Climate change impacts our only home – the Earth – and every nation must be unwavering in this battle. COP29’s fundamental message is that our common humanity can transcend political differences and stand together in unity. Amidst conflicts spreading and rising, this ideal is more critical than ever. It is a unique chance to bridge divides and find paths towards lasting peace. Conflicts increase greenhouse gas emissions and ravage the environment, polluting soil, water and air. The devastation of ecosystems and pollution caused by conflicts worsen climate change and undermine our efforts to safeguard the planet.
Climate talks must be unifying, with undivided attention and cooperation by all. We called on everyone to observe the COP Truce during the month of COP29 during November 11–22, 2024 at Baku, Azerbaijan. Let the COP Truce serve as a symbol of human solidarity. Let’s unite for a safer, more prosperous and sustainable future for all. It is only by prioritizing peace and climate action that we can ensure a livable planet for future generations.
This year 2024 is in the hottest year on record and it will continue, which means the climate crisis is no longer a threat but a harsh reality. Global greenhouse gas emissions have reached unprecedented levels, driving extreme weather events and disasters. Glaciers are melting at alarming rates, sea-level rise and ocean heating are accelerating, and extreme weather is now the norm. Sri Lanka, despite contributing only a fraction to global emissions, remains severely affected. Rising sea levels, floods, landslides, and prolonged droughts threaten livelihoods, food production, and the national economy. This year alone, severe floods caused notable destruction, affecting people across multiple districts.
Time is running out to reverse this trajectory, which is why the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which ended on Friday in Baku, was so important. The annual meeting allows countries to assess global climate challenges, negotiate emission reduction targets, and discuss adaptation measures to tackle climate impacts. This year negotiations reached a pivotal point, particularly around the hesitancy of wealthier nations—the largest historical emitters of greenhouse gases—to commit to substantial financial contributions. A central focus was the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance, aimed at mobilizing $1 trillion a year, split between adaptation, the Loss-and-Damage Fund, and a public finance component. The final number will probably be much lower, possibly a third.
This said, funding the Loss-and-Damage Fund will help address both immediate effects, such as infrastructure damage and community displacement after disasters, and slow onset climate impacts. Another key development at COP29 was the approval of standards to strengthen the global carbon market through the Paris Agreement crediting mechanism. This framework supports verifiable emission reduction projects, attracts funding, and fosters international cooperation.
To benefit from these global climate finance mechanisms, Sri Lanka will need to act proactively on a number of important fronts.
First, the county needs to update its plan or it’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement. Strong and clear NDCs are not only a climate adaptation tool but also a key driver of growth, which is critical for the country’s recovery. The NDCs include priority targets across the economy to guide priority projects that will stimulate access to external funding. Then, the country needs a portfolio of projects that are not only well-designed but also the results of extensive consultations, so that there is a strong consensus on priority investments targeting the right funding instrument.
On that basis, Sri Lanka must continue to maximize its access to existing funds, such as the Green Climate Fund or the Global Environment Facility, but also new mechanisms such as the Loss-and-Damage Fund. Beyond addressing damages, access to this funding will enable the country to invest in long-term mitigation and adaptation strategies, protecting its communities, infrastructure, and ecosystems. Additionally, mechanisms to improve planning and budgeting, like the Integrated National Financing Framework, will improve targeting and the effectiveness of financing.
Health is a unifying shared goal of people across the world, enabled by provision of food, housing, security and other essential needs. Climate change is poised to undermine decades of progress in global health and exacerbates inequities. In a time of intensifying socio-political and ecological hazards and inevitable transitions, comprehensive climate action prevents escalating health hazards and can offer health, social and financial outcomes, protecting fundamental rights while sustaining resilient equitable populations and transformative economies.
At COP29, action on climate and health necessitates action on mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage, underpinned by finance of the necessary quantity and quality. These pillars of action must be viewed hand in hand – action and investment to accelerate adaptation and address loss and damage are already essential in many communities; and without ambitious mitigation, the limits of adaptation will rapidly be exceeded, with catastrophic losses and damages, including physical and mental health impacts.
