At the start of the second week of the COP, the impression is that the more faltering the negotiations, the wilder the rumor mill. On Monday, it was reported that the G20 summit would see major developments in the transparency of climate finance flows and the expansion of the donor base. And with regard to the climate finance target (NCQG), there was talk of a tripling of public climate finance to $300 billion. The rumors had not yet been substantiated by the editorial deadline. And the amount of the NCQG will probably only be decided here in the stadium in Baku after the match.
Minister for Economic Affairs Robert Habeck brought concrete figures with him during his visit to the COP yesterday: Germany and the UK have pledged $420 million in new money for the decarbonization of industry in partner countries in the South. The USA is praising itself for climate finance payments of eleven billion dollars – but as a major polluter, it should provide much more, critics warn. On today’s Agriculture Theme Day, Lisa Kuner analyzes why a food transition is needed and why the global community is moving far too slowly.
Alexandra Endres is spreading some hope today. She has taken a closer look at climate pioneer Chile and its energy transition. If all countries were as ambitious as Chile, the 2-degree warming limit would be met.
We are looking forward to the hot phase of the COP and new records for pedometers!
The Food & Climate Action Group, an alliance of more than 25 NGOs, called for a resolution to “turn away from the overconsumption of meat” at COP29 on Friday. In a declaration, the group, which is campaigning for a global food transition, urges, among other things, subsidies for low-emission foods such as vegetables. Turning away from the overconsumption of meat could be achieved through a carbon price in the food sector, and any profits from this should be at least partially invested in the “Loss and Damage” fund. Farmers should also be supported in switching to plant-based products.
“Current food systems disproportionately harm indigenous communities and vulnerable groups in the Global South, where climate impacts are most severe,” emphasizes Akshath Kaimal of the True Animal Protein Price Coalition (TAPP Coalition). Food and agriculture are still playing a minor role at the COP; Today, Tuesday, the topics will come into somewhat sharper focus with a theme day on water, agriculture and food.
The sector has great potential for reducing greenhouse gases: Food systems are responsible for one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions. Around two-thirds of these emissions come from the production of animal products, while they only contain 19 percent of the calories and 41 percent of the protein of all food produced worldwide. Only by changing food and agricultural systems (agrifood systems) will it be possible to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, said Qu Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), at COP29.
At around 4.3 percent of international climate financing, hardly any funding is currently flowing towards sustainable agriculture and food: Last week, the FAO and the World Bank therefore called for agrifood systems to play a greater role in the negotiations on an NCQG. According to the World Bank, $260 billion a year are needed to halve emissions in the agrifood sector by 2030 and achieve net zero by 2050.
The FAO’s recently published report “The State of Food and Agriculture 2024” summarizes the global problems: According to the report, unsustainable agrifood systems lead to hidden costs of more than eleven trillion US dollars every year; most of this is in the health sector. The environmental costs are particularly high in crisis countries. A change in diet, especially to more diverse protein sources, contributes to both health and the reduction of greenhouse gases.
The report therefore proposes:
So far, there has been little progress and hardly any binding decisions in the area of food systems in the COP process. Last year, the “UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems and Climate Action” was presented in Dubai. Around 160 countries signed the voluntary initiative, agreeing to include emission reduction targets through changes in the food system in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The declaration is “progressive in its approach”, says Felix Domke from the NGO Germanwatch in an interview with Table.Briefings. However, it depends on how it is implemented.
Countries have until next February to submit their new NDCs, so it remains to be seen whether food systems will be more strongly reflected in them in the future. As recently as October, a working paper by the World Resources Institute came to the conclusion that the food transition is often neglected in national climate targets. “Last year in Dubai, the first theme day on food, agriculture and water was a real step forward in integrating nutrition into the climate conference,” says Juliette Tronchon from the NGO ProVeg in an interview with Table.Briefings. However, little has happened since then.
In addition to this non-binding declaration, there is also an official negotiating track on nutrition, the “Sharm el-Sheikh Joint Work on Implementation of Climate Action on Agriculture and Food Security” (SSJWA), which was launched at COP27 in Egypt. “There has been little progress on food at this COP,” says Tronchon. But that was not to be expected either way: After a roadmap for implementing the SSJWA up to COP31 (essentially consisting of workshops and an online portal) was agreed at SB60, there are no negotiations on this on the agenda at COP29.
From Tronchon’s point of view, it would be important for the food transition to be included even more strongly in other negotiation strands – but she has also seen little progress on this so far. Domke takes a similar view and also thinks that a sub-goal for food and agriculture within the international financial goal currently being negotiated would make sense. “The importance of nutrition in the COP process has increased in recent years,” says Domke. “But we don’t see any countries that are actually reducing their emissions in the food system holistically and ambitiously.”
