Why what happens at the UN’s annual conference on climate change is so important.
The UN’s annual climate change conference, or COP29, is taking place between 11 and 22 November 2024. We’re heading there to urge leaders to tackle the nature crisis alongside the climate crisis.
The aim of COP29 is to get countries of the world together to agree targets and policies that tackle climate change and address its impacts.
Climate change is one of the greatest threats facing our planet. In 2021, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change declared a ‘code red for humanity’ warning of increasingly extreme heatwaves, droughts and flooding. And in October 2024, climate experts warned that the very future of humanity hangs in the balance.
Wildlife is feeling the effects too. From warming seas affecting what Puffins can feed their chicks, to the impact of floods and droughts on wetland birds, the world is changing. Without urgent action, we stand to lose much of what we love.
COP29 is an opportunity to hold our leaders to account and call on action to ensure we achieve the right outcomes for people and wildlife.
Climate and nature can’t be separated. The science is very clear that we must tackle the nature and climate emergencies together, to be successful at either.
Habitats such as woodlands and peatlands, for example, can lock up huge amounts of carbon, keeping carbon dioxide, one of the main drivers of climate change, out of the atmosphere. But when we don’t care for these places, they leach carbon. In the UK, around 80% of our peatlands are in poor health, so it’s vital that we work with nature to tackle climate change.
Such nature-based solutions to the problems we face can help tackle extreme weather events too. For example, coastal wetlands help to reduce the impact of tidal surges and native woodlands slow down rainfall entering rivers, both of which can prevent our homes from flooding.
So we are at COP29 to be a voice of nature, representing RSPB members and supporters on a world stage, and ensuring that the role of nature in the climate emergency is recognised. Alongside our BirdLife International colleagues, RSPB policy representatives Melanie Coath and Ruairi Brogan, will be making the case for why the nature crisis must be tackled alongside the climate crisis.
We need urgent action to tackle the nature and climate crisis. We are calling on our leaders to:
Secure agreements to tackle the nature and climate crises together – both internationally and domestically as countries implement their national plans.
Reflect in the climate agreement the outcomes of important and very welcome decisions on nature and climate joint action, including a work programme that would link the nature and climate conventions that were taken at the biodiversity COP last month.
Support for nature-based solutions to climate change but limit the use of bioenergy which is damaging to wildlife and climate.
Commit to spending significant amounts of money to tackle the climate crisis, including investing in nature protection and restoration, and for developed countries who caused climate change to support developing countries who are on the front line of its impacts.
