Dubbed the “Finance COP” – COP 29 opens with a call to unite, act, and deliver – on a new global climate finance goal.
By Marco Lopez
On Monday, November 11, 2024, the 29th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) officially commenced in Baku, Azerbaijan, with the handing over of the COP presidency.
Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, president of COP28 and UAE’s special envoy for climate change called parties to unite, act, and deliver on climate action as he welcomed Mukhtar Babayev, incoming president of COP29, to assume the role as head of the conference of parties for the next year.
“The critical success factor for all climate progress is finance, we continue to call on all sources, public and private, to make finance more available, more accessible, and more affordable,” Sultan Al Jaber commented.
Addressing the outcome of COP28’s UAE Consensus, which for the first time advocates for ‘transitioning away from fossil fuels,’ proved challenging as this year’s Conference of the Parties began.
Diplomats agreed on the COP29 agenda in backroom discussions, averting a delayed start to this year’s climate summit.
While headwinds are a typical part of the COP process, parties are called to once more use this opportunity to drive ambitious new goals – particularly geared toward providing increased climate funding to the world’s poorest nations.
“At this COP, parties are expected to deliver New Collective Quantified Goals capable of fully implementing the UAE consensus,” Al Jaber said.
Meanwhile, Iincoming president, Babayev, said the action agenda of Azerbaijan’s presidency will focus on two pillars – “enhanced ambition”, and “enabling action.”
“This means setting out clear climate plans and delivering the finance we need. These two pillars are equally reinforcing, each sending a strong signal to the other, because as we mobilize climate finance, we allow for high ambition, and as we signal together higher ambition, we build trust to unlock greater financial commitments,” President Babayev remarked.
Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC described the climate finance goal as being in the self-interest of all nations, including the “largest and wealthiest.”
“That’s why we are here in Baku, we must agree on a new global climate finance goal. If at least two-thirds of the world’s nations cannot afford to cut emissions quickly, then every nation pays a brutal price,” Stiell lamented.
COP29 president, Babayev echoed this sentiment. “No single country or initiative can solve this crisis. This is everyone’s conference, success or failure will be collective,” Babayev opined. “This goal is not a burden, “it is an opportunity,” he added.
For Stiell, a shift in how the idea of climate finance is perceived is key. “Let’s dispense with any idea that climate finance is charity,” he expressed during his opening remarks.
A major goal for COP29 is getting the international carbon markets up and running. This means the finalization of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement – a goal that has eluded negotiations for years.
Babayev bemoaned that the finalization of Article 6 is long overdue and essential.
“Article 6 is long overdue and will help ensure the protection of the planet. By matching buyers and sellers efficiently such a market could reduce the cost of implementing NDC by 250 billion dollars a year,” Babayev hypothesized.
He called on nations to turn existing pledges into contributions and add greater amounts to all climate funds saying , “This is essential to support the communities most affected including the SIDS and LDCs.”
COP President Babayev also believes that within the COP29 agenda, there are opportunities for governments, the private sector, multilateral development banks, and everyone else to play their part. “Everyone is watching, and they are waiting – Africa is waiting, Asia is waiting, Europe is waiting, the Pacific is waiting, North America is waiting, South America is waiting, the Caribbean is waiting – they are waiting for us to show leadership, and they cannot afford the cost of delay,” Babayev asserted.
Coincidentally, as COP 29 was starting, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced in a new report that 2024 is once again on track to be the warmest year on record.
For small islands within the Caribbean and members of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), any more delays will drive us closer to the brink of climate fallout as unfettered warming continues to push the 1.5 to Stay Alive goal further out of reach.
