COP 29 and health: The basics

What is COP 29 and why is it important?

COP (Conference of the Parties) is the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference. This year the 29th Conference (COP 29) takes place from November 11-22 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan. During COP governments from around the world discuss and agree on policies and actions to tackle the climate crisis. It was during COP 21 in 2015 that the pivotal ‘Paris Agreement’ (international treaty on climate change) was agreed upon. Participants from all sectors of society including industry, government, civil society, academia, and health also join the conference to advocate and push for climate action.

What is the focus of COP 29?

A key focus of COP 29 this year will be on financing the response to the climate crisis. Trillions of dollars are needed for climate action globally, including to tackle the root causes of the climate crisis, and to prepare and respond to its impacts on communities, people’s health and livelihoods, and national economies. COP 29 will include discussion of how climate funding will be secured and prioritised.

How and when will climate and health be discussed at COP 29?

While there is no dedicated negotiating topic on health at COP 29, health depends on ambitious decision making across all negotiating streams including climate finance, mitigation, adaptation, and  loss and damage. Health will also be discussed in events organised by the COP29 Presidency, including on Development Day on 18th November, Urbanisation Day on 20th November, and possibly during the Leaders’ Summit at the start of the conference.

What terms might I see used at COP 29?

• Climate adaptation: Action to prepare for and adjust to the impacts of the climate crisis (e.g. building sea walls to protect against rising sea levels and ensuring health facilities have sources of power during storms and heat waves)
• Climate mitigation: Efforts that limit the climate crisis such as reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (e.g. using renewable energy sources instead of fossil fuels)
• Just transition: Ensuring that no one is left behind or pushed behind in the transition to low-carbon and environmentally sustainable economies and societies (UN, 2023)
• New Collective Quantified Goal: A new financial goal for supporting developing countries in their climate actions.It is expected to be at least $100 Billion USD per year. 
• Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC): A plan that each country must develop outlining the actions and commitments that it will take to achieve the goals set out in the Paris Agreement (international treaty on climate change). Countries must provide an updated NDC every five years and the next one is due in 2025.

What is the international climate and health community calling for at COP29?

COP28 in Dubai saw the adoption of the first ever Declaration on Climate and Health at a UNFCCC conference. This declaration confirmed the extensive interlinkages between human health and climate decision-making and must now be translated into outcomes for people and planet at COP29 in Baku.

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.

Recommendations from the International Health and Climate Community

Members of the international health and climate community, coordinated by the Global Climate and Health Alliance, have produced a 2024 report ‘A COP29 for People and Planet’ which outlines recommendations from the international health and climate community and 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. The headline recommendations are:

• IMPLEMENTATION REPORTING: Define mechanisms to allow follow up and reporting on agreed priorities for action on climate change and health set out in the UAE COP28 Declaration on Climate and Health.
• POLICY COHERENCE: Embed health and climate actions, targets, and associated economic considerations, in NDCs and other national policies, supported by strengthened intersectoral coordination. 
• ENABLING FINANCE: Adopt a New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance of necessary quantity and quality, without which health-promoting climate action will be infeasible. 
• JUST ENERGY TRANSITIONS: 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.
• HOLISTIC ADAPTATION: Lay foundations for adaptation planning and monitoring that reflects physical and mental health and wellbeing outcomes.
• LOSS AND DAMAGE RESPONSE: Capitalise 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.
• RESILIENT AND SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE AND ECOSYSTEMS: Prioritise food and agricultural systems and land use that protect biodiversity and promote nutrition security, including healthy and sustainable diets that are affordable and accessible.
• ENHANCED INTEGRITY: Manage conflicts of interest by strengthening policies to reduce undue influence of health- and climate-harming polluters in UNFCCC policymaking. 
• COLLABORATION WITH MOST IMPACTED COMMUNITIES: Create environments which enable guidance for healthy climate action to be provided by most affected communities through their safe and meaningful engagement and participation.

Download the report and full list of endorsing organisations below.

Learn more about the outcomes of COP 28 in 2023

Following December’s UN climate negotiations in Dubai,  Global Climate and Health Alliance Executive Director Dr Jeni Miller reflected on the climate summit’s outcomes, and the action needed next to protect people’s health from the climate crisis in this blog post from February 2024.

GCHA also released a press release that denounced the COP 28 summit’s failure to commit to a full phase out of fossil fuels, a critically urgent step towards protecting people’s health, and criticized the failure to commit to strong targets for adaptation to build resilient systems capable of protecting vulnerable people. Read the press release here.