COP29: outcomes, achievements, and costs

Aims and achievements

Aims

Scottish Government had five key aims going into COP29 and achieved against each. The objectives were:

1. Driving greater action on international climate justice and finance.

2. Strengthening devolved, state and regional governments’ (DSRG) international climate influence and action.
3. Showcasing Scotland’s Net Zero journey, just transition and pathways to resilience.
4. Enhance our influence as a good global citizen to advance international relations.
5. Finally, across all of these aims, the Scottish Government was committed to continuing to play a bridging role, ensuring the voices of women, young people and the Global South influence debate and action at COP29.

Achievements

• The Cabinet Secretary’s meetings focused on the Newly Climate Quantified Goal (NCQG) on finance, which was negotiated at COP29. She heard from Global South organisations and discussed barriers to accessing loss and damage payments and land ownership issues. This informed her meetings with others, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), where she called for a subgoal on loss and damage within the NCQG. She hosted events focused on Scotland’s loss and damage programmes, emphasising the need for funds to be grants not loans, mobilised urgently and have a specific focus on communities.
• To promote Scotland’s roles as President of Regions4 and co-chair of the Under2 Coalition, the Cabinet Secretary hosted an event with governments financing domestic climate action and chaired a meeting with Regions4 Vice Presidents to hear their visions for the network. She also participated in a panel at the Under2 Coalition’s General Assembly on how to raise climate finance and in a US event on states, regions and devolved governments ambitions. 
• The Cabinet Secretary used her meetings and engagements to emphasise Scotland’s progress on renewables, reducing emissions, building resilience and protecting biodiversity. She met with partners to discuss the just transition from fossil fuels, emphasising the importance of building a skilled and experienced workforce. In addition, she spoke at an event focused on the need for financing to accelerate mitigation, emphasising the success of Scotland’s Peatland and Woodland Carbon Code.
• The Cabinet Secretary strengthened international relationships through meetings with the governments of Barbados, Azerbaijan and Malawi, discussing closer partnerships on renewable energy and disaster relief.
• The Cabinet Secretary also met with youth activists and civil society partners from the global south to hear first-hand how they were being impacted; and used events to platform their voices.