As a deal was finally reached following the conclusion of COP29, the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) unpacks the summit’s successes and areas for further development, and how we can continue to mobilise the built environment community on the road to COP30 in Belém, Brazil.
With a central focus on climate finance, COP29 brought together nearly 200 countries in Baku, Azerbaijan. This year’s conference faced many challenges, but it remains a crucial platform to accelerate progress and, in a time of geopolitical turbulence, forming a deal is an important outcome.
Climate finance deal provides a foundation on which to build
The headline announcement from the Conference was the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG), which saw an agreement to triple finance to developing countries, from the previous goal of USD 100 billion annually, to USD 300 billion annually by 2035. Countries also agreed to secure efforts to work together to scale up finance, from public and private sources, to USD 1.3 trillion per year by 2035.
Whilst this deal remains insufficient to meet the needs of developing countries, it marks a step forward in recognising the scale of what’s needed, and creates a foundation on which to build. Now, the broader finance ecosystem must mobilise to deliver at the speed and scale required.
