IISD's Best of 2024: Articles

1. Climate Negotiations Glossary

Do you know your ABUs from your WEOGs? Our Earth Negotiations Bulletin team is on hand with a timely climate negotiations glossary compiling clear, concise definitions of the key terms and acronyms used in UNFCCC talks and beyond.

2. UNFCCC Submissions Tracker

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the mechanism through which countries coordinate the global response to climate change. It is also the process that led to the adoption of the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit the global average temperature rise to well below 2°C and preferably 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. The UNFCCC Submissions Tracker is our effort to raise awareness about input opportunities. 

3. What Is the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience, and How Can Countries Move It Forward?

With the introduction of the new framework for the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), COP 28 marked a milestone for adaptation. Emilie Beauchamp unpacks key outputs and set out how countries can move forward by strengthening their national monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) systems.

4. Why Liquefied Natural Gas Expansion in Canada Is Not Worth the Risk

Canada produces more natural gas than is necessary for domestic demand, with over 40% of production exported between January 2020 and July 2023. Our experts explain why new liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities will undermine Canada’s domestic and international climate commitments through increased upstream and midstream emissions and—more critically—by diverting scarce financial and clean energy resources toward fossil fuel production and away from more cost-efficient decarbonization efforts. 

5. The Critical Next Step: What you need to know about Canada’s 2030 climate target

At the close of 2023, Environment and Climate Change Canada released the first official Progress Report on its 2022 Emissions Reduction Plan. Our expert Steven Haig defines Canada's climate targets, explains why they're critical for keeping global temperature rise to 1.5°C, and maps out what more can be done to meet them.

6. How Fossil Fuels Drive Inflation and Make Life Less Affordable for Canadians

Price spikes for oil and gas are nothing new, but as climate change worsens, risks to fossil fuel assets and supply chains increase. As global demand for fossil fuels declines, market responses, geopolitics, and possible imbalances in supply and demand could all potentially increase oil and gas price volatility. Jessica Kelly explains that transitioning energy systems away from fossil fuels can not only insulate against volatile fossil fuel prices and energy-driven inflation, but also reduce energy use and overall emissions.

7. COP 16 in Cali Delivers Key Outcomes for Nature but Questions Remain on Funding

Delegates departed from the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP 16) after two weeks of negotiations in Cali, Colombia. The talks, which comprised the biggest biodiversity COP to date, focused in large part on how to implement and finance the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), adopted two years ago, as well as how to measure progress. Alec Crawford unpacks the wins and marks out areas for concern.

8. COP 16 Will Hinge on Who Benefits from Nature’s DNA

Ahead of the UN Biodiversity Conference in Cali, IISD’s Earth Negotiations Bulletin Team Lead Dr. Elsa Tsioumani breaks down key issues driving the negotiations of the Convention on Biological Diversity. A pillar of the talks is benefit-sharing from digital sequence information (DSI) on genetic resources—in other words, determining who profits from the digitization of the world’s genetic diversity and how much is given back to its stewards.

9. What Will Happen at COP 29?

Talks at the 2024 UN Climate Change Conference (COP 29) were expected to range from defining a way forward on finance through a new collective quantified goal (NCQG) to mitigation, and loss and damage. Ahead of negotiations in Baku, IISD’s Earth Negotiations Bulletin Team Lead Jennifer Bansard examined the agenda and broke down what to watch as eyes turned to Azerbaijan.

10. COP 29 Outcome Moves Needle on Finance

COP 29 concluded with a set of decisions including a widely anticipated agreement on climate finance. In the last hours of negotiations, concerted pressure from the most vulnerable developing countries resulted in an improved outcome on the finance target, with a decision to set a goal of at least USD 300 billion per year by 2035 for developing countries to advance their climate action. Nevertheless there was considerable and justified disappointment on the part of developing countries given the gap that remains with their identified financing needs for climate adaptation and mitigation. Our experts dive into the detail.