The transformation of food systems does not yet seem to have reached the catering at this year’s COP either: Activists are complaining about how much meat is on offer and that vegetarian and vegan alternatives are expensive. In addition, food is said to have been falsely labeled as vegetarian or vegan even though it contains meat or fish.
Movement towards restructuring the food system could also come from another direction: A “Global Alliance Against Hunger” is to be launched at the G20 summit. In this context, Brazil wants to think more closely about food security and climate issues. The country must ensure that the transformation of food systems plays a key role in the implementation of this plan, demands Germanwatch.
Chile is one of the pioneers of the global climate transition: The Climate Action Tracker (CAT) classifies the country’s policies as “almost sufficient” to achieve the Paris climate targets. This means that if all countries were to do as much as Chile, the 1.5-degree target would not be met – but global warming could be stopped at less than two degrees plus. No other country has been rated better so far. The CAT estimates that Chilean emissions will have already peaked in 2021, well before the targeted peak in 2025.
On the surface, this success is primarily due to the ambitious and recently accelerated expansion of wind and solar energy. But Chile’s ambition goes further: climate policy and decarbonization are considered “Política de Estado” in Chile – a state policy that the country pursues independently of the current government. For example, Chile’s strategy for green hydrogen goes back to former President Sebastián Piñera and has been fleshed out by the current government under President Gabriel Boric.
The CAT is pleased that the coal phase-out has progressed faster than expected so far. Chile is planning to expand electromobility and hydrogen. In its climate target (NDC), it combines biodiversity and climate action; its landscapes are historically considered a CO2 sink.
The government is clearly focusing on the economic benefits of climate policy: Decarbonization could increase economic output by up to 4.4 percent by 2050, says Environment Minister Maisa Rojas in an interview with Table.Briefings. She attaches great importance to a “just transition”, i.e. the creation of new jobs, investment in clean technologies and the participation of communities affected by the coal phase-out. Climate policy should bring concrete social improvements, for example by using electric buses and heat pumps to improve air quality and rooftop solar panels to combat energy poverty.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), wind and solar currently account for just over 31% of Chile’s electricity production. By comparison, the proportion of fossil fuels in Germany is significantly higher at 44.6%. Although fossil fuels play a larger role in Chile’s overall energy supply, the country also performs better than Germany from a climate perspective.
Chile has “assumed a leading global role in the field of clean energy”, writes the IEA, “and has become a prime location for solar and wind energy developers”. One reason for this: The Atacama Desert in the north and the Patagonian steppe in the south of the country offer the best conditions for solar and wind.
At the same time, Chile has hardly any fossil energy reserves of its own. This results in a dependency on fossil imports, which the country has already felt painfully in past energy crises. Renewables would have offered Chile the chance of greater independence – an important reason for its ambitious climate policy, as Minister Rojas says.
Chile is also vulnerable to the effects of the climate crisis – a further incentive for the ambitious decarbonization policy, write the two climate researchers Michael Jakob and Jan C. Steckel in their book “The Political Economy of Coal”.
According to Jakob and Steckel, Chile’s liberalized energy market also plays a key role in the rapid expansion of renewables: It has made it possible to quickly and cost-effectively replace dirty coal with more climate-friendly energy sources such as renewables – as well as gas. The market orientation of the economy is enshrined in Chile’s constitution, which dates back to the Pinochet dictatorship.
The government’s only task is to promote competition. Renewable energies are not subsidized by the state in Chile – although there are tax breaks for fossil fuels, such as diesel used as truck fuel or in mining.
However, despite the clear market orientation, the Chilean energy transition would probably not have worked without a decisive policy. The state has created good conditions for the energy transition, according to the IEA. Its actions have “helped to boost project development”.
Chilean experts say that around ten years ago, the former energy minister Máximo Pacheco laid the foundations for success. Pacheco brought all the key players together to give the energy market a direction, recalls Alex Santander, Head of Strategic Planning at the Chilean Ministry of Energy, in an interview with Table.Briefings. “This sector moves a lot of resources,” says Santander. “And there are many different, sometimes conflicting interests. But if you think long-term and position Chile as a country that is clearly open to renewable energies, then everyone is behind it.” Pacheco has succeeded in doing this.
Nevertheless, Chile could miss its 2030 NDC. This envisages reducing net emissions by 45% below 2016 levels by 2030, but according to CAT, greenhouse gas emissions in industry, agriculture, the waste sector and transport are falling too slowly to achieve this. Another danger: Decommissioned coal-fired power plants could be replaced by gas-fired power plants – Chile’s government sees fossil gas as a “transitional fuel” despite its impact on the climate.