Finance is a prerequisite for climate action sufficient to protect human health. As described by the IPCC, climate change drives injury, disease and deaths from both sudden and slow onset hazards, including heat-waves and other extreme weather events, wildfires, displacement, infectious disease transmission including risk of pandemics, food and water insecurity, poor non-communicable disease outcomes, and threats to maternal-child health outcomes and sexual and reproductive health and rights. These impacts are compounded by ecosystem degradation with related risks of zoonotic spillover, biodiversity loss and impacts on wellbeing. In addition to these impacts on physical health, climate change leads increase the risk of new mental health problems and makes people living with pre-existing and severe mental health problems more vulnerable.
The COP28 UAE Declaration on Climate and Health confirmed the extensive inter-linkages between human health and climate decision-making and must now be translated into outcomes for people and planet at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Members of the international health and climate community call upon Parties at COP29 to commit to and deliver ambitious climate action sufficient to protect and promote the health of people and the planet through:
01. Implementation reporting which define mechanisms to allow follow up and reporting on agreed priorities for action on climate change and health set out in the COP28 UAE set declaration on Climate and Health;
02. Police Coherence which Embeds health and climate actions, targets, and associated economic considerations, in NDCs and other national policies, supported by strengthened inter-sectoral coordination;
03. Enable Finance which adopt a New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance of necessary quantity and quality, without which health-promoting climate action will be infeasible;
04. Just Energy Transitions which commit to the fast, fair, full and funded phase-out of fossil fuels including an immediate end to all expansion of fossil fuel production and infrastructure and a rapid and just transition to renewable energy as a public health imperative.
05. Holistic Adaptation which Lay foundations for adaptation planning and monitoring that reflects physical and mental health and wellbeing outcomes;
06. Loss and Damage Response which capitalize the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage to address the health and wider needs of impacted communities, while positioning the Santiago Network on Loss and Damage to support quantification of health losses and damages;
07. Resilient and Sustainable Agriculture and Eco-system which prioritize food and agricultural systems and land use that promote nutrition security and biodiversity, including sustainable healthy diets that are affordable and accessible;
08. Enhances Integrity which Manage conflicts of interest by strengthening policies to reduce undue influence of health- and climate-harming polluters in UNFCCC policymaking
09. Collaboration with most impacted communities which create environments which enable guidance for healthy climate action to be provided by most affected communities through their safe and meaningful engagement and participation;
Health systems are challenged to deliver universal health coverage even at current levels of warming, with the majority of countries (108/194) experiencing worsening or no significant change in service coverage since the launch of the SDGs in 2015. In addition to facing increasing strain due to climate induced public health impacts, health system infrastructure is also at risk, including destruction of healthcare facilities, and disruption of health services and supply chains. The cost alone of adaptation for the health sector is estimated at USD 11.1 billion per year for 2030 in developing countries, without taking into account the costs of mitigation and addressing loss and damage, and for other Health-determining sectors.
Meanwhile, wider climate finance and health finance fall far short of the levels needed to meet the needs of people and the planet. While no one is immune to the health impacts of the climate crisis, the burden falls most heavily on vulnerable and structurally disadvantaged populations with limited capacity for action against these hazards and often contributed least to their cause. These often-intersectional groups include communities in the Global South, Indigenous peoples, refugees and migrants, women, children, adolescents and youth, people with non-heteronormative SOGIESC, older people, people with physical and psychosocial disabilities, people living in poverty, and coastal and rural communities.
Fossil fuel dependence is the leading driver and commercial determinant of climate change and its associated health impacts, with additional health harms from air, water and soil pollution coupled with occupational health hazards from the point of extraction through to transport, processing, combustion and management of waste products9. In addition to being essential to achieve the 43% reductions in GHG emissions by 2030 compared to 1990 levels to deliver on the
Paris Agreement and prevent catastrophic climate induced health threats, fossil fuel phase-out provides the opportunity to save millions of lives annually, with associated cost savings. In some settings, the health savings due to clean air are equal to the cost of implementing the intervention to reduce emissions. Methane, the primary component of fossil gas (commonly referred to as natural gas), also emitted in coal and oil extraction, is a super pollutant with eighty times the greenhouse warming potential of CO2 over a twenty year time frame, a precursor for health-harming ground level ozone, as well as several toxic co-pollutants. Notably, fossil fuel subsidies by G20 countries cause health impacts six times greater than the cost of the subsidies themselves, universal health coverage could be achieved with approximately one seventh of the value of implicit and explicit fossil fuel subsidies worldwide, and international development funding for clean air efforts reached USD 4.7 billion in 2022.
