BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 18. As part of COP29 in Baku, Trend News Agency proudly presents COP for Hope, a special project offering an unparalleled platform to hear from world leaders and trailblazers in politics, economics, science, and ecology, all united by a shared commitment to addressing today’s pressing climate challenges.
Today, we are honored to speak with Vice-Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Robert Habeck.
In an exclusive interview with Trend, Habeck noted that COP29 in Baku has marked a new stage in the history of COP events.
Robert Habeck emphasized that Germany's approach is to engage partners who are eager to explore the benefits of decarbonization within their respective industries.
"The innovation here is that COP has traditionally focused on the green transition of the energy market and energy systems. Now, we're expanding the conversation to include entire industries. If you look at the evolution of COP, we've come a long way—from initial discussions to now addressing the greening of materials like steel, concrete, and cement, and setting standards for them.
On Friday, we launched the Climate Club platform, which serves as a central hub where countries can connect with us. Through this platform, we can share insights on green steel, green aluminum, and other green industries. The shift to renewable energy sources is unstoppable in the face of climate change, and this transition is now being driven by market forces. In this regard, the commitments made at this COP are truly promising.
Of course, we now need to work intensively to turn these promises into concrete programs and build the necessary networks," he added.
To note, the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29), which will run until November 22, opened at the Baku Olympic Stadium on November 11. It is the largest event organized by Azerbaijan to date, and the first time in the region that it is being held in Azerbaijan.
Within COP29, the highest level event - the summit of world leaders on climate action – was held on November 12–13.
The main expectation from COP29 is to agree on a fair and ambitious New Collective Quantitative Goal (NCQG) on climate finance. The COP29 chairmanship has launched 14 initiatives that include linkages between climate action and the Sustainable Development Goals, including green energy corridors, green energy storage, harmony for climate resilience, clean hydrogen, methane reduction in organic waste, action on green digital technologies, and other topics.
In addition to being a top priority that creates the conditions for action, creating climate finance will also help fulfill the 1.5°C pledge by bringing everyone together.
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is an agreement signed at the Rio Earth Summit in June 1992 to prevent dangerous human interference in the climate system. The acronym COP (Conference of Parties) stands for “Conference of Parties” and is the highest legislative body overseeing the implementation of the Framework Convention on Climate Change.
A total of 198 countries are parties to the Convention. Unless otherwise decided by the parties, COP is held annually. The first COP event was held in March 1995 in Berlin, and its secretariat is located in Bonn.
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