[Article originally publish in La Vanguardia]
As every year since 1995, except in 2020, the twenty-ninth Conference of the Parties (COP 29) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has been held. This year, it took place in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, an oil-producing country whose production level is below other producer countries such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the United Kingdom, where other COPs have recently been held, or Brazil, where COP30 will be held. Negotiations had to be extended due to the difficulty in reaching agreements, showing that the consensus governing decision-making at COPs always puts climate multilateralism in a difficult position.
COP 29 served as the sixth Meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement, with different agendas but some common themes, including: financing, mitigation, adaptation, and voluntary cooperation under the Paris Agreement, known as carbon markets.
The definition of the new quantified collective climate finance goal to replace the current target -100 billion USD annually- has been the biggest obstacle in negotiations. On November 22, the COP 29 presidency presented a last-minute draft decision proposing a target of 250 billion USD.
This proposal was considered insufficient by developing countries, which generated friction within this group as small island states and least developed countries demanded a guaranteed minimum amount for them. Finally, at the eleventh hour, a new target of at least 300 billion USD per year by 2035 was agreed upon, thus tripling the current target.
With developed countries taking the lead in providing and mobilizing climate finance to developing countries, the latter are encouraged to contribute to this goal voluntarily, “including through South-South cooperation.” This is a call to emerging economies, such as China and Gulf countries, which made it clear at the negotiating table that they are developing countries. However, they expressed their deep dissatisfaction with the outcome, and some rejected the target after its adoption.
A second goal urges countries to increase all sources of public and private finance to reach at least 1.3 trillion dollars per year by 2035. The agreement also launches the Baku to Belém Roadmap, leading to COP 30 in 2025, towards the 1.3 trillion dollars, a process aimed at increasing climate finance for developing countries through grants and non-debt-generating instruments.
The agreed amount will be primarily used for developing countries to implement their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), or climate plans, to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and adapt to climate change for the development of national adaptation plans.
The mitigation issue was addressed under points relating to progress on the global stocktake adopted in Dubai, which agreed to “transition” beyond fossil fuels and the mitigation work program. A clear decision on this global stocktake was very important, as it would serve as the basis for the submission of new NDCs that must be presented before the end of February 2025.
However, no decision was reached on implementing the stocktake results, as many countries insisted that the proposed text was not ambitious enough. Parties will revisit this issue in June 2025.
Despite this, Brazil, UAE, and the UK have presented their new contributions under COP29. Brazil commits to reducing net greenhouse gas emissions between 59% and 67% by 2035 compared to 2005 levels; the UAE will reduce them by 47% by 2035, compared to 2019; and the UK will reduce them by 81% by 2035, compared to 1990 levels. The European Union is working to establish a GHG reduction target of 90% by 2040.
A decision on the mitigation work program was adopted, although it lacks firm references to the COP 28 global stocktake results, particularly regarding tripling renewable deployment and doubling energy efficiency by 2030 and energy transition, phasing out coal, or ending inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, among others.
Saudi Arabia, as every year, has opposed mentioning fossil fuels in this process. Despite this, the Rio Declaration from the G20 summit, held during the COP, reaffirmed the G20’s commitment to the results of the first global stocktake, especially regarding tripling renewable energy and doubling energy efficiency. The text reiterates the G20’s previous commitments to phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.
Regarding the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), it was agreed to continue working on developing indicators to track progress toward global adaptation action.
Another important achievement has been the decisions finalizing guidelines for the full implementation of carbon markets. Regarding cooperative approaches to mitigation, a dual-layer international registry system has been agreed upon that will provide greater transparency to ensure environmental integrity.
Concerning the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism, it was agreed to allow the transfer of credits issued for afforestation and reforestation activities under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to the Paris Mechanism under certain conditions.
These voluntary cooperation mechanisms allow countries to increase their mitigation efforts to meet their NDCs in the most cost-effective way, being carried out with all guarantees.
Many other activities took place around COP29, and important announcements were made along with those relating to new NDCs. For example, the Loss and Damage Response Fund (LDRF) is officially ready to accept contributions after the Philippines signed the host country agreement for the LDRF Board and the World Bank signed the headquarters agreement for the LDRF. Australia and New Zealand announced new contributions, bringing total commitments so far to just under 800 million USD.
As usual, the results of this COP do not satisfy all parties. The agreements adopted have been called the Baku Climate Unity Pact.
Let us hope that this unity is achieved in its implementation and that the financing target reached is met, so necessary for ambitious climate action. This topic will again be present at the next fourth international conference on financing for development, to be held in Seville in the summer of 2025, which aims to mobilize financial resources for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs, among which are essential objectives for the fight against climate change.
