THE high-level diplomatic push for climate action shifted southward on Tuesday as G20 leaders meeting in Rio sent a clear signal to negotiating teams at stalled UN climate talks in Baku on the need to rapidly and substantially ‘scale up climate finance from billions to trillions from all sources.’

While the statement from the world’s leading economies – and biggest emitters – stopped short of explicit reference of ‘transitioning away from fossil fuels’, to which all nations agreed last year at COP28 in Dubai, the G20 leaders did ‘welcome the balanced, ambitious outcome’ of those talks.

The G20 communiqué comes as the clock ticks down on COP29, which is set to wrap up this Friday in the Azerbaijan capital, Baku. The complex negotiations on new and significantly scaled-up funding for loss and damage and accelerated clean energy goals are moving slowly, as some countries dig into their positions while waiting for others to pull back from their own.

UN Climate Chief, Simon Stiell who earlier warned against brinkmanship and what he called ‘you-first-ism’, said today that G20 leaders sent a clear message to their negotiators at COP29: “A successful new finance goal… is in every country’s clear interests.”

“Leaders of the world’s largest economies have also committed to driving forward financial reforms to put strong climate action within all countries’ reach,” said Mr. Stiell, who is the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which convenes that annual COP meeting.

He added: “This is an essential signal in a world plagued by debt crises and spiraling climate impacts, which are wrecking lives, disrupting supply chains, and fueling inflation in every economy.”

‘FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION’

UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who is in Rio to participate in discussions on sustainable development to combat against poverty and hunger, as well as climate change, noted during a session on Friday morning that Brazil is set to host COP30 next year in the eastern Amazon region.

“Failure [in Baku] is not an option. It might compromise the ambition in the preparation of the new national climate action plans, with potential devastating impacts as irreversible tipping points are getting closer. The preservation of the Amazon is a case in point,” he said.

Missing the opportunity to reach agreement on a new climate finance deal in Baku “would inevitably also make the success of COP30 in Brazil much more difficult,” the Secretary-General said, and added: “I appeal to the sense of responsibility of all the countries around this table to help ensure that COP29 will be a success.”

Some climate and environment activists in Baku said they were cautiously optimistic about the communique, while others gave it a mixed verdict, saying the statement was vague on climate finance and failed to explicitly mention the need to transition away from fossil fuels.

Harjeet Singh, a climate activist who is the Global Engagement Director for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, shared his views with UN News: “Developed nations remain unmoved, failing to quantify the trillions needed or to ensure these funds are provided as grants – essential for achieving climate justice.”

He added: “Their rehashed rhetoric offers no solace for the fraught COP29 negotiations, where we continue to see a deadlock on climate finance.”

AGRIFOOD SOLUTIONS

Alongside the negotiations, dozens of meetings and events are underway COP29, with the bulk of Friday’s activities focused on agriculture, food security and water. Delegations from around world shared experiences on sustainable food production practices and addressed agriculture-related challenges.

Just in time for COP29, new analysis from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has found that nearly all countries identify agrifood systems as a priority for climate change adaptation (94 per cent) and mitigation (91 per cent) in their nationally determined contributions (NDCs).

According to the FAO, this highlights the tremendous potential of agrifood systems as climate solutions, especially as countries prepare to submit their third round of NDCs in 2025.

“Agrifood systems are key to achieving food security and hold the solutions to multiple challenges: climate change, biodiversity, land degradation, and water scarcity,” FAO Assistant Director-General Viorel Gutu said, as climate change is a significant driver of food insecurity in a world where around 730 million people still live in hunger.

He noted, “Unfortunately, current financing and investment are not sufficient to affect the transformation we need.” He added that, over the past two decades, funding for agrifood systems has declined from 37 per cent to 23 per cent of all climate-related development finance.

While agriculture contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, if done right, the industry can also help overcome the climate crisis.

Also spotlighting the importance of agriculture – for climate action and broader sustainable development efforts – was Jemimah Njuki, Chief of Economic Empowerment and Head of the Economics Division at UN Women.

In an interview with UN News, she called on governments to provide special support to women-led farms.

“Without women, we will not be able to feed the world,” Ms. Njuki stressed. At the same time, she lamented that women are less likely than men to own the land they cultivate, and it is more difficult for them to secure loans to develop their businesses.

It is not only women who are affected but also other vulnerable groups, such as Indigenous peoples.

Andrea Echiverri of the Global Forest Coalition, an international non-governmental organisation advocating for social and gender justice for rural communities, said that she believes current agricultural practices are destructive to the environment.

“Take livestock, for example, which requires more and more pasture, meaning forests continue to be cut down, and Indigenous peoples are being expelled from their lands,” Ms. Echiverri said.

Governments, she emphasised, do not pay enough attention to the sustainability of livestock farming, although this industry accounts for about 16 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions and 15 per cent of all fossil fuels consumed.

ACTION ON WATER

Elsewhere in the giant Baku Stadium complex where COP29 has been running since last Monday, water-related challenges were in the spotlight at a panel discussion where experts and participants stressed that floods, droughts, shrinking water sources, and rising water levels threaten the well-being of populations, provoke forced displacement, and undermine food security.

For example, in countries such as Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, glaciers are shrinking rapidly, threatening long-term water supplies.

“The climate knows no borders, and water knows no borders,” emphasized Sonja Koppel, Secretary of the UN Water Convention. “At the same time, water can be both the cause of conflict and the key to its resolution.”

Speaking to UN News, she noted that 153 countries share water bodies with other nations, but only 28 per cent of them have agreements with their neighbors to cooperate in managing these resources. One successful example is the Central Asian countries, which have overcome differences and established cross-border cooperation.

Ms. Koppel called on countries to use water resources to establish peace with their neighbors and effectively manage shared natural resources.

Formally the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, the treaty is a unique international legal instrument and intergovernmental platform which aims to ensure the sustainable use of transboundary water resources by facilitating cooperation. Initially negotiated as a regional instrument, it has been opened for accession to all UN Member States in 2016. (UN)