Santander says that consideration is currently being given to bringing forward the coal phase-out. “But certain conditions must be met for this to happen” – for example, electricity prices must remain affordable. “Our competitiveness as a country depends on energy prices.” In addition, the grids must be able to guarantee a secure energy supply. To this end, the government is now pushing ahead with the expansion of lines and electricity storage facilities and the digitalization of the grids. However, this is a complex task in a narrow country like Chile, which is more than 4,000 kilometers long and where important lines sometimes cross several administrative districts and hundreds of municipalities.
Another challenge is the expansion of green hydrogen production. Chile wants to become the most competitive producer in the world and is seeking international investment to achieve this – but so far only a few projects are operational. According to Santander, green hydrogen should cover around 20 percent of demand by 2050, when Chile wants to be completely climate-neutral in its energy supply.
Around half should then come directly from renewable energies – fossil fuels would still contribute around 30 percent. Chile is counting on its natural sinks to fully offset its emissions. Whether the country achieves its climate targets will also depend on them.
(The research in Chile was supported by International Journalism Programs (IJP))
The biggest criticism of COP29 – just like every COP – is that nothing seems to be moving, or at least not enough. That may be true inside the negotiation rooms, but it doesn’t apply to us journalists. We’re constantly on the move: heading to the press center, plenary sessions, delegation offices, events, demonstrations, country pavilions, even the restrooms. While negotiations might be at a standstill, we’re moving at full speed.
We realized this on Monday, the official “Health Day” of the conference. In many ways, COP is a significant health program – or so our smartphone fitness trackers tell us. They reward us with accolades for our constant activity: averaging 9.2 kilometers and over 13,000 steps each day last week. At home, that would be considered an active day; here, it’s just routine. After all, we’re part of the climate movement – quite literally.
Experienced negotiators know this well: The most important item at COP is a comfortable pair of shoes. With them, you can effortlessly tackle daily quarter-marathons. Every day at COP is Health Day! Unless, of course, your smartphone also tracks other vital signs: lack of sleep, stress, hectic schedules, frustration, and subpar food. Then it feels a bit less like a two-week wellness retreat.
At the start of the second week of the COP, the impression is that the more faltering the negotiations, the wilder the rumor mill. On Monday, it was reported that the G20 summit would see major developments in the transparency of climate finance flows and the expansion of the donor base. And with regard to the climate finance target (NCQG), there was talk of a tripling of public climate finance to $300 billion. The rumors had not yet been substantiated by the editorial deadline. And the amount of the NCQG will probably only be decided here in the stadium in Baku after the match.
Minister for Economic Affairs Robert Habeck brought concrete figures with him during his visit to the COP yesterday: Germany and the UK have pledged $420 million in new money for the decarbonization of industry in partner countries in the South. The USA is praising itself for climate finance payments of eleven billion dollars – but as a major polluter, it should provide much more, critics warn. On today’s Agriculture Theme Day, Lisa Kuner analyzes why a food transition is needed and why the global community is moving far too slowly.
Alexandra Endres is spreading some hope today. She has taken a closer look at climate pioneer Chile and its energy transition. If all countries were as ambitious as Chile, the 2-degree warming limit would be met.
We are looking forward to the hot phase of the COP and new records for pedometers!
The Food & Climate Action Group, an alliance of more than 25 NGOs, called for a resolution to “turn away from the overconsumption of meat” at COP29 on Friday. In a declaration, the group, which is campaigning for a global food transition, urges, among other things, subsidies for low-emission foods such as vegetables. Turning away from the overconsumption of meat could be achieved through a carbon price in the food sector, and any profits from this should be at least partially invested in the “Loss and Damage” fund. Farmers should also be supported in switching to plant-based products.
“Current food systems disproportionately harm indigenous communities and vulnerable groups in the Global South, where climate impacts are most severe,” emphasizes Akshath Kaimal of the True Animal Protein Price Coalition (TAPP Coalition). Food and agriculture are still playing a minor role at the COP; Today, Tuesday, the topics will come into somewhat sharper focus with a theme day on water, agriculture and food.
The sector has great potential for reducing greenhouse gases: Food systems are responsible for one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions. Around two-thirds of these emissions come from the production of animal products, while they only contain 19 percent of the calories and 41 percent of the protein of all food produced worldwide. Only by changing food and agricultural systems (agrifood systems) will it be possible to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, said Qu Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), at COP29.
