We are glad to inform you that we will participate in the 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) from November 11 to 22 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

We joined calls from civil society organisations, activists, communities, movements, groups, and individuals expressing strong concerns about Azerbaijan's suitability to provide safe conditions for an independent civil society and provide leadership to drive an ambitious and just transition to low-carbon societies without delay.

We call on Azerbaijan to uphold its international human rights obligations and call on the UNFCCC Secretariat to publish and include human rights safeguards in future host country agreements. This is essential to ensure the negotiations are conducted safely in an environment that enables effective and urgent climate action in this critical decade.

In the climate negotiations at COP29, we will actively engage and focus our attention on the following key issues to ensure economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights in climate policy:

Climate Finance – An Ambitious New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG)

After years of negotiations, Parties are expected to adopt a New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) for climate finance at COP29, based on a floor of USD 100 billion per year to meet the needs of developing countries. However, as the climate emergency intensifies, the amount needed by developing countries to address climate-related impacts is estimated to exceed USD 1.1 trillion in 2025, rising to around USD 1.8 trillion by 2030. The NCQG adopted should provide the basis for building confidence in international cooperation and unleashing ambitious climate finance to address the unprecedented challenges facing developing countries.

To this end, the NCQG must ensure sufficient and high-quality climate finance that contributes to implementing the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDR) as envisaged in the Paris Agreement. This includes ensuring that climate finance expands the fiscal space needed for effective climate action.

Currently, only 5% of total climate finance is provided through grants, which needs to be improved to achieve the required structural transformation in all sectors of the economy. The NCQG should ensure that countries receive non-concessional grant-based financing to avoid escalating debt burdens in developing countries. It must also be transparent and ensure that it reaches frontline communities and individuals who suffer disproportionately from the impacts of climate emergency, including women, Indigenous Peoples, people with disabilities, and other groups facing structural conditions of marginalisation.

To achieve these essential goals, the NCQG must promote the provision of public funds, avoiding an over-reliance on credit. Promoting international cooperation towards adopting progressive and green tax policies will be vital to taking concrete steps. The NCQG should make those most responsible for the climate emergency —polluting industries, wealthy individuals, and corporations— pay the financial costs of a just and equitable transition to low-carbon societies and economies.

In addition, the adopted NCQG must put human rights at the centre of the climate finance system. This is imperative to ensure that human rights guide the priorities of climate finance flows, raising ambition through the compliance by developed States of their extraterritorial obligations to promote economic, social, and cultural rights on a global basis by an increase in the provision of funds, ensuring the participation of communities and civil society organisations in decision-making, and including vital human rights safeguards in climate finance projects to avoid human rights violations while advancing climate policy.

Just Transition – Steering a Just and Rapid Transformation Towards Sustainable Societies and Economies That Protect People and the Planet

At COP27, a mandate was established to develop a Just Transition Work Programme (JTWP). At COP28, its modalities were adopted to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement while addressing poverty and structural inequalities between and within countries. The Work Programme aims to create knowledge-sharing spaces and encourage conversations with stakeholders to develop promising practices for just transition frameworks and strategies. While the JTWP provides a broad framework to advance this critical discussion, essential questions remain to refine its content and ensure its effective implementation.

Against this backdrop, the JTWP must help ensure a rapid and equitable phase-out of fossil fuels and a shift towards sustainable economies and societies that create better conditions for the well-being of people and the planet. This means that the transition to environmentally sustainable societies must deliver social and economic benefits for all, especially for the most marginalised, and that the repetition of abuses and power imbalances must be avoided. The JTWP must, therefore, aim to unlock benefits for poverty reduction and promote more significant equity across different groups and sectors, including energy, labour, socio-economic, and other dimensions, and be based on social dialogue and the meaningful and effective participation of all stakeholders.

To this end, climate negotiations on Just Transition must be guided by the international human rights framework, particularly placing economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights at the heart of the transformation of all sectors of the economy. This is important to guide synergies between climate resilience and socio-economic development with just and equitable outcomes.

In addition, the JTWP must go beyond providing spaces to exchange best practices and present concrete, actionable recommendations for national climate policies and different work areas in the UNFCCC negotiations. The JTWP should build on and complement the fulfilment of other relevant UNFCCC fora mandates to put equity and eliminate inequalities at the heart of climate action.

Gender Equality – A New, Strengthened Enhanced Lima Work Programme and Gender Action Plan to Achieve Gender Equality in Climate Action

The Enhanced Lima Work Programme and the Gender Equality Action Plan are the main instruments adopted to promote gender equality under the UNFCCC processes. After five years of implementation, they were reviewed this year to assess the progress made since their adoption at COP25.

On this basis, negotiations will take place at COP29 to develop a new Gender Action Plan with an extended timeframe, concrete targets, and indicators. The decision on the new Gender Action Plan (GAP) must not entail merely a renewal but also the strengthening and inclusion of more ambitious targets to advance gender equality in climate policy and action.

Gender equality and women's rights must be mainstreamed in all areas of the UNFCCC to raise ambition and take climate action that puts the needs of people of different genders at the centre. The new GAP must, therefore, include a solid intersectional gender perspective with indicators based on human rights norms and principles. It must also promote the participation of people of different genders, who are usually marginalised, and support coherence in the adoption of a gender perspective in all UNFCCC areas of work.

In this new version of the GAP, it would be crucial to recognise the link between climate and care in the transition to a sustainable economy. The care responsibilities are increasing as the climate emergency escalates and climate-related disasters threaten critical infrastructure such as health and education facilities.

In addition, local ecosystems essential for food production are eroding and increasing health risks. This increases the need for care, borne mainly by women and girls already suffering from the consequences of highly strained care systems. In the new GAP, effective gender-sensitive climate action must, therefore, contribute to supporting care work by extending the benefits and coverage of social protection systems, investing in public services, and promoting the role of women and local communities in caring for the environment.

This is crucial in integrating economic, social, and cultural rights into a new, more ambitious GAP that can deliver substantive gender equality in climate action.

 These are the main areas of work and demands that GI-ESCR, together with other partners, will focus on advancing by actively coordinating side events and contributing to collective advocacy strategies to inform and influence climate negotiations.

We see the development of collective advocacy during COP29 on these critical issues as crucial stepping stones to building momentum towards the next COP30 in Brazil. This could provide more meaningful opportunities to bring a human rights approach to the critical agendas on climate finance, just transition, and gender equality, which is fundamental to realising socio-economic rights within planetary boundaries.

To answer questions, explore opportunities for collaboration, and coordinate with media, please get in touch with the following GI-ESCR team members who are following COP28 negotiations in person:

• Alejandra Lozano  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 
• Ezequiel Steuermann This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Stay tuned for our upcoming activities and events!