BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 27. The COP29 to be held in Azerbaijan in November this year, should make bold decisions on emission reduction commitments, said Simon Stiell, executive secretary of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), Trend reports via the International Gas Union (IGU).
“It is easy to announce targets, with the assumption that either it will all be cheap, or that consumers and industry will pay whatever it takes to achieve the targets,” he noted.
Stiell said COP29 will be an “enabling COP,” focused on drastically scaling-up climate finance – “finance is the make-or-break factor in the world’s climate fight.”
Charles Ellinas, nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council's Global Energy Center, said in his analysis published by IGU that the achievements of COPs so far, especially COP28, will not mean much unless they are fully implemented through tangible actions.
“Key to that is to put in place the funding levels and arrangements required to deliver them.
Energy transition, climate adaptation, loss and damage, and disaster relief in general, require huge funding and investments -running into trillions of dollars annually – to turn ambition into action. Implementation and funding should be the key goals of COP29,” he added.
The expert went on to add that Multilateral development banks (MDBs) and the private sector need to collectively raise $2.4 trillion annually for climate funding.
“But in order to deliver this, MDBs need to be reformed to provide more concessional funding and grants to developing countries, rather than debt-finance. Involvement of the private sector would require getting access to public capital markets and making sure public funds are deployable for sustainable projects. In addition, countries will need to update and improve targets and actions in their next round of NDCs, due in 2025, that turn COP decisions into reality. Azerbaijan’s vision for COP29 is: technology transfer, water and peace. It is also sending the message that the success of COP28 shows it makes sense to have “fossil fuel exporters inside the COP tent,” noted Ellinas.
Azerbaijan will host the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) this November. This decision was reached during the COP28 plenary meeting held in Dubai on December 11, 2023. In less than two weeks, Baku is poised to become the epicenter of global climate discussions, welcoming an estimated 70,000 to 80,000 foreign delegates.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, established during the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, aims to avert perilous human interference with the climate system. COP, an acronym for Conference of Parties, signifies the highest legislative authority overseeing the Convention's implementation. Currently, 198 nations are party to the Convention. By default, COP sessions are convened annually unless otherwise decided by the participating parties. The inaugural COP convened in March 1995 in Berlin, with its secretariat headquartered in Bonn.
As Azerbaijan prepares to host COP29, it assumes a pivotal role in advancing global efforts to address climate change, underscoring the urgency and importance of international cooperation in combating environmental challenges.
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