At around 4.3 percent of international climate financing, hardly any funding is currently flowing towards sustainable agriculture and food: Last week, the FAO and the World Bank therefore called for agrifood systems to play a greater role in the negotiations on an NCQG. According to the World Bank, $260 billion a year are needed to halve emissions in the agrifood sector by 2030 and achieve net zero by 2050.
The FAO’s recently published report “The State of Food and Agriculture 2024” summarizes the global problems: According to the report, unsustainable agrifood systems lead to hidden costs of more than eleven trillion US dollars every year; most of this is in the health sector. The environmental costs are particularly high in crisis countries. A change in diet, especially to more diverse protein sources, contributes to both health and the reduction of greenhouse gases.
The report therefore proposes:
So far, there has been little progress and hardly any binding decisions in the area of food systems in the COP process. Last year, the “UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems and Climate Action” was presented in Dubai. Around 160 countries signed the voluntary initiative, agreeing to include emission reduction targets through changes in the food system in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The declaration is “progressive in its approach”, says Felix Domke from the NGO Germanwatch in an interview with Table.Briefings. However, it depends on how it is implemented.
Countries have until next February to submit their new NDCs, so it remains to be seen whether food systems will be more strongly reflected in them in the future. As recently as October, a working paper by the World Resources Institute came to the conclusion that the food transition is often neglected in national climate targets. “Last year in Dubai, the first theme day on food, agriculture and water was a real step forward in integrating nutrition into the climate conference,” says Juliette Tronchon from the NGO ProVeg in an interview with Table.Briefings. However, little has happened since then.
In addition to this non-binding declaration, there is also an official negotiating track on nutrition, the “Sharm el-Sheikh Joint Work on Implementation of Climate Action on Agriculture and Food Security” (SSJWA), which was launched at COP27 in Egypt. “There has been little progress on food at this COP,” says Tronchon. But that was not to be expected either way: After a roadmap for implementing the SSJWA up to COP31 (essentially consisting of workshops and an online portal) was agreed at SB60, there are no negotiations on this on the agenda at COP29.
From Tronchon’s point of view, it would be important for the food transition to be included even more strongly in other negotiation strands – but she has also seen little progress on this so far. Domke takes a similar view and also thinks that a sub-goal for food and agriculture within the international financial goal currently being negotiated would make sense. “The importance of nutrition in the COP process has increased in recent years,” says Domke. “But we don’t see any countries that are actually reducing their emissions in the food system holistically and ambitiously.”
The transformation of food systems does not yet seem to have reached the catering at this year’s COP either: Activists are complaining about how much meat is on offer and that vegetarian and vegan alternatives are expensive. In addition, food is said to have been falsely labeled as vegetarian or vegan even though it contains meat or fish.
Movement towards restructuring the food system could also come from another direction: A “Global Alliance Against Hunger” is to be launched at the G20 summit. In this context, Brazil wants to think more closely about food security and climate issues. The country must ensure that the transformation of food systems plays a key role in the implementation of this plan, demands Germanwatch.
Chile is one of the pioneers of the global climate transition: The Climate Action Tracker (CAT) classifies the country’s policies as “almost sufficient” to achieve the Paris climate targets. This means that if all countries were to do as much as Chile, the 1.5-degree target would not be met – but global warming could be stopped at less than two degrees plus. No other country has been rated better so far. The CAT estimates that Chilean emissions will have already peaked in 2021, well before the targeted peak in 2025.
On the surface, this success is primarily due to the ambitious and recently accelerated expansion of wind and solar energy. But Chile’s ambition goes further: climate policy and decarbonization are considered “Política de Estado” in Chile – a state policy that the country pursues independently of the current government. For example, Chile’s strategy for green hydrogen goes back to former President Sebastián Piñera and has been fleshed out by the current government under President Gabriel Boric.
The CAT is pleased that the coal phase-out has progressed faster than expected so far. Chile is planning to expand electromobility and hydrogen. In its climate target (NDC), it combines biodiversity and climate action; its landscapes are historically considered a CO2 sink.
The government is clearly focusing on the economic benefits of climate policy: Decarbonization could increase economic output by up to 4.4 percent by 2050, says Environment Minister Maisa Rojas in an interview with Table.Briefings. She attaches great importance to a “just transition”, i.e. the creation of new jobs, investment in clean technologies and the participation of communities affected by the coal phase-out. Climate policy should bring concrete social improvements, for example by using electric buses and heat pumps to improve air quality and rooftop solar panels to combat energy poverty.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), wind and solar currently account for just over 31% of Chile’s electricity production. By comparison, the proportion of fossil fuels in Germany is significantly higher at 44.6%. Although fossil fuels play a larger role in Chile’s overall energy supply, the country also performs better than Germany from a climate perspective.
