presidency’s Negotiations Agenda during the Opening Plenary of COP28 here.

A key moment symbolizing multinational unity in the face of climate change, and a critical step in the right direction to set the pathway towards climate ambition to be met. Earlier in the day, Al Jaber officially assumed the role of COP28 President, as the gavel was formally passed by his predecessor, COP27 President Sameh Shoukry.

Christian Aid has welcomed the operationalisation of the Loss and Damage Fund but warns there is much work to be done to ensure the climate vulnerable are able to actually get access to it.

Mariana Paoli, Christian Aid’s Global Advocacy Lead, said: “This time last year, at the start of COP27 in Egypt, the Loss and Damage Fund was not even on the agenda for that meeting. So it’s a testament to the determination of developing country negotiators that we now already have the fund agreed and established.

“The fact the World Bank is to be the interim host of the fund is a worry for developing countries. It needs to be closely scrutinised to ensure vulnerable communities are able to get easy and direct access to funds and the whole operation is run with far more transparency than the World Bank normally operates on. These were the conditions agreed by countries and if they are not kept to, a separate arrangement will be needed.”

Responding to the decision, Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network International, told IANS: “Amid the historic decision to operationalise the Loss and Damage Fund within a year of its establishment, addressing underlying concerns becomes critical.

“On one hand, rich countries have pushed for the World Bank to host this Fund under the guise of ensuring a speedy response. Conversely, they have attempted to dilute their financial obligations and resisted defining a clear finance mobilisation scale.

“The absence of a defined replenishment cycle raises serious questions about the fund’s long-term sustainability. Therefore, a robust system, particularly integrated with the Global Stocktake process and the new climate finance goal, is needed to ensure that COP28 results in a meaningful outcome.

“The responsibility now lies with affluent nations to meet their financial obligations in a manner proportionate to their role in the climate crisis, which has been primarily driven by decades of unrestrained fossil fuel consumption and a lack of adequate climate finance delivered to the Global South.”

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