NDelegates are gathering in Azerbaijan this week for the start of crucial United Nations climate change negotiations, but the summit has suffered a number of setbacks even before it begins.
When Cop29 opens in Baku on Monday, negotiators will begin the difficult task of securing a global commitment to provide essential financing to combat climate change.
The stakes for this year’s summit were already high, as finance is one of the most contentious issues in the annual climate change negotiations. Rich countries have long been at odds with developing countries over how much money is needed, what it is expected to cover, and who will pay for it.
Adding to the challenges facing this year’s summit are concerns about the host country, with some undercover reports suggesting officials overseeing the talks wanted the meeting to discuss fossil fuel deals. Moreover, Donald Trump’s re-election as US president casts inevitable doubt on the US role in tackling the climate crisis.
Every year, the climate summit brings together a treaty that all countries agree to, and this year the focus will be on the transition to clean energy and the financing needed to prepare citizens for a hotter world.
Beyond funding, the summit will also discuss progress on the world’s transition away from fossil fuels, which countries agreed to at last year’s summit. However, despite the relatively positive agreement reached at Cop28, fossil fuel investment and emissions continue to rise.
The summit will also see the establishment of a new framework for an international carbon market that will allow countries to offset their emissions by investing in green projects around the world.
Experts say this year’s summit is crucial because public finances are the basis for all future goals countries set.
Ani Dasgupta, director of the World Resources Institute (WRI), a global research institute, said, “You can’t have more ambition without money, and you can’t have more ambition without money.” I wouldn’t be able to have one.”
Rich countries, which are responsible for the majority of global warming emissions, should provide more funding for climate action around the world. This commitment is a central part of the Paris Agreement, in which countries pledged to strive to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius, and ideally below 1.5 degrees Celsius, to prevent the most severe impacts of the Paris Agreement. climate crisis.
But the Earth is changing significantly bad form Scientists say the number is even higher than just 12 months ago. From floods in Spain to hurricanes that devastated the Caribbean and the United States to record wildfires, extreme weather disasters are intensifying around the world. This year is expected to surpass 2023 as the hottest year on record.
There is no shortage of reminders of the need for urgency in these climate negotiations, but finance has long been one of the thorniest issues for negotiators to grapple with. Opinions among countries differ on almost every aspect, including how much funding is needed, who should contribute it, what types of funding should be included, which specific areas should be supported, and for what period of time. are.
The previous goal of a $100 billion endowment was met for the first time in 2022. 2 years later More than I intended. Meanwhile, the costs of climate disasters are rising.
Mariana Paoli, Christian Aid’s Global Advocacy Leader, said: “For climate finance targets to be successful, we need to secure significant public funding.” “We’re no longer talking billions. The new goals need to reach trillions, addressing everything from mitigation and adaptation to loss and damage.”
Experts had expected the United States and the European Union to jointly push for China and wealthy Gulf states to start contributing to the United Nations Climate Change Fund in the latest round of talks. The United States, the biggest polluter in history and the world’s richest nation, had been expected to lead by example at the cops summit, but Donald Trump, known as a climate change denier, returns to the White House. As a result, any hopes of that happening were dashed. Baku.
The president-elect of the United States has notoriously described the climate crisis as a “hoax,” and when asked about his views in an interview, said he wants “clean water” and “clean air” for Americans to drink and breathe. There is a tendency to deviate. Under Mr. Trump’s previous administration, the United States withdrew from the Paris climate accord and rolled back environmental protections.
Activists, negotiators and scientists reacted with horror on Wednesday and Thursday after the US election results were announced. “It’s terrible,” said one climate activist who has participated in U.N. negotiations for decades. “It’s like being punched in the gut,” said another.
Neither President Joe Biden nor Vice President Kamala Harris are traveling to attend the summit, but John Podesta, the president’s senior adviser for international climate policy, is expected to lead a large U.S. delegation.
There is a mix of concern and determination about what the summit can accomplish without a strong U.S. presence over the next four years.
Elisabetta Colnago, a senior researcher at the Center for European Reform, said the presumed absence of the United States “will discourage developing countries from taking seriously the climate ambitions of the West.”
But not everyone wants to leave the future to the United States. “The Paris Agreement was designed to overcome political change,” says Fernanda Carvalho of WWF International. “The climate crisis does not wait for politics. The stakes at COP29 are too high for one country to wait.”
“COP29 needs to recognize that the train is moving, whether President Trump wants to jump on it or not,” said Roman Iuualaren of Oil Change International. “The energy transition is inevitable.”
After what happened to the United States, there will be more pressure on other rich countries to step up. Long-time environmental activist King Charles III will be absent, but Prime Minister Keir Starmer is also expected to attend the talks, and numbers are generally expected to increase. The number of world leaders attending the first few days of the summit will not match the roll call from Cop28.
The European Commission announced on Tuesday that EU Prime Minister Ursula von der Leyen has decided not to attend the summit to focus on her duties within the organization as the Commission is in a transition phase. France’s Emmanuel Macron will also be absent from the summit. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose government has collapsed, also canceled his plans to attend.
Canada’s Justin Trudeau and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa will also not be competing this year. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, which will next host the 2025 climate summit, has canceled his plans to attend due to a head injury.
Politicians and activists are calling on Sir Keir to lead by example, in the absence of many other key leaders. Rosie Downs, head of campaigns at Friends of the Earth, said: “There has never been a more important time for the UK to take on global climate leadership.”
In a statement, the Green Party welcomed Sir Keir’s decision to attend the summit and called for it to restore Britain’s “reputation on the world stage as a leader in emissions reduction”.
Normally, host countries would be expected to push summit attendees towards the most ambitious agreement possible, but this week one of the officials involved in the climate change summit announced that the Confidence in Azerbaijan’s role was shattered when it was revealed that one person was promoting investment in Azerbaijan. This country’s fossil fuel sector.
The recording shows Cop29 chief executive and Azerbaijan’s deputy energy minister, Ernur Soltanov, discussing “investment opportunities” in Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil and gas company with individuals posing as potential investors. It is said that he was heard saying that he was willing to hold talks. About such transactions on the sidelines of the Kop itself.
This is the second year in a row that such reports have appeared before the summit begins. Last year, leaked documents revealed that host UAE’s Cop28 team had plans to discuss oil and gas deals with more than a dozen countries.
This is the third year in a row that the climate summit will be held in a country whose economy is dominated by fossil fuel production, and Azerbaijan’s role as host was already in question. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev recently announced plans to increase gas production and said earlier this year that the country’s fossil fuel reserves are a “gift from God.”
Earlier this week, Hikmet Hajiyev, a foreign affairs advisor to Azerbaijan’s president, said in an op-ed for Euronews that the country is “not ashamed of its national role.” [oil] industry”.
“Although Azerbaijan accounts for 0.01% of global emissions, we are not ashamed of our role in the industry,” he wrote before the recording was leaked, adding that oil finances the country’s growth. Ta. “A nation should be judged not by its inheritance, but by its direction,” he said.
Analysts say the president’s role in setting the direction of talks is likely to be limited.
“The reality is that a wide range of countries are very determined to get results with their police forces. I don’t think the president of Azerbaijan or the UAE is as important as some police forces. ” said David Nemechek of the independent climate change think tank E3G.
