Humanitarian priorities for COP29: What climate finance goals are needed to support vulnerable communities?

World leaders are due to negotiate a new global finance goal, known as the “new collective quantified goal,” to cut greenhouse gas emissions, boost resilience, help communities adapt to the impacts of climate change, and cover the costs of loss and damage.  

This will replace the existing $100 billion annual goal that is due to end in 2025.  

Climate finance provides funding to help low-income countries reduce the effects of climate change and adjust to its impacts. High-income countries are the most responsible for climate change, and also most able to cover the costs of dealing with the impacts. Meanwhile, low-income countries are exposed to some of the most severe climate impacts, and have the least capacity to adapt to and recover from a changing global climate. 

Concern is urging wealthier countries to keep to their commitment and provide the means of implementation to allow countries that are more vulnerable to climate change to prepare for its impacts.  

“The eyes of some of the world’s most climate vulnerable countries will be watching COP29, because the new collective quantified goal is vital if they are to protect and enable people to thrive,” Laura Bahlman, Concern’s Climate Resilience Advocacy Advisor, said. 

“We are not just talking about the scale of the funding agreed, but also the quality of the agreement reached. For example, funding must include allocations for adaptation, and loss and damage - not just mitigation.

“Funding must prioritise grant-based financing rather than following the current trend of financing loans. Many countries hardest hit by climate change are already sinking into foreign debt,” she said.

Global leaders must agree to funding commitments that can tackle the increasingly devastating impact that climate change is having on tens of millions of some of the world’s poorest people. 

Climate change is now a major driver of hunger around the world and the scale of the devastation currently being caused by climate change is daunting. For example, a report from The Lancet found that increased droughts and heatwaves from 1981–2010 resulted in an additional 151 million people experiencing food insecurity worldwide. 

“Low-income countries like Malawi cannot be left to fund solutions to a problem they did not cause,” said Concern’s coordinator in Malawi, Tommy Chimpanzi, who will be attending COP29.    

Malawi has experienced more than 19 major floods and seven droughts over the last 50 years.   

“The frequency and ferocity of these floods and droughts is increasing, culminating with Cyclone Freddy in March 2023, which killed 679 people and forced 659,000 people to flee their flooded homes,” he said.   

Bangladesh is also witnessing an unprecedented increase in the frequency and intensity of climate-induced disasters.  

“This year alone, the country faced six consecutive natural calamities, including repeated rounds of monsoon and flash floods, landslides, cyclones, heat waves, and cold snaps,” Concern Country Director in Bangladesh, Manish Kumar, said. “While Bangladeshis have shown resilience, these relentless and closely spaced events are stretching their endurance to the limit.”  

Lillian Amondi Abuoro, Concern’s Senior Governance and Advocacy Officer in Kenya, works with communities in Tana River who face regular droughts and floods.  

“Our communities want COP29 leaders to prioritise accessible funding for climate adaptation, enforce stronger carbon reduction commitments, and support initiatives that empower local communities to build resilience,” she said.  

Climate change continues to cause more crises and humanitarian emergencies in countries where many people already live in vulnerable conditions. Setting a new finance goal is essential to ensure that high-income countries pay their fair share, and fragile countries are not pushed further into poverty.