Global civil society sign-on letter to ministers on the NCQG
October 2024
We are halfway through the critical decade to 2030.
The aims of the Paris Agreement, including the limit of 1.5°C of global warming, hang in the balance.
Responding inadequately at this crossroads in history would mean catastrophic climate change — posing an existential threat to the lives of hundreds of millions of people worldwide, violating human rights, reversing the world’s development gains and jeopardizing entire economic systems as well as peace and security.
At the same time, many developing countries are drowning in debt. According to a recent study, across 144 developing countries worldwide, the servicing of debts is absorbing an average of 41.5% of budget revenues and 41.6% of public spending — money that cannot be spent on climate action or other sustainable development goals.
Without the necessary international financial support, adequate climate action is impossible.
As you may be aware, crucial discussions are underway under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to reach agreement by the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) this November, on the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) for climate finance for developing countries, which will replace the existing $100 billion annual goal that is due to end in 2025.
We, the undersigned organizations, therefore urge you to use your good offices, ahead of and during the COP, to insist upon an NCQG which is fit for purpose and sets, within the wider mobilization goal, a public finance provision target of at least $1 trillion per annum in grants and grant-equivalent terms.
Moreover, we call on you to ensure that the NCQG establishes a structure of thematic sub-goals for (i) mitigation, (ii) adaptation, and (iii) loss and damage. For these, meaningful funding must be allocated such that the sub-goals:
(i) target provision of public finance amounting to no less than $300 billion per year for mitigation, in grant-equivalent terms, noting various studies which indicate that the overall finance needs in developing countries for Paris-aligned mitigation, including land use as well as just energy transition requirements, are at least $1-2 trillion per year;
(ii) target provision of public finance amounting to no less than $300 billion per year for adaptation, in grant-equivalent terms, noting various studies including UNEP’s analyses, which conclude that adaptation costs in developing countries amount to $215-387 billion per year, without including equity factors and other issues;
(iii) target provision of public finance amounting to no less than $400 billion per year for loss and damage, in grant-based finance, noting various studies including Markandya and Gonzalez-Eguino (2019) which indicates developing countries face loss and damages of 2005$290–580 billion per year in 2030, estimated to equal $447-894 billion per year in 2023 USD, without including incalculable costs such as non-economic loss and damage.
As shown, these figures arguably represent modest demands in the face of larger needs estimates which are themselves conservative in various respects. Anything less than these amounts would be a gross dereliction of commitments under the Paris Agreement and of obligations to those impacted by climate change – as well as being a wholly inadequate response to the needs and priorities of developing countries, noting that a much larger cumulative climate debt in the trillions of dollars is estimated to be owed to these countries.
These sums are not unattainable. During the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, advanced economies mobilized over $14 trillion in fiscal measures. This underscores that when there is genuine political will to protect lives, recognition of an emergency, and a focus on collective action, the necessary funds can be mobilized.
According to various studies, developed countries can raise trillions per year in public finance for climate action at home and around the world — with measures toward tax justice and the redirection of public finance. This could include taxes on the ultra-rich and other progressive taxation, taxing companies in high-polluting sectors and redirecting excess profits, as well as the redirection of existing public spending and subsidies for fossil fuels and other high-emissions and harmful activities, while ensuring the most vulnerable are protected from any harmful impacts including through adequate social protection measures.
Beyond the quantitative dimensions, it is equally important to ensure the NCQG also delivers in other key aspects, notably the quality of finance. This must be done by operationalizing qualitative principles, including but not limited to access and accessibility, responsiveness to marginalized groups and stakeholders, a human rights-based approach, additionality and non-exacerbation of debt crises.
Lastly, the NCQG must commit to timeframes for cyclical revision aligned with the five-year Paris Agreement ambition cycle and its Global Stocktakes, as well as to improving transparency and accountability, especially in committing to clarify equitable effort-sharing frameworks and a common definition of climate finance.
In advocating these positions, Your Excellency can ensure that the existential emergency of the climate crisis does not receive an inadequate response at COP — but instead receives the ambition on finance which this moment in history demands.
