COP 29 | GAIA No Burn

Climate finance for the waste sector is insufficient and the little there is, goes into the wrong pockets, invested in polluting technologies that are only profitable for the few. It needs to increase, shift, and be accessible to existing successful community-led projects that lead to the greatest economic, social, and environmental impacts.

As governments update their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), it is critical to integrate the waste sector and prioritize waste methane solutions aligned with environmental justice principles, ensuring a just transition for impacted communities.

A community-centered climate finance and waste picker integration ensures no one is left behind. At COP29, we call on policy makers and policy stakeholders, various financiers, such as MDBs, IFIs, development aid organizations, and philanthropic funders to:

Commit to substantial, transparent, and quality funding for urgent climate action in the Global South under the new NCQG
Increase and shift climate finance in the waste sector from harmful to impactful, supporting upstream solutions, with justice and equity at its core
Integrate the waste sector in NDCs 3.0, driving support for waste methane solutions and ensuring a just transition for impacted communities
Recognize municipal solid waste management as an essential public service and fund it accordingly, scaling-up and replicating successful community-led zero waste initiatives
Support a just transition in food systems to prevent food loss and waste.

GAIA@COP29 delegation are climate experts and zero waste implementors whose experiences weave an inspiring story of climate action through methane emissions reduction in the waste sector, centered on environmental justice. Get to know us!

Learn from GAIA experts from around the globe how zero waste systems, policies, and practices could cut total methane emissions from the waste sector by 84% while ensuring a just transition for impacted communities. See you at COP29!

GAIA@COP29 DELEGATION

GAIA@COP29 EVENT POSTERS

GAIA@COP29 EVENTS

JOIN THE CITIES METHANE PLEDGE

Cities around the globe can take action to significantly reduce waste methane emissions and keep global warming within 1.5°C by committing to recover 70% of organic waste by 2030. Zero waste strategies, like source-separation and organic waste recovery can reduce solid waste methane emissions by up to 95%, while promoting green jobs for the community, supporting local farmers, and empowering waste pickers and waste workers, and ensuring a just and sustainable transition for them. We invite city officials to join the movement to build resilient communities and make a lasting impact. Know more about the Cities Methane Pledge.

SIGN THE CITIES METHANE PLEDGE

GAIA@COP29 LATEST PUBLICATIONS

POLICY BRIEF: CLIMATE FINANCE

(EN) CLIMATE FINANCE: FROM HARMFUL TO HELPFUL: Driving transformative action on waste methane and environmental justice
(ES) FINANCIAMIENTO CLIMÁTICO: DE PERJUDICIAL A IMPACTANTE: actuar con rapidez contra el metano y por la justicia ambiental

GAIA’s NDC Checklist

CUTTING METHANE EMISSIONS THROUGH ZERO FOOD WASTE SYSTEMS

Executive Summary: Fundación Basura

Case Study: Fundación Basura (Chile)

Case Study: Gita Pertiwi (Indonesia)

GAIA@COP29: REGIONAL LENS

AFRICA

Africa faces a serious threat from Waste-to-Energy (WTE) incineration projects marketed as quick solutions to waste management and energy shortages. However, Africa’s waste is predominantly wet organic material, making incineration ineffective and unlikely to meet energy targets. This approach could also make Africa a dumping ground for foreign waste. Lagos’s proposed WTE incinerator, opposed by 146 Public Interest Organizations and 251 Environmental Justice Advocates from 64 countries, exemplifies this issue and contradicts the city’s sustainability goals. Instead of WTE, African cities should prioritize zero-waste strategies like reduction, recycling, composting, and reuse, as seen in Dar es Salaam, where 85% of collected waste is composted, recycled, and reused, and in Durban, where a pilot project has diverted over 72 tonnes of organic waste from landfills.

ASIA PACIFIC

Highlighting Solutions in Asia – At COP29, GAIA Asia Pacific will highlight Asia’s leadership in climate solutions through zero waste initiatives. This includes India and Indonesia’s organic waste management, South Korea’s waste segregation, and the Philippines’ Zero Waste Cities Network promoting community-driven practices. We must prioritize shifting financial resources from harmful waste interventions to these existing solutions. Additionally, new research will address waste management challenges in Bangladesh and anti-incineration efforts in Indonesia, emphasizing the urgent need for sustainable practices to reduce methane emissions from the waste sector.

