COP29: Climate financing and the future of CO2 emissions
All images courtesy of UN Climate Change - Kiara Worth.
The 29th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) was hosted in Baku, Azerbaijan from November 11 to November 22, 2024. The conference brought together delegates from nearly 200 countries, as well as scientific experts, non-profit organizations, civil society members and youth speakers to discuss actions that would reduce carbon emissions by 50% as of 2050.
While delegates made consistent progress during almost two weeks of negotiations, some protesters were looking for more. DW News covered protests from climate activist Greta Thunberg and others on the second night of COP29, who argued that Azerbaijan was not an adequate host nation for the conference. 60% of government funds in Azerbaijan come from oil and gas production, and the country’s greenhouse gas reduction commitment for 2050 sets it nearly 30 metric tonnes of CO2 per year behind what it needs to be in order to contribute adequately to the global carbon reduction goal. The COP29 president was Mukhtar Babayev, who led the Azerbaijani delegation at 5 previous UN Climate Conferences. Climate expert Niklas Höhne of the New Climate Institute stated “Climate negotiations only work if you have a very strong, and very credible, and very trustworthy presidency. Azerbaijan is not that. It’s a fossil fuel country, it’s an autocratic country.”
Part of the goals stated for COP29 however, was to discuss climate financing. While Azerbaijan is lacking in its carbon reduction, the primary burden for reducing global CO2 emissions should fall on the wealthiest countries. Especially those in the G20 - a group of highly developed countries that includes the United States - wealthy nations have a responsibility to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in higher quantities than other countries. These nations often produce more greenhouse gases due to their early industrialization, or else relocate their factories to poorer countries. Nations that are already struggling to develop then suffer from acute climate disasters.
In the next year, all countries are required to submit what are known as Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs. These documents take into account all aspects of a nation’s greenhouse gas emissions and production sectors. Two G20 countries, the United Kingdom and Brazil, successfully submitted NDCs during the conference. Brazil will serve as the host country for COP30, so this progress is particularly important. Aside from this, it was agreed that by 2035 there would be 300 billion annually provided to developing countries to support climate goals. This triples the current financing measures, demonstrating an effort to level the playing field. Simon Stiell, the Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change said “This new finance goal is an insurance policy for humanity, amid worsening climate impacts hitting every country.”
Financial negotiations began on a different topic, however. Article 6 of the Paris Climate Agreement has been under construction for the past ten years. The article outlines the “carbon market”, or an international carbon crediting mechanism that allows countries and individuals to offset their greenhouse gas emissions by purchasing carbon credits. These credits, provide funding for greenhouse gases to be sequestered and removed from the carbon cycle. This agreement ensures that developing countries will be supported in their introduction to the carbon market, and requires projects with a potential for large-scale environmental impacts to first be approved by the Indigenous Peoples of the area.
Stiell recognized in the final press release of the conference that while many important strides had been made, their work was far from complete. He stated “The many other issues we need to progress may not be headlines but they are lifelines for billions of people. So this is no time for victory laps, we need to set our sights and redouble our efforts on the road to Belem.” Aside from the negotiations mentioned above, there were a multitude of events on transparency, gender equality in climate change, global supply chains, and more. While you wait for news of COP30 in Belem, Brazil, make sure to take a look at some of the other issues that were on the table at this year’s UN Climate Conference.
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