This year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference marks yet another chance for nations to address the climate emergency. As wildfires, hurricanes, and floods only seem to become more frequent, countries are under pressure to turn promises into action. Held in Baku, COP29 will be the latest attempt by the leaders of the world to shape the future of our planet.
Dubbed the ‘Finance COP’, this year’s conference looks to address how to generate the trillions of dollars required for the transition to green energy. A key agenda item will be the negotiation of the New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance, a specification of financial targets to assist developing countries move towards a low-carbon economy. COP29 will also look to establish a timeline for the phasing out of fossil fuels and the development of the green hydrogen market, both of which will prove fundamental to reaching the targets of the Paris Agreement.
The choice of Baku as host city has been a controversial one, owing to Azerbaijan’s status as a major oil and gas producer, but also its position as an authoritarian state with wide-spread corruption. This was particularly telling when, three days before the conference was set to begin, the chief executive of Azerbaijan’s COP29 team, Elnur Soltanov, was recorded discussing oil and gas deals (yikes).
Additionally, reporters have noted the choice of “official partners” for COP29 are businesses either owned directly by the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, or his family. President Aliyev’s opening speech of the conference itself went on to hail oil and gas as “gifts from god”, in a move that raised many eyebrows.
COP29 has arrived at a time of waning confidence in the UN’s commitment to climate change. Leaders from the US, China, France and India, among others, will not appear at the event, with President Macron set to snub the conference specifically due to its choice of location, and the strained relations between France and Azerbaijan. James Marape, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, had previously announced in August that his nation will boycott the event, in protest of a lack of “quick support to victims of climate change”, particularly from the ‘leading nations’ of the world. Foreign Affairs Minister, Justin Tkatchenko, backed this by labelling the event as a “total waste of time”. The whole episode demonstrates the problems of balancing economies and the environment, which is even more challenging when considering global equity and cultural diversity.
In the coming weeks, COP29 could either be a step toward climate progress or another meeting of missed opportunities. The decisions made here will impact every corner of the globe; with rising environmental challenges, it is imperative that countries work collaboratively to deliver the solutions our world urgently needs.
Photo by Orkhan Farmanli on Unsplash