Factbox-Takeaways from the COP29 climate conference in Azerbaijan By Reuters
Written by Katy Daigle
BAKU, Azerbaijan (Reuters) – This year’s UN climate conference delivered an agreement on climate finance two days past the deadline, after two weeks of intense negotiations.
Here are some of the takeaways from the COP29 conference held in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku:
CASH (TSX:) THE WEATHER CONTINUES
The topic of the main agenda of this conference – setting new annual targets for global climate finance – has been in dispute between countries for two weeks. Even after reaching an agreement of $300 billion a year by 2035, many developing countries say the amount is too low.
They also warned that the ten-year deadline from 2035 would set back the country’s clean energy transition.
Others, including India, have also criticized rich countries for wanting to include the contributions of developing countries in the annual targets.
TRUMP DISRUPTS MOD
Although not yet in office, climate denier Donald Trump’s victory in the November 5 presidential election soured the mood at COP29.
Trump has vowed to remove America from global climate efforts, and has appointed a climate skeptic as his energy secretary.
Trump’s election meant that the US had little to offer at COP29, despite being the world’s biggest polluter in history and responsible for climate change. It has also reduced ambitions for financial targets, as the world’s largest economies are less likely to participate.
GREEN LIGHT FOR CARBON KITS
After nearly ten years of efforts to establish a carbon credits rulebook, COP29 reached an agreement to allow countries to begin establishing these credits to finance and offset their emissions, or to trade them on the market.
There are still small details to be worked out, such as the registration structure and transparency obligations. But proponents hope that increasing carbon emissions will help attract billions of dollars in new projects to help fight climate change.
COP PROCEDURE with doubts
Despite years of climate change agreements, countries are expressing concern about the fact that both greenhouse gas emissions and global temperatures are still rising.
Countries have been hit by climate change, making it clear that progress has not been fast enough to prevent extreme weather.
This year is on track to be the warmest on record, with evidence of climate impacts mounting faster than expected.
Widespread floods have killed thousands and left millions hungry across Africa; Deadly landslides have buried villages in Asia. Drought in South America has shriveled rivers – important transport routes – and livelihoods. And rain-induced flooding in Spain and the United States has killed hundreds of people while wiping out billions in economic value.
COMMERCIAL MEETING AHEAD
Developing countries have pushed hard at COP29 to open talks on climate-related trade barriers, arguing that their ability to invest in developing their economies has been undermined by costly trade policies imposed by the world’s richest countries.
The focus was on the proposed European carbon border tax (CBAM). But equally worrying is the prospect of Trump introducing sweeping tariffs on all imports.
The UN’s climate agency has agreed to add the issue to the agenda for the next conference.
INTERESTS OF FOSSIL FEET
This year’s COP was the third in a row to be held in an oil-producing country, as both the OPEC Secretary General and the president of host country Azerbaijan told the conference that oil and gas resources are “a gift from God.”
In the end, the summit failed to put measures in place for countries to build on last year’s COP28 pledge to phase out fossil fuels and triple renewable energy over the next decade.
Many negotiators saw that as a failure — and a sign that fossil fuel interests were outpacing climate negotiations.
