THE 29th United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP29) on climate change has officially started. Over the next two weeks, around 50,000 delegates will gather in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, to negotiate a new deal to keep global warming below 1.5°C above the pre-industrial temperature, set in 2015 in the Paris Agreement.
The president of COP28, held last year in Dubai, Sultan Al Jaber, was responsible for launching the a session marked by “a moment of complexity and conflict”. The United Arab Emirates highlighted the “record implementation of renewable energy” the world is experiencing. Despite, of course, their own interests in fossil fuels.
And, as already explained in ENCLAVE SDG, Al Jaber is the Gulf country’s Minister of Industry and chairman of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), one of the world’s largest oil producers. Despite everything, the president of COP28, who sees commercial “opportunities” in the field of clean energysends a clear message to those responsible for the Baku summit: “Let’s rely on solidarity to achieve a greener planet”.
Reuters
Dubai (UAE)
Mukhtar Babaev, The president of COP29 assured that this climate summit was “the moment of truth for the Paris Agreement”. The Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan also recalled that “we are on the path to ruin”, referring to the DANA floods in Spain or the fires in Australia.
The highest representative of this climate summit insisted that “current policies are leading us directly to global warming of 3°C”. For this reason, he said, his mandate is to reach an agreement that avoids this reality.
“We need much more from you,” he told delegates gathered in Azerbaijan. And he put on the table the need for effective climate finance and “greater ambitions”. It is precisely for this reason that Babayev set himself an ambitious goal: achieve a new global target on climate finance.
COP Keywords
COP29. 29th United Nations Conference of the Parties on Climate Change. It is celebrated in Azerbaijan, a petrostate which still depends 90% on gas and oil. This summit aims to agree on financing for mitigation and adaptation to climate change.
NCQG. New global climate finance target. This is one of the key aspects of this climate summit – and one of the main obstacles of previous ones. It refers to a fundamental requirement of the Paris Agreement: that the most developed countries contribute to financing the adaptation to the climate emergency of the most vulnerable states.
One hundred billion dollars. This is the most important figure for the UNFCCC and the objective of the climate summits is to keep the promise made in Copenhagen in 2009: that the richest countries invest one hundred billion dollars each year in mitigation and adaptation of less developed countries.
Loss and damage. The two concepts most heard at the last COPs. They refer to the most extreme and bloody impact of climate change that no form of adaptation can save. The countries most vulnerable to the ecological crisis are, in turn, those which suffer the most loss and damage.
The climate summits are seeking to create a loss and damage fund that is part of the funding target, but has its own delivery system. And it is precisely on this last point that, once again, we will attempt to negotiate.
Key negotiation
Financing is one of the priorities of the climate negotiations. We can even say that it is the main point on the agenda of this COP29.. In these moments, we can say that there is a real precipice between the amount of money all countries need to mitigate and adapt to climate change and what is on the table.
Vulnerable countries are, as always, the most affected. One of the main topics of discussion during this climate summit in Baku will therefore be financing.
Developing countries need, according to a report from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), at least $1 billion per day to address today’s extreme weather impacts. And so far, the Earth has only warmed 1.3°C compared to pre-industrial temperatures.
However, warns the UN, these countries only receive 75 million dollars per day. The most worrying thing is that, despite the increase in adaptation funds – they went from 22 billion in 2021 to 28 billion in 2022 -, the impacts of the climate emergency are greater and more frequent.
As UN Secretary-General António Guterres explains, “Climate catastrophe is the new reality and we are not up to the task. The climate crisis is already here. We cannot postpone protection, we must adapt NOW”.
News in update
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