Inclusive Green Growth Department

📣 COP29 Newsflash 📣 A lot has been happening at COP29 Azerbaijan over the past few days. Here are some highlights of the Dutch Climate Envoy (Jaime de Bourbon de Parme), our partners, and the youth representatives: 🍴 24 young climate leaders from around the world joined the Dutch Climate Envoy, the Dutch Ambassador to Azerbaijan, and several delegation members for a networking dinner. With topics ranging from climate justice to climate action and climate finance, guests had the opportunity to speak openly about the important role of young people during #COP29 and in climate action. Amongst other things, they discussed how youth can be involved in policy-making processes and be provided with the knowledge and skills to meaningfully participate. 🗨 To mark the opening of the #WaterForClimatePavilion, the Dutch Climate Envoy spoke about the importance to put water at the heart of climate action, the recent Global Commission on the Economics of Water report, the upcoming United Nations 2026 Water Conference, and the Water for Climate Pavilion at COP29. Additionally the Dutch Climate Envoy met with the newly appointed UN SG Special Envoy on Water, HE Retno Marsudi. 👩🌾 Together with CGIAR, Eastern Africa Farmers Federation (EAFF), FMO - Dutch entrepreneurial development bank, and SNV, IGG hosted an event on financing resilient futures for smallholder farmers. During the event, the Dutch Climate Envoy highlighted the importance of bringing together financiers and smallholder farmers. This is important as 80% of food in sub-Saharan Africa is produced by smallholders. However, these farmers fall behind on productivity. Therefore, it is of high importance that this group becomes more climate resilient. Stay tuned for more updates on the Dutch delegation at COP29! 

Today, the 2024 UN Climate Change Conference #COP29 kicks off in Baku, Azerbaijan where nations from all over the world gather to discuss and negotiate international climate policy. 🌏 This year, the 198 signatories from the UNFCCC UN, will further work out the three pillars from the Paris Agreement: #mitigation, #adaptation, and #finance. This year there will be a special focus on climate finance. In particular, the future of international climate finance must be decided. Another agenda topic of this years’ conference is the international Voluntary Carbon Market (Article 6 of the Paris Agreement), where the aim is to decide upon a framework for international cooperation though international carbon markets that contribute to the world wide climate goals. 🤝 The negotiations will also cover a new Gender Action Plan, the new round of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC’s), and other relevant topics, such as adaptation, food systems, agriculture, forests, and nature. Besides the negotiations, at COP29 there are numerous events related to climate where policymakers, businesses, NGOs and anyone who is interested participate and share knowledge. 💡 Stay tuned for more COP29-related updates on our page the coming two weeks! 

Netherlands Water Partnership: 25th anniversary and Water Action Agenda meeting. To mark their 25th anniversary, the NWP (Netherlands Water Partnership) hosted a celebratory event. Our IGG Director, Wampie Libon, opened the afternoon with remarks about the role that NWP plays in bringing Dutch expertise to regions in need and learning lessons from being exposed to challenges and solutions. The programme also featured break-out sessions on: 💧🌾 water & agri-food 💧🌪 water & climate adaptation 💧💰 water & finance Besides the anniversary celebrations, NWP organised a #WaterActionAgenda meeting to discuss establishing a community of practice to connect Dutch organisations and their voluntary commitments under the Water Action Agenda. After a virtual opening address by the Dutch Water Envoy, the meeting discussed expectations, implementation, and the way forward to the UN26 Water Conference and beyond! Netherlands Water Partnership is a platform which unites #DutchWaterOrganisations from both the public and private sector. The NWP aims to solve global water challenges whilst advancing the interests of the #DutchWaterSector. An example of cooperation between NWP and our ministry is the #WaterSupportProgramme which supports Dutch embassies in 11 countries to implement water programmes.

Yesterday, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)’s 2024 Global Food Policy Report was presented in the Hague, to representatives from European public, civil society, and private actors as well as knowledge institutes 🌍 With the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 29th Conference of the Parties taking place later this year, and the Nutrition for Growth Summit scheduled for March 2025, this report provides valuable evidence and insights to guide policy and investment decisions aimed at improving nutrition at national, regional, and global levels.   The hybrid event was co-hosted by Netherlands Food Partnership, and supported by the Ministries of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security, and Nature, and Foreign Affairs. Besides presentations on the highlights of the report, key challenges and opportunities for EU stakeholders were addressed during two panels focusing on transformation of food systems, and advancing nutrition and healthy diets in low- and middle-income countries. Deputy director-general international cooperation, Steven Collet, emphasized the importance of multi-stakeholder engagement, particularly private sector actors.    The permanent representative to the UN food and agriculture organizations in Rome, Marcel Beukeboom, was tasked with reflecting on the overall event and key messages from the day. He highlighted how, in our focus on economic growth, we have become disconnected from the concept of a nutritious diet and the need to reestablish that connection. He also stressed the importance of fostering citizen agency and working towards a shared language to engage both society in the Netherlands and the international development community.   Thank you for organizing this insightful event! International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Netherlands Food Partnership Ministerie van Landbouw, Visserij, Voedselzekerheid en Natuur

Congratulations to our partner International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) on their 50th anniversary! For over 10 years, IFDC has been a key partner for the Netherlands in advancing food and nutrition security in Sub-Saharan Africa. Achieving #SDG2 - Zero Hunger - has become increasingly complex, and the context in which we work is more unpredictable. Yesterday, our Deputy Director for International Cooperation, Steven Collet, and Head of the Food and Nutrition Security Department, Wilma van Esch discussed the critical importance of localization, integration, and adaptive capacity. They also highlighted that while long-term government commitment is essential, it is not something we can take for granted.