In addition to the imperative of preventing worsening health impacts of climate change, just, well-planned and well-implemented climate action both in the energy sector and across sectors can tackle root causes of socio-economic inequities and deliver additional “health co-benefits”. These policy actions can yield physical and mental health gains reaped through clean air, nutrition security, physical activity, social protection, education, and healthy living environments, while protecting ecosystems and with associated returns on investment. A transition to sustainable healthy diets could save 11 million premature adult deaths annually from under nutrition and diet-related non-communicable diseases. Expanding and enhancing green and blue spaces in urban areas enhances sustainable use of biodiversity and ecological connectivity for better human health and well-being, connections to nature and sustainable provision of ecosystem functions and services.
The healthcare sector itself is responsible for 4.6% of global greenhouse gas emissions and associated and associated air pollution contributed to 4.6 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). The healthcare sector must reduce emissions, especially in developed countries, while ensuring provision of quality care. Proceedings at COP28 confirmed the critical relevance of health in UNFCCC decision making. The COP28 UAE Declaration on Climate and Health (hereafter referred to as “the Declaration”) was adopted, endorsed by 151 Heads of State and Government to date. Within the Declaration, governments commit to addressing public health issues in UNFCCC discussions and other climate policy processes.
Enable Finance which adopt a New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance of necessary quantity and quality, without which health-promoting climate action will be infeasible. Which commit to minimum public finance provision target under the NCQG of USD 1 trillion per year43 in predominantly grants-based funding and grant-equivalent terms from developed countries to developing countries, based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, consisting of new and additional funds to those provided to meet existing finance commitments such as the 0.7% GNI goal for Official Development Assistance, and responding to the larger accumulating climate debt requiring reparatory payments from the Global North to the Global South in the order of USD 5 trillion per year or more.
Specify sub-goals under the NCQG for mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage as part of inclusive just transition pathways, recognizing that finance is the only way to enable action that will enable limiting temperature rise to 1.5°C, enable adaptation, and address the now unavoidable loss and damages falling on those least responsible. Avoid debt-creating instruments, prioritizing grants above all, and highly concessional loans, to avoid perpetuating cycles of debt, poverty and ill-health, and ensure that countries have sufficient fiscal space for country-driven policies. Improve accessibility of climate finance, especially for frontline communities bearing the most severe health and wider impacts of climate change, ensuring a rights-based approach including the right to health and a clean healthy sustainable environment, and the rights of Indigenous peoples, and enabling locally-led approaches to climate action.
Implement fiscal policies commensurate with the true costs of fossil fuels46 and other health and climate-harming commodities and industries such as militarization, aviation, and agribusinesses, in line with the polluter pays principle and considering equity and channel revenues from tax and subsidy reform to domestic and international climate action to protect health. Provide finance for climate and health which is additional to existing levels, ensuring that funds are not diverted away from healthy climate action, recognizing that funding shortfalls for mitigation, adaptation and addressing loss and damage will only serve to increase the burden of climate change on public health and health systems.
Consider health as a guiding axis for the synergistic allocation of existing climate finance, with strategic allocation of finance to projects which optimize climate and health co-benefit gains, due to improved physical and mental health outcomes and associated economic savings which offer high returns on investment. Reciprocally, health finance must also be allocated to optimize climate outcomes. This could be supported by the integration of climate and health criteria into disbursements by international and regional financing mechanisms for both climate and health.