LATIN AMERICA & THE CARRIBEAN

Civil society organizations in Latin America have been able to develop and make visible a wide range of climate solutions in the waste sector within the framework of environmental justice. These initiatives are happening despite challenging realities: insufficient municipal budgets, a growing trend of cross-border waste trade, or where the threat of waste incineration initiatives is strong (Costa Rica, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Ecuador). A different future is possible thanks to the role of grassroots waste pickers, communities, and agroecological producers in pushing for zero waste systems to return the organic fraction to the soil, and avoid food losses and waste. Read our latest blog.

Check out the GAIA LAC #COP29 Week 1 recap.

US & CANADA

Highlighting Zero Waste Solutions and Tackling Methane Emissions – At COP29, GAIA US/CAN will spotlight the various community-led zero waste initiatives transforming policies across the region. This includes cities like Baltimore, Detroit, and Minneapolis that have fought against false solutions, like incineration, for decades in favor of zero waste. In addition, GAIA US/CAN is working to leverage the recent prioritization of reducing methane emissions by the U.S. Federal Government to discuss, support, and enhance the financial incentives and regulatory strategies required to divert organic waste from landfills and incinerators and curb methane emissions.

ZERO WASTE EUROPE

Tackling Methane Emissions – methane emissions from landfills are a growing threat to our climate, and urgent action is needed. At COP29, ZWE will discuss the financial incentives and regulatory strategies required to divert organic waste from landfills and curb methane emissions. We’ll participate in key forums to share our insights on various financial mechanisms, including the potential inclusion of landfills in the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) along with incinerators, thus ensuring methane emissions are effectively penalized.

Closing blog: Amist chaos and despair, waste and methane stay strong in the climate agenda

467999728_949287950561614_3806146115124576911_n | GAIA

The appetite for waste methane solutions proved to be strong, yet providing finance and delivering its implementation in alignment with Environmental Justice Principles remains a critical homework for 2025. GAIA Climate Program Director Mariel Vilella reflects on the recently concluded #COP29. Read more.

GAIA@COP29 NEWS & UPDATES

MEDIA ADVISORIES

(November 15, 2024) Waste Not the Global Methane Pledge
(November 19, 2024) COP29 Presidency Declaration on Reducing Methane from Organic Waste: Boon or Bane?

NEWS RELEASES

PRESS CONFERENCES

(November 15, 2024) Waste Not the Global Methane Pledge – A press conference on how community-centered zero waste systems, policies, and practices contribute to fast action on methane reduction in the waste sector while ensuring just transition and integration of waste pickers and other impacted communities; and know why they need to be in this conversation. Speakers: Ana Rocha, Global Plastics Director and Executive Director, GAIA and Nipe Fagio, Dr Leslie Adogame, Executive Director, SRADev, Nigeria, Soledad Mella, President, ANARCH, and Benedict Jasper Simon Lagman, President, Zero Waste Cities Network PH
(November 16, 2024) #BuyMoreTime – Landfills and Waste – Landfills emit large amounts of methane when organic waste such as food scraps, wood, cardboard paper and garden waste decompose in the absence of oxygen. An expert discussion on how to drastically reduce methane emissions from landfills and waste sites around the world. Speakers: Mariel Vilella, Global Climate Program Director, GAIA, Berliana Yusuf, Senior Analyst, Climate Policy Initiative, Charlotte Morton OBE, CEO, World Biogas Association, and Peter Dery, Director, Enviroment, Ministry of Enviroment, Ghana.
(November 19, 2024) COP29 Presidency Declaration on Reducing Methane from Organic Waste: Boon or Bane? – A press conference on civil society and frontline communities response to the Declaration, sharing of a set of environmental justice criteria to ensure waste methane reduction delivers truly transformative action, and call for a higher ambition on reducing waste methane. Speakers: Yobel Putra, Global Climate Policy Officer, GAIA, Mariela Pino, Waste Methane Climate Campaigner, GAIA Latin America and the Caribbean, Jayakumar C., Executive Director, Thanal, Dr. Shahriar Hossain, Founder, ESDO, and Desmond Alugnoa, Zero Waste and Climate Program Manager, GAIA Africa. Moderated by Yogi Tujuliarto, CNN Indonesia News Correspondent.

CLIMATE NEWSROOMS