Above photo: Opening address by COP29 President H.E. Mukhtar Babayev. COP29.
Developing countries are pushing for of an annual $1 trillion of climate finance from developed countries.
This year’s Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) opened in Baku in Azerbaijan on Monday, November 11 amid the growing concerns of rising global temperatures and failures of the developed countries to fulfill their existing pledges to mitigate the climate crisis.
The urgency of the COP29 discussions has not been determined by moving speeches and demands, but from the reality facing countries across the globe, such as Spain, Nepal, the US, and others, struggling to respond to floods, fires, hurricanes, and drought which have exacted devastating tolls in recent months.
The vision of COP29 which will continue until November 22 is “enhancing ambitions and enabling action” with a focus on New Collective Quantified Goals (NCQG). It also seeks to set “a more ambitious, transparent, and predictable climate finance target that better addresses the needs of developing countries for mitigation, adaptation, and loss and damage.”
In the meeting there will be a review of the USD 100 billion climate finance target set by developed countries in 2009 and adopted during the 2015 Paris Agreement. It is widely acknowledged that the money promised to help the impacted countries of the Global South implement adaptation measures and cope with the losses due to devastation by climate events, has so far failed to reach the nations in need.
Despite the systematic failure to procure and distribute funds, this year the priority agenda is to secure a minimum of USD 1 trillion commitment for annual climate financing for developing countries replacing the USD 100 billion target as it is reaching the deadline next year.
The meeting will also focus on Global StockTake (GST) on targets set by the countries in the previous meetings. For example, during COP28, countries had decided to transition away from fossil fuels, double energy efficiency and triple renewables’ share in energy production.
Meanwhile, most of the developed countries continue to rely on fossil fuel as their primary source of energy, including the US which is the world’s largest producer of oil. The soon-to-be US president Donald Trump has vowed to increase oil production and exploration for new deposits of fossil fuels.
The president of the host-nation Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, pointed out how Western countries who object to developing countries’ reliance on fossil fuels continue to rely on the same for their own energy security needs. He called this hypocrisy and claimed that his country proudly thinks of oil and gas as a “gift of god” like any other energy source.
Growing Climate Concerns Over Trump’s Election Victory
On Monday, an agreement on global carbon credit quality standards was adopted by the participating nations at COP29 as per article 6 of the Paris Agreement. The agreement aims to establish a global carbon trading market under the UN. The agreement would allow countries to sell their carbon credits to other countries to fund their green development projects.
Meanwhile, the election of Donald Trump as president of the US, world’s largest emitter historically and second largest emitter of greenhouse gasses now, has cast a shadow of doubt about the future of collective climate action.
During his election campaigns, Trump has promised to remove the US from international climate cooperation and maximize fossil fuel production once elected. He had adopted a similar policy during his earlier tenure as well.
US climate envoy John Podesta, however, claimed that Trump’s election may slow down transition from fossil fuel but cannot stop it altogether and his country will continue to be a part of global climate action due to its “Inflation Reduction Act” which provides billions of dollars of subsidies to states for clean energy, Reuters reported.
Leaders of most of the big emitters such as the US, China, France, Germany and India are not attending the COP29 which has raised further concerns about its success. The countries together emit close to 70% of all greenhouse gasses today.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres while speaking on Monday reminded the world that “we are in the final countdown to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 degree Celsius” as per the goals set during the Paris Agreement and yet 2024 is set to emerge as the hottest year on record.
Guterres told the world leaders that climate financing is not charity, it’s an investment, climate action is not optional, it’s imperative.” He emphasized that, “both are indispensable to a liveable world for all humanity and a prosperous future for every nation on earth.”