Ensure clear mechanisms to track the timely delivery of climate finance on a regular basis, including via the Enhanced Transparency Framework. Enabling environment commits to the fast, fair, full and funded phase-out of fossil fuels including an immediate end to all expansion of fossil fuel production and infrastructure and a rapid and just transition to renewable energy as a public health imperative. Deploy at least 1.5 terawatts (TW) of renewable electricity per year (primarily wind, solar and geothermal), to at least a triple renewable electricity capacity by 2030 and double energy efficiency measures51, with the aim of reducing total final energy demand by at least a quarter by 2050 compared to present day and improving air quality.
Protect and improve equitable access to reliable, affordable and safe energy and electricity noting that 2 billion people lack access to clean cooking fuels with 8 million premature deaths from related indoor air pollution52, and access to safe and decent work53, as key social determinants of physical and mental health, and protect local communities and workers guard against health risks when sourcing critical minerals to support renewable energy infrastructure as part of a transition which is just, equitable and rapid54. These elements should be considered under the Just Transition Work Programme, for instance through the development of rights-based just transition safeguards.
Recognizing that health actors face challenges in accessing finance for health and climate change activities, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, we underscore the need to better leverage synergies at the intersection of climate change and health to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of finance flows. Encouraging the scaling up of investments in climate and health from domestic budgets, multilateral development banks, multilateral climate funds, health financing institutions, philanthropies, bilateral development agencies, and private sector actors. Encouraging international finance providers, including development banks, to strengthen the synergies between their climate and health portfolios, and enhance their support for country-led projects and programs in the health-climate nexus.
Summary of the COP29 Presidency Declarations and Pledges are mentioned below;
* COP29 Truce Appeal: The appeal for a COP Truce, modelled on the Olympic Truce, will highlight the importance of peace and climate action. It will aim to remind all nations of the interplay between conflict and climate change and emphasize the imperative of finding collective solutions to protect the most vulnerable. National governments and other stakeholders can endorse this Declaration at [email protected]
* COP29 Global Energy Storage and Grids Pledge: The outcome Pledge will aim to increase global energy storage capacity six times above 2022 levels, reaching 1,500 giga-watts by 2030. To enhance energy grids, endorsers will also commit to enhance grid capacity through a global grid deployment goal of adding or refurbishing 25 million kilometers of grids by 2030, recognizing analysis from the IEA on the need to add or refurbish an additional 65 million kilometers by 2040 to align with net-zero emissions by 2050. National governments and other stakeholders can endorse this Pledge at [email protected]
* COP29 Green Energy Pledge: Green Energy Zones and Corridors. The outcome Pledge will commit to green energy zones and corridors, including targets to promote investment, stimulate economic growth, develop, modernize and expand infrastructure, and foster regional cooperation. National governments and other stakeholders can endorse this Pledge at [email protected]
* COP29 Hydrogen Declaration: The outcome Declaration will unlock the potential of a global market for clean hydrogen and its derivatives with guiding principles and priorities, to address regulatory, technological, financing, and standardization barriers. National governments and other stakeholders can endorse this Declaration at [email protected]
* COP29 Declaration on Green Digital Action: The outcome Declaration will emphasize the urgent need for accelerated climate action in the tourism sector and call upon stakeholders to promote sustainable tourism practices by reducing emissions and increasing resilience in the sector. Governments endorsing the Declaration will work towards positioning tourism as a component of climate solutions by integrating tourism into national climate policy documents. National governments and other stakeholders can endorse this Declaration at [email protected]
* COP29 Declaration on Reducing Methane from Organic Waste: The outcome Declaration will streamline work towards 1.5-aligned waste sector commitments in national climate policy documents with quantified targets to reduce methane in waste and food systems. National governments and other stakeholders can endorse this Declaration at [email protected]
* COP29 Multi-sectoral Actions Pathways (MAP) Declaration to Resilient and Healthy Cities: The outcome Declaration will seek to enhance multi-sectoral cooperation to address climate challenges in cities and an initiative to create coherence in all urban climate efforts and catalyze urban climate finance. National governments and other stakeholders can endorse this Declaration at [email protected]
