What were the highlights of the recently-concluded COP 29?
One, COP 29 is referred by some as Climate Finance COP.
After two weeks, delegates to the 29th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Baku, Azerbaijan approved an overall climate financing target of “at least $1.3 trillion by 2035.”
“A massive deal, but bitter divisions remain.”
To avoid rising temperatures, wealthier nations are expected “to help emerging economies cut their emissions, because that is where 75% of the growth in emissions has occurred in the past decade.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that he “had hoped for a more ambitious outcome – on both finance and mitigation – to meet the great challenge we face.”
Still, Guterres stated that “this agreement provides a base on which to build and must be honored in full and on time. Commitments must quickly become cash. All countries must come together to ensure the top-end of this new goal is met."
Developing nations, on the other hand, complained that the amount to be received by 2035 is a "paltry sum". Others criticized the amount as “simply not enough and that it was a mixture of grants and loans, little more than an optical illusion, will not address the enormity of the challenge we all face, and short-sighted from the richer world’s perspective.”
Other outcomes of COP29 included “extension of a program centered on gender and climate change and agreement on support for the least developed countries to carry out national adaptation plans.”
COP 29, however, still reflected/retained the divide between countries built on fossil fuels that oppose any production goal reduction and those countries that call for renewable energy and regulation/reduction of and shift from fossil fuel production.
Critiques were hurled about the choice of hosts for COP from countries in favor of increased fossil fuel production.
Brazil, the next COP 30 host, is considered a better choice because of “President Lula’s strong commitments to climate change and reducing deforestation in the globally important Amazon rainforest.”
Another highlight of COP29 mentioned the “quiet ascent of China” --considered the world’s largest carbon emitter.
While China has no formal obligation to cut greenhouse gas emissions or provide financial help to poorer countries because it is still defined by the United Nations a “developing" country, at COP 29, China unexpectedly offered its “financial support to global south countries, considered by observers as a very deft/effective move.”
COP 29 was additionally observed to have had more vocal campaigners this time, raising the question whether “confrontational activism and fraught debate will become the new norm” for future climate conferences.
The activists found the COP29 climate deal “inadequate” and “too little too late” according to poorer nations.
The head of the Greenpeace delegation called the COP29 deal "woefully inadequate" and said "reckless nature destroyers" were being protected by "every government's low climate ambition".
WaterAid “described the deal as a "death sentence for millions", while a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion said COP29 had "failed".
A UK delegate, however, remarked “it is not everything we/others wanted but it is a step forward for us all.”
What is definite is that there are still so much present global/local real issues/challenges to tackle/decide on/resolve together.
Whether future COPs will finally see a global plastic treaty approved, fossil fuel production regulated or decreased, affected developing countries finally receiving a fairer share of climate finance, that is for time to unravel.
Pagtambayayong’s Engr. Paula “Dayday” Fernandez, back from the Baku COP 29 (which she found to be an entirely new ecosystem) raised the urgent need for urban voice to be represented because “cities, while contributing significantly to GDP, are the centers of climate crises, with 54% of population, experiencing 70% of global gas emission and other adverse impacts of global warming.”