Huda Said‏‏

The world is watching the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29), currently underway in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 11 to 12 November 2024. The conference is a crucial platform for setting a new path toward a sustainable future at a time when the climate challenges the world faces are intensifying. With new warnings that 2024 is the hottest year on record, reaching an agreement on climate finance while also taking radical action to implement the climate commitments made at COP28 is a necessity. The conference is expected to see intensive discussions of innovative solutions to address climate change, means of financing, and how funds can reach impacted countries. Key IssuesThe Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) was launched in the Azerbaijani capital Baku under the slogan: "In Solidarity for a Green World." Around 200 countries are participating in the conference, chaired by Azerbaijan’s Mukhtar Babayev, to discuss how to save the provisions of the Paris Agreement to reduce global warming to 2 degrees Celsius and continue efforts to contain it to 1.5 degrees. At the start of the conference, the United Nations (UN) warned of the grave risks threatening the Paris Agreement in light of the international community failing to achieve its goals—especially the commitment to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. Overall, the conference addresses a number of key files:1- Measuring progress towards addressing climate change: COP29 aims to measure the progress countries are making towards addressing climate change, relative to the 1.5 degrees Celsius target. A temperature rise of 1.5 degrees would harm livelihoods, cost lives, and significantly impact low-income countries. Countries are currently on track for between 2.6 and 3.1 degrees this century.Accordingly, the basic goal among the COP29 priorities is to secure a new climate finance target and ensure that each country has the means needed to take stronger climate action, while reinforcing commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and building resilient societies. Attention will also focus on the next round of national climate plans, or intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs), that countries are developing ahead of next year’s deadline. These plans focus on transitioning away from fossil fuels and keeping the world on track for 1.5 degrees of warming. 2- Expanding the scope of climate finance: Climate finance is among the most important topics on the table. The current session has been dubbed the "COP finance conference" for its focus on expanding the scope of climate finance needed to help low-income countries transition to carbon-free economies and help the most impacted communities adapt to the effects of climate change. The conference is focusing on the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), a new annual climate financing target that begins when the current $100 billion pledge expires. Rich countries have not consistently met this pledge since 2020, eroding confidence among the most affected countries. 3- Setting timelines and a clear mechanism for fundraising: In addition to setting a financial target, COP29 negotiators will also have to agree on clear time frames for providing funds to low-income countries. These funds should be provided as grants, not loans, to avoid exacerbating existing debt crises. This has prompted developed countries to seek financing solutions that include reforming international lending institutions and stimulating private sector investment while continuing the debate over the size of developing countries’ contributions.While the UN estimates that developing countries need trillions of dollars annually to combat climate change, some officials seek to achieve the goal of raising hundreds of billions of dollars, demonstrating the size of the funding gap between reality and what is needed. This file may also include some secondary objectives to discuss how to access increased funding, and ways to spend those funds. Amnesty International is calling for the target to include funding to compensate for loss and damages: compensation paid by high-income countries to low-income countries to help them recover from the current impacts of climate change and others they will face in the future. 4- Setting standards to regulate carbon credit trading: The conference aims to set regulations for the trading of carbon credits earned from the conservation of forests and natural resources, in order to apply them transparently and ensure the environmental safety of these projects, set criteria for evaluating them, and determine when to cancel them. This requires tripling the renewable energy capacity over the coming decade to move away from fossil fuels, which will require huge funding to ensure climate resilience, especially for developing societies. 5- Mitigating and adapting to climate changes: The current round of the conference seeks to set clear goals to help countries cope with the challenges of rising temperatures and drying agricultural land. Last year, states committed to a framework criteria for helping their citizens adapt to climate change, but this framework lacks measurable goals. Developing countries, which suffer damage and disasters caused by climate change, are calling for an increase in contributions to the loss and damage fund. The fund has so far raised about $660 million to support those impacted by disasters such as floods and drought. Infrastructure, including telecommunications networks, housing, and rural areas will also have to adapt and be protected, for example by laying railroad tracks that are less likely to warp in high temperatures, roads that are less likely to melt, and homes that will not overheat. 