A few days before the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Baku, Azerbaijan, the Ocean & Climate Platform and the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance, with the support of the Blue Marine Foundation, the Global Ocean Trust, The Nature Conservancy and the UN Global Compact, launch the policy brief “Unpacking Ocean Finance for Climate Action”. As countries are starting to revise their national climate strategies, raising their ambition to align with the outcomes of the Global Stocktake, it is essential to ensure sufficient climate finance is allocated to support new commitments and their implementation. This is the crux of COP29, where Parties are negotiating a New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) to replace the current one of USD 100 million per year. In this context, this brief provides concrete recommendations to Parties to ensure that the ocean receives proper consideration in the COP29 climate finance package, thereby enabling countries to include robust and adequately funded ocean-based solutions in their upcoming climate strategies.
Long overlooked, ocean-based solutions are now gaining momentum, with over 70% of national climate strategies including at least one. Recognising the untapped potential of these solutions, the Global Stocktake invited Parties to strengthen ocean-based action to realign our climate trajectory. While the literature on these solutions continues to grow, with new guidance on how to integrate for instance offshore wind or aquatic food in climate strategies, there is still no overview of the extent to which climate finance is allocated to ocean-based solutions. As countries are revising their national strategies, it is essential to ensure that ocean finance is recognised as a key component of climate finance.
COP29, taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan, has already been deemed as the ‘Finance COP’. At this conference, Parties are expected to set a new climate finance target commensurate with the goals and provisions of the Paris Agreement. However, questions remain about how the ocean might benefit from this potential increase in hopefully good quality climate finance. This requires clarification, especially since the ocean ranks particularly low on the COP29 agenda and related priorities.
In this context, the Ocean & Climate Platform and the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance, with the support of the Blue Marine Foundation, the Global Ocean Trust, The Nature Conservancy and the UN Global Compact, published the policy brief “Unpacking Ocean Finance for Climate Action: A Roadmap for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change”. The brief aims to provide an initial overview of ocean-related climate finance within the climate regime, focusing on key avenues to drive progress on this topic across various UNFCCC mechanisms, including:
- In the overall UNFCCC process
- In the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on Climate Action
- In the Fund for responding to Loss & Damage
- In the upcoming Nationally Determined Contributions (expected by February 2025)
- In the Global Goal on Adaptation
- In Market-Based Cooperative Approaches (Article 6 of the Paris Agreement), and
- In relation to non-state actors, mobilised under the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action
With COP29 in Baku just days away and COP30 poised to mark the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement next year, now is the time to reaffirm our commitment to the Agreement and mobilise the necessary funding to deliver a global response that matches the scale and urgency of the climate crisis. Aimed at decision-makers, this brief provides actionable recommendations to ensure the ocean, and the solutions it provides, are effectively part of this global response. This will be carried forward by the OCP and its partners in Baku, and presented in a dedicated side-event on Friday 15 November, from 13.15 to 14.45, Side-Event Room 6 (Blue Zone).
Click on the image below to dive into the brief