Sign-on By:
350Africa.org (South Africa)
5 Elements Institute (Brazil)
AbibiNsroma Foundation (Ghana)
Action Solidarité Tiers Monde (ASTM) (Luxembourg)
ActionAid Denmark (Denmark)
ActionAid France (France)
ActionAid International (South Africa)
Adarsha Samajik Progoti Sangstha (Bangladesh)
ADRA Germany (Germany)
African Coalition on Green Growth (Uganda)
Alianza para la Acción Climática Venezuela (Venezuela)
Amnesty International (United Kingdom)
Austrian Alliance for Climate Justice (Austria)
Bank Climate Advocates (United States of America)
Barranquilla+20 Foundation (Colombia)
Besteforeldrenes klimaaksjon/Grandparents Climate Campaign Norway (Norway)
Biba Transformations LBG (Ghana)
CAN International (International)
CAN-Japan (Japan)
Care About Climate (United States of America)
CARE International (Global)
CASM (Honduras)
Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) (United States of America & Switzerland)
Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology (Philippines)
Centre de développement de la région de Tensift (Morocco)
Centre for Church-based development (Denmark)
Centre for Climatology and Applied Research (Botswana)
Christian Aid (United Kingdom)
Christian Aid Ireland (Ireland)
CIDSE (Belgium)
Climate Action for Lifelong Learners (Canada)
Climate Action Network (CAN) Africa (Tanzania)
Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe (Belgium)
Climate Action Network (CAN) Zambia (Zambia)
Climate Action Network Arab World (Middle East and North Africa region)
Climate Action Network Australia (Australia)
Climate Action Network Canada – Réseau action climat Canada (Canada)
Climate Action Network Latin America (CANLA). (Latin America and the Caribbean)
Climate Action Network Southeast Asia (Malaysia)
Climate Action Network United Kingdom (United Kingdom)
Climate Action Network Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe)
Climate Action Network South Asia (India)
Climate Observatory / Observatório do Clima (Brazil)
Co-ordination Office of the Austrian Bishop’s Conference for International Development and Mission (KOO) (Austria)
Centre National de Coopération au Développement – CNCD-11.11.11 (Belgium)
Coalition Civile pour la Montagne-Maroc (Morocco)
Community Action for Healing Poverty Organization (Afghanistan)
Concern Worldwide (Ireland)
Connected Advocacy (Nigeria)
Danish Family Planning Association (Denmark)
Debt Justice United Kingdom (United Kingdom)
Dibeen For Environmental Development (Jordan)
DULCET-ASSOCIATION (Cameroon)
EcoEquity (United States of America)
Ecologistas en Acción (Spain)
Ecosteward and Humanitarian Foundation (EHF) (Nigeria)
Emmaus International (Zimbabwe)
Environmental Defence Canada (Canada)
Environmental Protection Society Malaysia (Malaysia)
Fair Trade Advocacy Office (FTAO) (Belgium)
Fältbiologerna (Sweden)
Fastenaktion Switzerland (Switzerland)
Fiji Youth SRHR Alliance (Fiji)
Finnish Development NGOs – Fingo (Finland)
Focsiv italian federation christian organisations international voluntary service (Italy)
Framtiden i våre hender (Norway)
Fundación Pachamama (Ecuador)
GCEC Cameroon (Cameroon)
Genç Düşünce Enstitüsü (Turkey)
GFLAC (Mexico)
GLOBAL 2000 (Austria)
Global Focus (Denmark)
Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity (United States of America)
Global Network of Civil Society Organisation for Disaster Reduction (United Kingdom)
Global Responsibility (Austria)
Grandmothers Advocacy Network (Canada)
Green Liberty (Latvia)
Greenpeace (Netherlands)
Hawai’i Institute for Human Rights (Hawai’i)
Hawkmoth (Netherlands)
Heinrich Böll Foundation Washington, DC (United States of America)
Household Disaster Resilience Project – The Gambia (HELP-Gambia) (Gambia)
IMAL Initiative for Climate and Development (Morocco)
Indian Network on Ethics and Climate Change (INECC) (India)
JVE (Togo)
Klima-Allianz Deutschland (Germany)
Klimadelegation e.V. (Germany)
Leave it in the Ground Initiative (LINGO) (Germany)
LEGAMBIENTE (Italy)
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns (United States of America)
MenaFem Movement for Economic, Development And Ecological Justice (Morocco)
Mercy Corps (United States of America)
Mesa Afrodescendiente de Justicia Climática en Centroamérica y el Caribe -AfroClimaCC- (Central America and the Caribbean)
Mission East (Denmark)
Naturfreunde Internationale (Austria)
Nepal Water Conservation Foundation (Nepal)
NRCP (Egypt)
Odeibea Foundation
Oil Change International (Ghana)
Oil Change International (International)
ONG FIMA (Chile)
Organic Denmark (Denmark)
Oxfam Denmark (Denmark)
Oxfam International (Kenya)
Peace Movement Aotearoa (New Zealand)
PICAN (Pacific Islands Climate Action Network) (Vanuatu)
Plataforma CIPÓ (Brazil)
Power Shift Africa (Kenya)
PUSH Sverige (Sweden)
Recourse (Netherlands)
Réseau Action Climat France (France)
Resilience, Environment and Humanitarian Aid (REHA) Organization (Afghanistan)
Rural women assembly (Gambia)
Save the Orangutan (Denmark)
Shifting the Power Coalition (Fiji)
Social Economic Development Society (SEDS) (Bangladesh)
Southern Africa Climate Change Coalition (Botswana)
Southern Africa Climate Smart Agriculture Alliance (South Africa)
Southern Africa Region Climate Action Network (SARCAN) ARCAN (Zambia)
Stand.earth (Canada & United States of America)
Südwind, Austria (Austria)
Sustainable Strategic Solutions (Mexico)
Tapp Coalition (Netherlands)
The Danish 92 Group (Denmark)
The Environment and Conservation Organisation of New Zealand (New Zealand)
The Moroccan Alliance for Climate Change and Sustainable Development (AMCDD) (Morocco)
Trócaire (Ireland)
TuCAN (Tuvalu)
Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development / East African Sustainability Watch Network (Uganda)
Union of Concerned Scientists (United States of America)
US CLIMATE ACTION NETWORK (United States of America)
WaterAid (United Kingdom)
We, The World Botswana Chapter (Botswana)
Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (United States of America)
Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) (United States of America)
World Animal Protection United Kingdom (United Kingdom)
WWF International (Switzerland)
Xhuma Africa organization (Cameroon)
Young Power in Social Action (YPSA) (Bangladesh)
Youth Ambassador Democracy (Nigeria)
YPARD:Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (Germany)
Zimbabwe Climate Change Coalition (Zimbabwe)
––
Download file: http://Global-civil-society-sign-on-letter-to-ministers-on-the-NCQG-2.pdf