Pre-COP29 opened in Baku where global climate leaders, officials, and delegates met to advance negotiations ahead of the full COP29 (Conference of the Parties, the 29th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference) scheduled in November next month.
The early discussions focus on key priorities, including climate finance, the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), mitigation and adaptation strategies, and more concrete action from developed countries in supporting vulnerable communities in global climate crisis.
“The world is watching, and history will judge us on the outcomes we achieve. Success or failure at COP29 will be collective and each of us has a role to play. We must all offer the best of ourselves.”
President-designate Mukhtar Babayev remarked during the opening of Pre-COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
COP29 will take place in Baku, Azerbaijan from November 11-22, 2024.
The biggest climate conference of the year, COP29 will bring together leaders from governments, businesses, voices from environmental movements and civil society to discuss the climate crisis the world is facing today.
The conference will seek to focus on collective and accelerated action to fight climate change driven by human activities.
Climate finance is going to be a key discussion theme in this year’s COP as trillions of dollars are needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit the rising global average temperature.
The call for stricter climate action from environmental movements has intensified as the world conference will look to build on previous COP agreements, such as the Paris Agreement of 2015, the global pact where countries committed to limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
Historically, the Conference of the Parties (COP) has served as a forum for world leaders to discuss and negotiate global climate policy. Countries agreed to the “Glasgow Climate Pact” at COP26 (Glasgow, 2021), which underlined the importance of accelerating coal phase-outs and providing financial aid for underdeveloped countries. However, the implementation of such pacts has been overall unsatisfactory.
As the global climate crisis becomes more severe, COP29 will aim to address these concerns.
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Key themes of the conference include enhanced financing schemes, strengthening climate commitments, promoting inclusivity in climate action, investing in resilience, addressing loss and damage, transitioning away from fossil fuels to clean and renewable energy, and ensuring more responsibility for nations to fulfill their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
A new global finance goal, replacing the unmet $100 billion/year target, is crucial. The previous $100 billion yearly commitment, first made in 2009 in Copenhagen and reaffirmed in 2015 for the 2020-2025 period, was only fulfilled in 2022.
Developing nations now need a climate finance funding scheme that is estimated to be in the region of 500 billion dollars to over $1 trillion a year for climate mitigation and adaptation.
This summer broke records as one of the hottest in history. From June to August, the global average temperature was 62.2°F (16.8°C), making it the hottest summer on record. Over 70,000 people in Japan were hospitalized for heatstroke, while Phoenix, Arizona, saw temperatures over 100°F (38°C) for more than 100 consecutive days.
Global heat waves and unprecedented weather patterns continue to demonstrate the devastating impacts of climate change. There’s a 97% chance that 2024 will surpass 2023 as the hottest year ever, according to NCEI’s Global Annual Temperature Outlook.
As previously reported by UNDP, the summer of 2023 was the hottest on record globally since 1850.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, August 2024 was the hottest August recorded in their 175-year climate record. They state that it marked the 15th consecutive month of record-high global temperatures and concluded the Northern Hemisphere’s warmest meteorological summer on record.
NOAA also reports that the year to date (January–August 2024) was the warmest ever recorded, at 2.30°F (1.28°C) above the 20th-century average. As well, global sea ice extent was the second-smallest on record, at 8.32 million square miles, which is 1.05 million square miles below the 1991–2020 average.
There is great urgency to stay below 1.5°C global temperature increases under 1.5°C.
The success of COP29 will be determined by nations’ capacity to bridge the gap between policy commitments and compliance and action.
Climate finance agreements at COP29 are critical to putting ambitious environmental goals into implementation, such as lowering greenhouse emissions, adapting to climate change, reducing pollution, and coping with loss and damage caused by climate change.
After its launch at COP28, the “Loss and Damage Fund” still requires operational details to start supporting vulnerable nations. Countries must also commit to tripling renewable energy and cutting fossil fuel use in half to meet the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.
With recent climate disasters highlighting the worsening impacts, global leaders face increasing pressure to take decisive action. With the world experiencing severe consequences of climate change such as heatwaves, wildfires, drought, intense rainfalls, stronger storms and cyclones, and devastating floods, COP29 provides a substantial opportunity for world countries to take transformative action to meet their climate goals.
Azerbaijan, the host country, has taken a leading-by-example initiative to grow its renewable energy capacity to cut emissions by 40% by 2050 as it intends to diversify its energy system and revise national objectives in line with the 1.5°C goal.
The conference will be attended by representatives from 198 Parties (197 countries and the European Union) in Baku, Azerbaijan, from November 11-22, 2024.
The host country, Azerbaijan, has encouraged international and civil society organizations to present solutions and strategies through the Green Zone, promoting inclusivity in climate dialogue that looks into the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, promotion of sustainable practices, and minimizing environmental impact through renewable energy and efficient resource use.
