COP CLIMATE 29 : UNITING CLIMATE AND BIODIVERSITY FOR AN INCLUSIVE AND SUSTAINABLE TRANSITION
published on 19 November 2024
© Mário Vilela »
COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, from November 11 to 22, 2024, focuses on climate finance to drive ambitious climate action. The main goal is to establish a new global objective for funding climate efforts in developing countries. This includes operationalizing the Loss and Damage Fund and clarifying carbon market mechanisms to keep climate ambitions aligned with the stakes, thanks to a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, equitable transitions to clean energy, and adaptation measures to mitigate the risk of losses and damages. Achieving this can only happen through the involvement of all actors, from governments to their populations.
For the FFEM (French Facility for Global Environment), strengthening the convergence of climate, biodiversity, and pollution issues is essential to sustainable, global actions. The TerrIndigena project, in partnership with the French Development Agency (AFD), aims to protect over 17 million hectares of indigenous territories in three Amazon Basin countries: Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil. The project focuses on improving governance, monitoring forest conditions, and tracking pressures on territories (such as deforestation, soil, and water pollution), in line with the ancestral traditions of the 18 indigenous communities involved in the project. Climate-biodiversity-pollution convergence is also illustrated in a more complex and less obvious ecosystem for carbon capture: the South American pampas. The Alianza Mais project promotes new livestock models that follow sustainable, chemical-free methods to preserve natural grasslands, their biodiversity, and their carbon storage capacity.
Adaptation to climate change remains a priority to reduce the risk of loss and damage, particularly through promoting nature in urban areas, coastal restoration initiatives, and bioclimatic eco-construction. These are just some of the areas in which FFEM and its partners are actively investing. The newly launched TOTEM project, for example, supports ecological and energy transition efforts in Madagascar’s highlands.
