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The core negotiations on adaptation at the 29th Conference of Parties (COP29) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Baku such as on the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) and the National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) have mostly been procedural, but even those have been contested and slow.
The major contestation in the GGA text has been the inclusion of language around the means of implementation which includes finances, technology transfer and capacity building from developed to developing countries.
Many developing country groups like the Like Minded Developing Countries (LMDC) and the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) had asked for US$ 400 billion as a fifth dimensional target under the GGA last year at COP28 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), under the negotiations on the framework for the GGA.
The developed countries had pointed out that a GGA finance target does not make sense as the matter would be discussed under the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) in 2029.
In the latest iteration of the GGA text released by the COP29 presidency on November 21, ‘means of implementation’ exists as an option with no text in the other alternative option in two of the paragraphs. The text as option means that the disagreements on the inclusion of the language is still contested among Parties and has not been resolved as yet. The first option in paragraph 11(d) reads:
In paragraph 13 of the text, the option is to include the means of implementation while encouraging the “dialogue amongst Parties, experts and stakeholders to support the mapping, development and refinement of indicators in line with established criteria and guidance, and invites the organization of regular dialogues and workshops, as needed, over the next year to review the progress on indicators work”.
These indicators are to be developed under the United Arab Emirates (UAE)-Belem Work Programme to measure the progress under the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience (UAE-FGCR) established as the GGA. The UAE-Belem Work Programme is to be concluded at COP30 in Belem, Brazil, in 2025.
There are seven thematic targets and four-dimensional targets under the UAE-FGCR and the dimensional targets include risk assessment, planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation, all of which would require considerable finances for developing countries.
This is perhaps why Parties seem to be waiting for the conclusion of the negotiations on the NCQG and a finance goal number to be decided to be able to take forward negotiations on other agenda items such as matters relating to adaptation.
The current iteration of the text on NCQG includes language around balancing finances for adaptation and mitigation and also that most of the adaptation finance should be in the form of grants and concessional loans.
But as the representative from the Marshall Islands pointed out in her intervention during the ‘Qurultay’ plenary event on November 21:
Most of these negotiation matters related to adaptation have been moved for discussions at the Subsidiary Bodies conference (SB 62) in Bonn, Germany in June 2025. But the procedural outcomes will still have to reflect some progress, especially on the means of implementation language.
Even with slow progress on procedural negotiations, there were some developments on adaptation on the side lines of COP29 such as on early warning systems for adaptation, the launch of the 2024 report of the Adaptation Committee and the portal to track the adaptation action by various countries at one place. The work on early warning systems is a crucial aspect of adaptation, especially for countries at high risk from weather-related disasters in the mountains or along their coasts.
Under the work for early warnings systems that mostly happened in side-events and special high-level events at COP29, the major highlights were the recognition of the expansion of the weather observational network, keeping the early warning needs of communities at the centre of these systems and providing finances for efficient early warning systems, especially under the United Nations Secretary General’s Early Warnings for All initiative.