Media invitation: World leaders must make headway for adaptation - there are no alternatives

A coalition of international climate organizations will come together for an event in Copenhagen on the 20 March 2024 to deliver recommendations on integrating climate and development for climate finance to world leaders, ahead of a year of intense negotiations, starting at the Copenhagen Climate Ministerial.

The year 2024 is of paramount importance for our future. We face an urgent need to handle the climate crisis, within the broader range of Sustainable Development Goals. This year's high-level meetings leading up to COP29 will focus on climate finance, aiming to address the substantial funding gaps.

To kick-start these discussions DanChurchAid, E3G, the International Institute for Environment and Development, CONCITO, NDC Partnerships, and the UN Foundation are coming together to co-host the virtual and in-person event ?Integrating Climate and Development for Adaptation Finance' in Copenhagen on the 20 March, to provide inspiration for the Copenhagen Climate Summit.

"Adaptation finance must be at the heart of the negotiations towards COP29. Adaptation to the consequences of climate change is a question of survival. We need to adapt to a new reality, where droughts, rising sea levels, and heatwaves are becoming increasingly commonplace," said Secretary General of DanChurchAid, Jonas Nøddekær.

"The countries most vulnerable to climate change have been clear about what they need to adapt to it - more money, on fairer terms and channelled to local people who are best placed to use it. Governments meeting in Copenhagen have a chance to put down a marker for stronger climate outcomes later this year and to show they're taking lower-income nations seriously," said Ebony Holland, IIED's nature-climate policy lead.

"The decisions that governments make this year will shape if, how, and how much finance is delivered over the next decade and beyond. We need to make sure that finance is adequate to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and a climate resilient future for all," said Cristina Rumbaitis del Rio, Senior Advisor, Adaptation and Resilience, UN Foundation.

"We must be striving for our climate and development goals concurrently and linking the two. For developing countries, adaptation and resilience are both a priority and a tremendous challenge. The NDC Partnership supports countries efforts to raise ambition in ways that are implementable, financeable and help foster more equitable and sustainable development, through effective coordinated support of more than 220 members," said Pablo Vieira, Global Director of the NDC Partnership.

"Globally, all stakeholders must come together behind a coherent framework for climate finance as presented by the Independent High-Level Group on Climate Finance to massively upscale funding for integrated climate and development action. Country owned climate plans (NDCs) that integrate adaptation and long-term development plans must be turned into investment plans by 2030," said Chairperson of the Board of CONCITO, Connie Hedegaard.

"The climate and development ministerials have shone a light on the reforms needed to how we do adaptation finance to shift towards more systemic resilience investments. Denmark, Samoa and their co-champions of the adaptation finance vision agreed at last year's ministerial have a chance to drive a scale up and improvement in adaptation finance over the next couple of years as countries prepare their next climate policy updates," said Alex Scott, Climate Diplomacy and Geopolitics Programme Lead at E3G

Event details and registration: The event will take place on the 20 March 2024, from 14:00-16:30, at:
DanChurchAid, Meldahlsgade 3, 1613 Copenhagen V, Denmark.

For registration for either online or in-person participation, please send an email to [email protected]

For media request please contact Mattias Söderberg, at: [email protected] or +45 29700609.