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Adaptation Plan Talks Fell Apart at COP29. What Happened?

The National Adaptation Plan assessment was caught up in a broader conflict over a new climate finance goal, delaying much-need guidance and support for countries working on their climate-proofing strategies

Author

Louie Woodall
November 21, 2024

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TL;DR

  • COP29 failed to advance the assessment of National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), postponing discussions to next year due to political disagreements and a lack of consensus on key issues

  • Developing countries face a lack of finance and support to create and implement NAPs, with adaptation efforts often fragmented and underfunded compared to mitigation

  • Contentious debates over the role of private sector finance and broader climate finance negotiations further derailed progress on adaptation at COP29

  • Delays in the NAP process may compromise the quality and timeliness of adaptation plans, affecting their usefulness to both public and private investors

COP29 ought to have marked an inflection point for climate adaptation. A much-hyped assessment of countries’ National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) was slated to wrap up at the Baku summit, one meant to troubleshoot issues and advance efforts to protect vulnerable countries from climate shocks.

Instead, last Saturday negotiators punted discussions to next year when the COP Presidency made clear it wouldn’t engage on the issue. Trouble reaching a consensus on a draft text in the negotiating room was a contributing factor.

This upset may slow already tortuous progress advancing adaptation plans. As of November 12, only 60 countries had submitted NAPs to the UNFCCC secretariat. In contrast, over 170 countries have submitted decarbonization plans (known as Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs).

“Both developing and developed countries worked constructively at COP29 on the NAP assessment,” said Jeffrey Qi, Policy Advisor, Resilience Program at the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), on X. “However, the politics of climate finance and a trust deficit have impacted adaptation negotiations.”

In an email to Climate Proof, Qi said two blocs, the Like-Minded Developing Countries and the Arab Group, “used all the tactics they could” to derail progress. It seems this was part of a concerted effort to undermine any new agreement on transitioning away from fossil fuels. Adaptation was simply caught in the crossfire.

However, there are also substantive disagreements between countries on how the NAP process should move ahead. Like everything at this “Finance COP”, they all ultimately come down to money.

“We’re looking at all this work that needs to happen to improve adaptation around the world, but there’s no clear confidence that the finance will be there. So it’s very hard to approve guidance and to approve reports, etc, and have an idea what comes next if there’s no finance,” says Ana Mulio Alvarez, a researcher with the climate change think tank E3G.

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