Mukhtar Babayev: Climate action already saving lives

Climate adaptation actions are already saving lives today, COP29 President-Designate Mukhtar Babayev said at the Climate and Development Ministerial (C&DM) during the second day of Pre-COP29 in Baku, Report informs.

"Even if we succeed in limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees, we still need to deal with the severe impacts of climate change around the globe," he noted.

"According to the data of the World Meteorological Organization in sub-Saharan Africa, the cost of adaptation is estimated to be up to $50 billion per year over this decade. However, there are still clear gaps in the adaptation of financing and implementation. The COP 29 presidency has a plan to enhance ambition and enable action this year. This plan will deliver critical progress across all pillars of the Paris Agreement with climate finance as a centerpiece. First, we need to enhance ambition in climate plans to limit warming and manage the impacts of climate change. We are calling on all parties to have national adaptation plans in place," he noted.

"We are also urging the Green Climate Fund to speed up support for countries to create knobs and put them into practice. Once put in place, national adaptation plans (NAPs) can play an important role in guiding investing. NAPs with clear priorities and roadmaps for implementation can enhance country-owned structured financing.

Second, we must put in place the means of implementation and we are looking to scale climate families from all sources. We need to significantly increase the availability of mitigation and adaptation of finance. Our top negotiated priority is a fair and ambitious institution that meets the scale and urgency of climate change. We also continue to call for increased contributions to the Green Climate Fund and adaptation. However, we recognize that not all adaptation funding can come from the public sector. Only 2% of adaptation funding currently comes from the private sector," he said. "We are calling on private financial institutions to scale up their investment."