Voedselzekerheid is een van de belangrijkste uitdagingen van onze tijd. Bij RVO ondersteunen we Nederlandse ondernemers en organisaties met programma’s zoals de SDG Partnerschapsfaciliteit (SDGP), LAND-at-scale en Accelerating Resilient Food Systems in Africa (ARFSA). Deze initiatieven richten zich op het terugdringen van ondervoeding, verhogen van de productie en inkomens van kleinschalige voedselproducenten (lokaal), en duurzaam landbeheer. 🌱💧 Wil je weten hoe jij kunt bijdragen aan voedselzekerheid? Bezoek onze website voor meer informatie over subsidies, programma’s en advies van onze experts: 👉 https://lnkd.in/duDpsDi4  #Voedselzekerheid #DuurzameLandbouw #sdg2 #Subsidies

With the CBD #COP16 only finishing last weekend a new one is already in sight: UNFCCC #COP29! Focusing on the interlink between the two COP’s gives us great opportunity to strengthen the link between climate and biodiversity action and increase attention to both themes 🤝 The objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) focus on the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of the components of biological diversity and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources. While the objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change focusses on the stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere that prevents dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system in such a timely order that natural systems have time to adapt naturally to climate change, ensure that food production is not threatened, and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner. However, both the conventions focus on similar items and many interlinks can be found between the two. A statement from the joint report of IPBES and IPCC illustrates this beautifully: “Limiting global warming to ensure a habitable climate and protecting biodiversity are mutually supporting goals, and their achievement is essential for sustainably and equitably providing benefits to people.” Where the CBD COP16’s main take-aways are: that biodiversity is high on the agenda of all our partners. In the #NetherlandsPavilion at COP16 academics, civil servants, private sector, and civil society shared their experiences and lessons-learnt on innovative finance constructions, systemic landscape approaches, locally-led initiatives with indigenous people and local communities, and the nexus between biodiversity, climate, water and food systems. 🌱 UNFCCC COP29 looks ahead to discuss many subjects – all aiming at working out the Paris Agreements’ pillars of mitigation, adaptation, financing. This year will have a special focus on finance, but also negotiations on International Voluntary Carbon Markets (Article 6) and a new Gender Action Plan are on the agenda. Looking ahead, all countries will soon hand in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC’s) and we look forward to discuss the ongoing preparations during COP29. 

The last event that we want to highlight of this year’s #COP16 is on blended finance for biodiversity 🌳. This event was organized by the Dutch Fund for Climate and Development (DFCD) and SNV which highlighted the role of the private sector, philanthropy and public finance for nature-based solutions. The DFCD, which focuses on private mobilization for climate ánd biodiversity. SNV and WWF develop projects with the private sector, while applying a landscape approach and safeguarding high social and environmental standards. Public funding alone won’t be enough to adhere to the significant biodiversity needs. Blended finance can support mobilizing the much needed private finance. However, blended finance for biodiversity is a profession in itself. Therefore, sharing the lessons learned is of great value. 📢 The key take-away for this event was that if you want to transfer values into cashflows, all actors in the value chain should be confident to take risks. And not only the smallholder famers at the beginning of the value chain. An integrated approach to the landscape will help to understand the system properly and de-risk the business case.  

Heading into the last weekend of #COP16, there are still some events we want to highlight: like the event from MoMo4C on financing biodiversity locally: success and ambitions for resource mobilization. MoMo4C is a program of IUCN NL, Wereld Natuur Fonds (WWF-NL) and Tropenbos International which develops projects for nature-based solutions #NbS and climate-resilient landscapes. To boost both public and private investments in these landscapes, MoMo4C helps create enabling environments for investments and supports promising early-stage business ventures. MoMo4C works in six biodiverse landscapes in five developing countries (Cameroon, Uganda, Zambia, Indonesia and two landscapes in Ghana).  🌍 In this event a panelist asked the question: “When did a dead tree become more valuable than an alive one?” To turn this around and make the trees in a forest profitable we learned how local communities developed business cases for projects that help restore and protect biodiversity and climate resilience. #NLPavillion Partners for Water COP16 Colombia

#COP16 is almost coming to and end in Cali, Colombia. The side events at the #NLPavillion are highly appreciated among the participants in the blue zone and many many valueable lessons-learned have been shared. In the meanwhile our collegues of Ministerie van Landbouw, Visserij, Voedselzekerheid en Natuur, Ministerie van Infrastructuur en Waterstaat, and Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken are actively engaged in the many agenda items of the negotiations. Our Inclusive Green Growth Department collegue Felix Lomans makes long days in the negotiation rooms, but happily found some time to update us on what’s happening: