COP29 and the Road to COP30: A Q&A with Katarina Kahlmann on the Climate Movement
As the COP29 climate conference wraps up in Azerbaijan, one of TechnoServe’s leaders on regenerative business shares her thoughts on the meeting's value, the progress made this year, and the work to be done over the next 12 months.
Nearly 70,000 delegates from around the world gathered in Baku, Azerbaijan, for the United Nations Climate Change Conference–COP29. While government negotiators debated climate funding commitments and implementation of the Paris Agreement, leaders from the private sector, public sector, and civil society met to discuss partnerships and initiatives to support climate mitigation and adaptation.
One of those leaders was Katarina Kahlmann, TechnoServe’s chief program officer and a champion of the Regenerate 30 strategy. In this interview, she shares her reflections on COP29 and hopes for next year’s COP30.
The interview has been condensed and adapted.
Q: Why is the climate COP important to an organization like TechnoServe?
Katarina: Ultimately, COP matters to TechnoServe because COP matters to the clients we serve: the smallholder farmers and small-scale businesses are among the billions of people who are most vulnerable to climate change.
Look, there are so many reasons not to go to COPs. First of all, it’s completely bizarre that we all fly around the world to discuss how to reduce emissions. Then, in the case of COP29, it was hosted by Azerbaijan–a petro state with a huge interest in oil and gas. Thirdly, I’d say at TechnoServe, we really pride ourselves on being doers. We focus on the action. At COP, there’s a lot of talk.
But still, we’re there. So why have we made that decision?
I’d say, ultimately, it is because of our clients: the small-scale farmers and the small-scale entrepreneurs. They are among the most vulnerable, and decisions that are made at COP really impact their lives. There are plenty of oil and gas lobbyists promoting those [industries’] interests. We’re there to promote the interests of these farmers and entrepreneurs…
Last year at COP28 in Dubai, we agreed with Acorn, a carbon finance company, to set up a carbon credit initiative in Latin America. And now that is happening. So, already, Latin American coffee farmers have the opportunity to plant shade trees and get carbon credit that boosts their livelihoods from improving the climate for all of us. Action can happen at COP, for all its faults.
Q: Was COP29 a success?
Katarina: I think the key message that stuck with me is that it’s not game over; it’s game on. My big takeaway from the last few days is that business is really leaning in, and there’s real commitment to move forward on climate action, which is great.
In terms of tangible progress, that’s a bit more of a mixed bag…The Loss and Damage Fund that’s been one of the main successes in previous COPs–it’s basically a fund to help the most vulnerable countries manage the impacts of climate change–is now being put into practice, and, probably, payments will be made in 2025. So that’s progress made in COP29.
Another really positive progression, I hope, is the carbon markets. Carbon market standards are greatly needed to really build the trust in carbon markets. And it’s been on the to-do list of these COPs since the Paris Agreement in 2015. And that is now happening, which will boost carbon markets and hopefully benefit carbon initiatives in the Global South.
[NB: After this interview took place, negotiators agreed on a New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance. However, significant divisions remain, with many nations in the Global South calling the $300 billion deal insufficient, given the immense scale and severity of the climate crisis].
There’s still unfinished business. We know that the national adaptation plans will not be set for now. That’s been pushed to next year already…
There are a lot of side-event discussions on private capital, which is absolutely needed for the [regenerative] transition because public capital just cannot afford to finance this on their own. But these discussions very rarely focus on the returns. And if you speak with a private investor, all of them care a lot about the expected return. So, I’d love to see more of that in future discussions.
Q: There’s already a lot of buzz about the next UN climate conference in Brazil, COP30, which is happening around this time next year. Why is COP30 such an exciting opportunity?
Katarina: I’d say, first of all, it’s around the where: It’s going to be very refreshing to go to a country that is progressive in terms of climate action. Maybe it will be in the heart of the Amazon: there’s a lot of debate about where to host this in Belem, in the Amazon… but more and more voices now call to move it to São Paulo or to Rio de Janeiro to avoid cutting down rainforest to build hotels, which would be welcome.
Then, another reason why it’s a huge deal is the what. Everybody might not know that these COP conversations tend to be siloed, and there are actually three COPs: you have the climate COP, the biodiversity COP, and the desertification COP. All of these aspects are so tightly interlinked.
In COP 30 in Brazil, they will happen in conjunction. So all these topics will be on the agenda.
And then lastly, to go a little bit technical, the Nationally Determined Contributions–that’s a really clunky UN-lingo way of saying that basically the country plans and targets for how to cut their emissions by 2035–are due in 2025.
Q: And for COP30 to be a success, what does everyone need to do before November 2025?
Katarina: First of all, at TechnoServe, we think it’s really important to elevate the voices of small-scale farmers and small-scale entrepreneurs. And we’re working hard at that. I do believe that the organizers of COP can also help there. We do want to see more of these farmers and entrepreneurs actually physically at COP…
And then, more broadly, there’s a call now for reform of COP at large. COP has achieved a lot of great things in the past 29 years. It would be great to see a new kind of COP or reform to be more catalytic and drive more impact, faster, which the world really needs…It would be great to see more accountability around targets. Just like a business operates in terms of checking in on where we stand and who has done their job or not, that would be really important to see.
And then also–and this I think is my big favorite–to really acknowledge the link between poverty, equality, and planetary boundaries and climate. Because they’re so incredibly interlinked.
You can listen to the full interview below