Chile has “assumed a leading global role in the field of clean energy”, writes the IEA, “and has become a prime location for solar and wind energy developers”. One reason for this: The Atacama Desert in the north and the Patagonian steppe in the south of the country offer the best conditions for solar and wind.
At the same time, Chile has hardly any fossil energy reserves of its own. This results in a dependency on fossil imports, which the country has already felt painfully in past energy crises. Renewables would have offered Chile the chance of greater independence – an important reason for its ambitious climate policy, as Minister Rojas says.
Chile is also vulnerable to the effects of the climate crisis – a further incentive for the ambitious decarbonization policy, write the two climate researchers Michael Jakob and Jan C. Steckel in their book “The Political Economy of Coal”.
According to Jakob and Steckel, Chile’s liberalized energy market also plays a key role in the rapid expansion of renewables: It has made it possible to quickly and cost-effectively replace dirty coal with more climate-friendly energy sources such as renewables – as well as gas. The market orientation of the economy is enshrined in Chile’s constitution, which dates back to the Pinochet dictatorship.
The government’s only task is to promote competition. Renewable energies are not subsidized by the state in Chile – although there are tax breaks for fossil fuels, such as diesel used as truck fuel or in mining.
However, despite the clear market orientation, the Chilean energy transition would probably not have worked without a decisive policy. The state has created good conditions for the energy transition, according to the IEA. Its actions have “helped to boost project development”.
Chilean experts say that around ten years ago, the former energy minister Máximo Pacheco laid the foundations for success. Pacheco brought all the key players together to give the energy market a direction, recalls Alex Santander, Head of Strategic Planning at the Chilean Ministry of Energy, in an interview with Table.Briefings. “This sector moves a lot of resources,” says Santander. “And there are many different, sometimes conflicting interests. But if you think long-term and position Chile as a country that is clearly open to renewable energies, then everyone is behind it.” Pacheco has succeeded in doing this.
Nevertheless, Chile could miss its 2030 NDC. This envisages reducing net emissions by 45% below 2016 levels by 2030, but according to CAT, greenhouse gas emissions in industry, agriculture, the waste sector and transport are falling too slowly to achieve this. Another danger: Decommissioned coal-fired power plants could be replaced by gas-fired power plants – Chile’s government sees fossil gas as a “transitional fuel” despite its impact on the climate.
Santander says that consideration is currently being given to bringing forward the coal phase-out. “But certain conditions must be met for this to happen” – for example, electricity prices must remain affordable. “Our competitiveness as a country depends on energy prices.” In addition, the grids must be able to guarantee a secure energy supply. To this end, the government is now pushing ahead with the expansion of lines and electricity storage facilities and the digitalization of the grids. However, this is a complex task in a narrow country like Chile, which is more than 4,000 kilometers long and where important lines sometimes cross several administrative districts and hundreds of municipalities.
Another challenge is the expansion of green hydrogen production. Chile wants to become the most competitive producer in the world and is seeking international investment to achieve this – but so far only a few projects are operational. According to Santander, green hydrogen should cover around 20 percent of demand by 2050, when Chile wants to be completely climate-neutral in its energy supply.
Around half should then come directly from renewable energies – fossil fuels would still contribute around 30 percent. Chile is counting on its natural sinks to fully offset its emissions. Whether the country achieves its climate targets will also depend on them.
(The research in Chile was supported by International Journalism Programs (IJP))
The biggest criticism of COP29 – just like every COP – is that nothing seems to be moving, or at least not enough. That may be true inside the negotiation rooms, but it doesn’t apply to us journalists. We’re constantly on the move: heading to the press center, plenary sessions, delegation offices, events, demonstrations, country pavilions, even the restrooms. While negotiations might be at a standstill, we’re moving at full speed.
We realized this on Monday, the official “Health Day” of the conference. In many ways, COP is a significant health program – or so our smartphone fitness trackers tell us. They reward us with accolades for our constant activity: averaging 9.2 kilometers and over 13,000 steps each day last week. At home, that would be considered an active day; here, it’s just routine. After all, we’re part of the climate movement – quite literally.
Experienced negotiators know this well: The most important item at COP is a comfortable pair of shoes. With them, you can effortlessly tackle daily quarter-marathons. Every day at COP is Health Day! Unless, of course, your smartphone also tracks other vital signs: lack of sleep, stress, hectic schedules, frustration, and subpar food. Then it feels a bit less like a two-week wellness retreat.
