2024 will be a key year for green finance, for the green transition, for advancing the UN Montreal-Kunming Agreement on Biodiversity, for strengthening multilateralism on sustainable development beginning with the G7, and for accelerating the challenge of the Sustainable Development Goals. A packed international agenda that Renewable Matter has summarized for you.

G7 Presidency

As of January 1, 2024, Italy holds the presidency of the G7, the group that brings together Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the U.S., and will serve until December 31. This will be the seventh time that Italy has assumed the presidency of the G7 since 1975. The meeting of Heads of State is expected to take place between the 13th and the 15th of June in Puglia, in the luxurious resort setting of Borgo Egnazia.
There are so many different topics on the agenda. First and foremost, the wars in Ukraine and Palestine, but also development with a major focus on Africa and the ballyhooed Mattei Plan. "The challenge is to build a win-win partnership model, far from paternalistic or predatory logics”, states the website of the Italian presidency of the forum.

Among the key issues at the leaders' summit are migration, artificial intelligence and its regulation, the link between climate and energy, and food security, flaunted by Rome already during COP28 in Dubai. For climate, the focus will be on decarbonization, the reform of climate finance, and just transition. Climate, energy, and environment ministries in Turin (April 28-29-30) and finance in Stresa (May 23-24-25) should be marked down.

10° World Water Forum

Taking an increasingly central role in adaptation and sustainable development policies, water is once again back under the spotlight with the World Water Forum (WWF), the largest global event related to the precious element, organized by the World Water Council (WWC), an international multi-stakeholder platform that brings together nearly 400 institutions, from 70 countries around the world.
The 10th World Water Forum will be held in Bali from May 18 to 24, in an effort to implement a common strategic vision of water resources and the management of water services across all members of the global community. To fully arrive prepared for the event, on February 15 and 16, close to 1,000 members of the global water community (policy-makers, activists, businesses, journalists) will meet in Jakarta to work specifically on the right to water and sanitation as policy priorities.

European Elections

Along with the US elections, the European elections (June 6-9) are those that will have the greatest impact on the environmental, climate, and industrial development policies of the decade. If the Green Deal sought by Ursula von der Leyen has been able to give a great boost to the decarbonization of the European industry and the circular transition, it is also essential to elect a Parliament that is far from populist and anti-environmentalist positions.
Campaigning has just begun: do not expect fireworks, but a distracted and approximate debate, over what is instead a vote that can define the future of the Union.

COP16 on Biodiversity

COP15 on biodiversity was concluded in Montreal in December 2022 resulting in the Global Biodiversity Framework, which contains a set of targets to reverse and halt biodiversity decline by 2030.
In Colombia, from October 21 to November 1, the Conference of the Parties is expected to define various implementation mechanisms for the Global Biodiversity Framework and allocate economic resources for the protection and restoration of natural habitats.
Expect little media attention (except for Renewable Matter, which will be attending the conference), despite the centrality of the UN process. Will Italy be able to stand out during this occasion?

COP29 on climate change

The twenty-eighth conference of the parties on climate change, COP28, ended in December 2023 in Dubai with the drawing up of the Global Stocktake and the criticized goal of fossil fuel disuse by 2050. A goal deemed too unambitious by science, yet an achievement in terms of successful multilateral processes.
At the upcoming climate COP, COP29, the various climate finance mechanisms (Adaptation Fund, Mitigation, Loss and Damage, CO2 markets mechanisms, New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance) are expected to be made operational. COP29 is supposed to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, come November. A decision contested by many as Azerbaijan is a fossil fuel exporting country, a member of OPEC+, and where there is not total freedom of expression.

COP16 - Desertification

The UNCCD is one of the three Rio Conventions-along with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The negotiation of the UNCCD was provided for in the Agenda 21, the action program adopted at the Rio Conference in 1992. The UNCCD was adopted on June 17, 1994, and is now, after 30 years, in its 16th iteration to be held from December 2 to 13 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Rio's Cinderella will need to work to accelerate programs combating desertification and drought while strengthening ecosystem restoration. A key process but one that perhaps after 30 years may be set to fade away within the biodiversity negotiating pathway that has similar goals and tools.

This article is also available in Italian / Questo articolo è disponibile anche in italiano

Image: Kiara Worth, UNFCCC COP28

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