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WEDNESDAY
13 NOVEMBER
Welcome
to the Top of the COP daily
newsletter,
brought
to you by the UN Climate Change High-Level
Champions. The Top of the COP will highlight
action of non-State actors — businesses,
investors, cities and regions, Indigenous Peoples
and youth — accelerating progress towards 2030
goals.
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published on LinkedIn.
Driving
the day
World
leaders gathering in Baku, Azerbaijan, for the
start of COP 29 can be encouraged by the breadth
and scope of climate action underway across the
global economy.
Climate-driven
impacts combined with tangible economic growth
opportunities are driving an increase in actions
to decarbonize industries and make societies and
economies more resilient.
The
Yearbook
of Global Climate Action
highlights
that rapid growth in clean technology, rising
demand for low-carbon solutions, and the
persistent risks of climate change are likely to
drive continued and accelerating action. Launched
in the lead-up to COP 29, the 2024 Yearbook is the
eighth of the series published by the UNFCCC
secretariat, which provides an overview of the
progress, trends and challenges of real-world
climate action taken by non-Party stakeholders, to
inspire further actions and raise
ambition.
This
annual stocktake of efforts by leaders across
society and the real economy incorporates
contributions from the Marrakech
Partnership
for Global Climate Action network of non-State
entities and several recent reports. It highlights
significant advances over the past 12 months
including: a
473GW expansion of renewable energy
capacity
in 2023, marking a 14% increase during the year;
a
70% increase in clean technology
manufacturing
since 2022; a
35% growth in zero-emission vehicle
sales
in 2023 and an
8% reduction in carbon intensity of the cement
sector
compared to 2020.
These
developments, alongside the continued growth of
the UNFCCC’s Global
Climate Action Portal now
tracking action from over 39,000 actors,
demonstrate considerable headroom for national
governments to make their next round of nationally
determined contributions (or NDCs) to the Paris
Agreement more ambitious than the last in 2020.
The
Race is on
The
Yearbook also highlighted continued progress in
the Race to Zero and Race to Resilience campaigns.
Over the past 12 months, membership of the Race to
Zero has grown by 16%,
reaching more than 15,500 members from 150
countries including more than 12,400 companies of
which at least 9,200 are Small and Medium
Enterprises (SMEs), 650 financial institutions,
1,100 cities, 50 states and regions, 1,200
education institutions, and 80 healthcare
institutions.
In
addition, the 2024 Net Zero
Stocktake found
that Race to Zero members perform better than
non-members on good net-zero practices although
more still needs to be done. Additional analysis
also found that campaign members to be 2.5
times more
likely to support science-aligned climate policy,
outperforming their peers. Moving from pledges to
plans, Race to Zero members are offering their
leadership and support to help national
governments set investable and implementable
national plans.
The
Yearbook also reflects important advances by
initiatives helping people adapt to the realities
of climate change. For instance, action by
partners of the Race to Resilience now cover
more than 2 billion people in more than
160 countries. Members of The
Mangrove Breakthrough
support the protection and restoration of more
than 65,000 hectares of mangroves, and major
companies such as Nestlé and Unilever have
expanded their regenerative agriculture
programmes, helping to restore degraded lands
while securing supply chains, and impacting over
500,000 smallholder farmers.
A
global problem requires a global solution
Businesses, investors, cities,
states and regions, and civil society rally to
support strong national climate plans (or NDCs) to
accelerate a prosperous, net zero future. In this
report, the High-Level Champions highlight the
insights, priorities and offers of support from
non-State actors to make them readily available
for countries to leverage in the design and
implementation of their NDCs.
In addition, the Truly
Global: A Regional Outlook on the 2030 Climate
Solutions report by the High-Level Champions
and Marrakech Partnership outlines how action is
accelerating across the globe from Africa, to
Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean,
increasing the resilience of communities,
protecting lives and livelihoods and restoring
nature for the benefit of people and planet.
Earlier this year, the High Level
Champions invited Parties and non-Party
stakeholders to share their insights and
feedback on how the High-Level Champions and the
Marrakech Partnership can accelerate action and
drive implementation. Their inputs are summarised
here.
Uniting
leadership for a climate-resilient
future
Today at
the Global Climate Action High-Level Event, the UN
Climate Change High-Level Champions of the COP 28
Presidency and the COP 29
Presidency,
respectively, H.E. Razan Al Mubarak and Nigar
Arpadarai will join high-level representatives to
send a clear message: actors in the real economy
and across society are crucial in supporting the
design and implementation of Nationally Determined
Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plan
(NAPs). They will reinforce the economic
opportunity of the 21st century to future proof
their operations, increase the resilience of their
supply chains, create new job opportunities and
support the advancement of development goals.
Building
on the momentum made throughout the year,
the
High-Level Champions and Marrakech Partnership
Programme at COP29 will
inspire further climate action and collaboration
across stakeholders and sectors to drive progress
in critical areas including clean energy,
equitable finance and sustainable land-use using
the tools and frameworks of the 2030
Climate Solutions
Mobilising
private finance for adaptation and
resilience
Launched at COP 28 by
the High-Level Champions in collaboration with the
Atlantic Council, the Call for
Collaboration to accelerate the
mobilisation of private finance for adaptation and
resilience brings together public and private
actors to define what is needed to scale finance
for adaptation and resilience.
Today, the Atlantic
Council Climate Resilience Center builds on this
collaboration, bringing together actors across the
financial system to define concrete and detailed
recommendations that have to be taken to prepare
communities, businesses and financial institutions
for climate impacts.
Contributors include
approximately 30 specialists from public finance
institutions, policy makers, leading private
financial institutions: banks, investors, insurers
and civil society. Together they define what
actions are needed to achieve this
transformational effort to scale private finance
for adaptation and resilience in line with the
framework of the Sharm-
El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda.
These include
defining adaptation and resilience finance
standards that can be tailored to local needs, and
making National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) investible
alongside enabling policies such as tax breaks and
subsidies, mainstreaming adaptation in national
climate plans, and supporting developing countries
with capacity and technology and improving the
availability of blended finance
instruments.
TeraMed
Initiative
Seven Mediterranean Countries
committed to develop one terawatt of renewable
capacity by 2030 through the TeraMed
initiative, led by IRENA and the Global
Renewables Alliance. With investments that
can reach USD 700 billion, the initiative has the
potential to create three million new jobs in the
solar industries alone. Non-Party stakeholders and
national governments are doubling down on the
untapped potential for renewable energies in the
mediterranean region, contributing to the target
of tripling sustainable energy capacity launched
at COP 28.
Accelerating
Africa’s Climate Leadership
African
leaders and global partners will come together
today Wednesday 13th at the Africa Climate Summit
High-Level event to examine the impact of the
inaugural Africa Climate Summit held in 2023 and
launch the Mission 300
agenda.
Led by the
World Bank Group and African Development Bank
(AfDB), Mission 300 seeks to connect 300 million
Africans to electricity by 2030 - representing
half of the continent’s population living
without electricity and 40% of the global total.
The most ambitious global undertaking in decades,
Mission 300 seeks to uplift livelihoods, power
productivity, create green jobs, and achieve net
zero goals.
The
Accelerating
Africa’s Climate Leadership to Action convening
will be co-hosted by the Africa Climate
Summit (ACS), the African Union Commission , and
His Excellency, Faure Gnassingbé, President of the
Republic of Togo. Representatives from government,
the private sector, academia, and civil society
will be invited to examine progress on the
commitments made under the Nairobi Declaration
including pledges to provide USD 100 billion
annually.
Making
an impact
In the
face of the climate crisis, solutions are emerging
faster than ever, tackling every aspect of the
challenge. The new High-Level Champions’ series,
Impact
Makers, shines a
spotlight on those leading this change from the
ground up – from climate-resilient healthcare in
Nigeria to green transport solutions in
Bangladesh, clean energy in Colombia, sustainable
energy in Mozambique, and beyond.
Each day
at COP, the High-Level Champions will introduce
new Impact Makers, showcasing the changemakers
from around the world turning ideas into action.
DISCOVER
OUR IMPACT MAKERS
Call
for inputs: COP 29 climate action
announcements
The UNFCCC
secretariat is tracking climate action
announcements made at COP 29, including the launch
of:
● climate
initiatives;
● pledges
and declarations;
● publications
and reports;
● any
other climate action announcements.
This
information will be used to inform the Global
Climate Action Portal
(GCAP), formally known as Non-State Actor Zone for
Climate Action (NAZCA), in particular, on its COP
29 event page. Please find the online form to
submit your inputs here
or via the
QR code
below. | 