* COP29 Declaration on Enhanced Action in Tourism: The outcome Declaration will include sectoral targets for tourism in NDCs and promote sustainable practices by reducing emissions and increasing resilience in the sector. A further initiative with outcomes to enhance transparency in the sector and provide frameworks for sustainable food systems in tourism. National governments and other stakeholders can endorse this Declaration at [email protected]
* COP29 Declaration on Water for Climate Action: The outcome Declaration will call upon stakeholders to take integrated approaches when combating the causes and impacts of climate change on water basins and water-related ecosystems, strengthen regional and international cooperation, integrated water-related mitigation and adaptation measures in national climate policies. The Declaration will launch the Baku Dialogue on Water for Climate Action to enhance COP-to-COP continuity and coherence in the field. National governments and other stakeholders can endorse this Declaration at [email protected]
“Climate finance is not a nice-to-have. It’s essential for developing countries to afford crucial climate mitigation and adaptation activities, to keep warming within safe limits and adapt to impacts such as extreme heat, flooding, fires and cyclones. Loss and damage were not included in the new climate finance goal, meaning that there is no obligation on developed countries to contribute much needed loss and damage funds. No minimum targets were included in the goal for least developed countries and small island developing countries. This means that the world’s most climate vulnerable communities will continue to experience difficulties in accessing climate finance, especially in the Pacific.
Overall COP29 outcomes are fundamentally underwhelming and will leave developing countries worse off under projected climate impacts.
It is reflected in a New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance of necessary quantity and quality, without which health-promoting climate action will be infeasible was adopted many objections and disappointments by many developing countries or by Global South countries regarding the lack of a fair and ambitious Goal on climate finance NCQG. COP29 has ended with a deal for developed countries to collectively raise $300bn per year for developing countries to mitigate and adapt to climate change. “Developing countries have understandably left COP29 bitterly disappointed with the inadequacy of the new climate finance goal. Experts have estimated that climate finance needs are in the trillions, yet this new global goal will raise only a sliver of what is needed to avert dangerous climate impacts worldwide. This goal is an increase on previous global commitments, but it falls well short of the trillion experts have estimated are needed to ensure developing countries can meet their mitigation targets and adapt to climate impacts already observed and projected before 2040.
Developing nations have expressed serious concern and dismay at the outcome of COP29. The growing burden of climate change on developing economies has made equitable access to climate finance more important than ever for low-income countries struggling to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. “Developed countries have again failed to take responsibility for their historic and ongoing contributions to the climate crisis, with developing countries forced to take on more debt to deal with a crisis they did not cause.
Sri Lanka can also benefit from the global carbon market aimed at strengthening international cooperation around emission reduction. By enhancing its regulatory frameworks, establishing clear carbon pricing rules, and focusing on carbon-credit-generating initiatives in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and reforestation, the country can unlock new revenue streams to fund its climate adaptation and mitigation efforts while promoting sustainable economic growth. Investments in renewable energy are particularly critical in this effort. With abundant solar and wind resources, Sri Lanka is well-positioned to transition to clean energy, reducing reliance on costly fossil fuels and cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
Finally, Sri Lanka must ensure its active participation in global climate discussions. Being present and vocal in these negotiations with strong levels of representation allows the country to advocate for the implementation of sustainable climate finance and ensure technical support aligns with its development goals. By investing in climate diplomacy and crafting a strong presence in international forums, Sri Lanka can position itself as a leader in the global climate agenda and secure the resources necessary to advance its goals.
The United Nations is committed to supporting the Government to advance both climate adaptation and mitigation efforts. This includes initiatives on environmental management, climate-smart agriculture, electric vehicle mobility, and providing technical assistance for renewable energy projects, to name a few. The United Nations also works to support disaster preparedness and post-disaster recovery initiatives. We will continue to provide technical support to the Government to update the country’s NDCs while rallying Sri Lanka partners. As the UN Secretary-General has said, 2024 has been a master-class in climate destruction. We now find ourselves in the final countdown to limit global temperature rise, and it’s time to deliver.
M. Sivakumar
Deputy Director General (Environmental Education & Awareness)
Central Environmental Authority