6- Global energy storage and grids: Azerbaijan has identified energy storage as a key priority to enable it to expand renewable energy generation, setting a national target for storage capacity at 250 megawatts. However, no country alone can develop the global battery industry, mobilize global supply chains, develop necessary technologies, and reduce costs. Increasing energy storage is needed to address the diversity of renewable energy sources and ensure the stability and flexibility of power grids. Power grids need to be modernized to accommodate increased shares of variable renewable energy. The conference, therefore, will discuss the lack of energy storage solutions and the need to modernize power grids, since that is an obstacle to countries’ ability to increase the share of renewable energy in power generation. In partnership with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the COP Presidency established a global pledge to increase installed energy storage capacity to 1,500 gigawatts by 2030—six times the 2022 level. Supporters of the pledge will then commit to boosting grid capacity through a global grid deployment target of adding or renewing more than 80 million kilometers of networks by 2040. 7- Promoting the global trend toward the use of clean hydrogen: The COP29 Presidency will adopt the mutual recognition of hydrogen business certification to support the coordination and development of hydrogen markets in partnership with the UNECE and the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). Supporting countries will commit to accelerating the removal of carbon from hydrogen production, facilitating energy transition, and increasing demand for clean hydrogen. This includes setting targets, incentives, mandates, public procurement initiatives, and public-private partnerships. Early ResultsThe conference succeeded in achieving a number of early results in its first days: 1- Setting rules for carbon credits: The first day of the conference successfully established basic rules governing the trade of carbon credits, breaking years of deadlock and paving the way for rich countries to pay for cheap climate action abroad while delaying costly emissions cuts at home. It also contributes to creating a system for countries to buy credits to remove or avoid planet-heating pollution in other parts of the world, by planting trees or saving rainforests, while calculating progress toward their own emissions targets. The agreement is expected to provide the clarity needed for emissions trading within the UN-supervised global carbon market, which will be open to companies as well as states. The rules are expected to reduce the risk of double counting emissions, and include stronger guarantees for the protection of human rights. 2- UAE and Brazil announce plans to lower emissions: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 47% of 2019 levels by 2035, up from its previous target of 40% by 2030. Brazil announced a target to cut emissions by 59-67% of 2005 levels by 2035, on its way to net zero by 2050. 3- Multilateral development banks pledge to continue climate financing: The world’s leading multilateral development banks announced, in a joint statement, a new target to raise $120 billion in annual climate financing for developing countries by the end of the decade. However, the group of multilateral development banks—which includes the World Bank, the European Investment Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank—indicated, according to the Asharq Bloomberg website, that their ability to expand climate finance will depend on pledges from shareholders in their countries to contribute more capital. "We therefore continue to advocate for greater ambition among our client-members," the group said in its joint statement. In addition to the results achieved during the first days of the conference, several outcomes are still expected. The leaders of the conference hope to reach a number of important agreements, including a new annual climate finance target and an agreement to operate multilateral carbon credit markets. Other goals include pledging more financial assistance to countries already affected by costly climate disasters and working to close the growing gap in climate adaptation finance, which could reach $359 billion annually by 2030. COP29 is also expected to provide an ideal platform for countries to exchange experience and knowledge, develop new climate action partnerships and launch promising new initiatives to promote investment in renewable energy projects and reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Outside the formal framework of the conference, groups of countries can launch their own initiatives or pledge funding for specific projects or climate-related business deals to raise funds for investments related to combating climate change. The success of COP29 requires concerted efforts by all concerned parties—including governments, the private sector, and civil society—to achieve tangible progress in implementing the Paris Agreement, strengthen climate finance for developing countries, and support capacity building for adaptation to the effects of climate change through developed countries committing to increase climate finance and compensate developing countries for the losses and damage they face.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Unpacking the Key Issues on This Year’s Climate Agenda