Curious about COP29? Explore all there is to know about the 29th annual Conference of the Parties (COP), why it matters and what it means for climate action in 2024 and beyond.
Whether it’s the news that parts of Antarctica are rapidly turning green or reports from the UN that river flows around the world faced their driest year in over three decades, it couldn’t be clearer that the climate crisis is changing the world we live in. Climate experts all point to these extremes as clear signs that action must be taken to ensure a sustainable future – but what does action really look like?
Ahead of the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference, COP29, we explore what this highly-anticipated annual conference means for climate change, and what, if anything, is being done to tackle the climate crisis head on.
What is COP29?
The annual UN Climate Change Conference is hosted in either Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, or Europe.
These conferences are based on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and function as the meeting point of the UNFCCC parties, otherwise known as the Conference of the Parties (or COP). The first COP was held in 1995 in Berlin, Germany.
COP presidency rotates each year (with the elected country also hosting the conference), and this year’s conference is the 29th iteration, hence the name COP29.
Why does COP29 matter?
The point of these meetings is to discuss and address the world’s most critical environmental issues. Over the past few decades, there have been a few key moments in COP history, beginning with The Kyoto Protocol that was first signed in December 1997 after COP3, and put into effect in February 2005, then followed by The Paris Agreement, which was negotiated at COP21.
As of late, delegates from 198 Parties (197 countries and the European Union) come together to measure current progress and commit to advancing The Paris Agreement and keeping global temperature increases to 1.5°C and under, which scientists have agreed will reduce climate change risks.
When and where is COP29?
This year, the COP29 host country is Azerbaijan. The conference will be held at the Baku Stadium, in Baku, Azerbaijan between 11 – 22 November 2024.
Who will be attending?
Delegates from over 197 countries are expected to attend this year’s conference.
Some key figures who are confirmed to attend COP29 are:
- Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero from the UK
- President Alexander Stubb from Finland
- President Andrzej Duda from Poland
The conference is being led by Mukhtar Babayev, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources, who will be taking on the role of COP29 President-Designate.
What is COP29’s main theme?
This year’s theme is In Solidarity for a Green World, highlighting the conference’s role in helping governments come together to tackle climate change.
Central themes
COP29’s vision is centred around two pillars – to enhance ambition and enable action, with climate finance as a top priority. Enhancing action would mean ensuring that countries do everything they can to fulfil The Paris Agreement and keep temperature increases to 1.5°C.
Going hand in hand with that is, enabling action, which involves putting in place the necessary finance, technology and capacity building at a national and global level to put those plans into action.
COP29 thematic days
In typical COP fashion, there are a number of thematic days across the two-week programme. Below, we’ve listed what you can expect during COP29.
12 – 13 November – World Leaders Climate Action Summit
14 November – Finance, Investment and Trade
15 November – Energy / Peace, Relief and Recovery
16 November – Science, Technology and Innovation / Digitalisation
18 November – Human Capital / Children and Youth / Health / Education
19 November – Food, Agriculture and Water
20 November – Urbanisation / Transport / Tourism
21 November – Nature and Biodiversity / Indigenous People / Gender Equality / Oceans and Coastal Zone
What is being done?
So, what initiatives have been drawn up? Good question, here’s a brief overview of the COP29 Presidency Action Agenda.
COP29 Presidency initiatives
- The Baku Initiative on Human Development for Climate Resilience: An initiative to promote climate literacy and boost investment in education, skills, health, and well-being, particularly for children and young people.
- Climate Finance Action Fund (CFAF): For the research, development and adaptation across private and public sectors, and includes grants for developing countries to better address natural disasters.
- The Baku Initiative for Climate Finance, Investment and Trade (BICFIT): An initiative and platform to promote climate finance, investment and trade, focusing on policy development, green diversification, and more.
- Green Digital Action: Working to accelerate climate-positive digitalisation, accessibility of green digital technologies and reduce emissions in the IT sector.
- Green Energy Zones and Corridors: A pledge to commit to green energy zones and corridors, including targets to promote investment, boost economic growth, develop and transform infrastructure, and enable regional cooperation.
- Energy Storage and Grids: A pledge to commit to increasing global energy storage capacity, reaching 1,500 gigawatts by 2030 (six times more than 2022 levels).
- The Baku Harmoniya Climate Initiative for Farmers: An initiative that promotes collaboration on food, water and agriculture between networks and coalitions, facilitates finance and empowers women in local communities and rural areas.
- Hydrogen Action: Exploring the potential of clean hydrogen and what barriers a global market would have to overcome.
- COP Truce Appeal: An appeal to make Parties aware of the relationship between conflict and climate change and find solutions to protect those most at risk.
- Methane Reduction from Organic Waste: Working towards quantified targets to reduce methane in food and waste systems.
- Multisectoral Actions Pathways (MAP) for Resilient and Healthy Cities: An initiative to Improve collaboration across sectors to address climate challenges in cities.
- Enhanced Climate Action in Tourism: An initiative to promote sustainable practices, reduced emissions, frameworks for sustainable food systems and transparency in the tourism sector.
- Water for Climate Action: Launching the Baku Dialogue on Water for Climate Action and calling on delegates and stakeholders to take an integrated, active approach when tackling the impact of climate change on water-related ecosystems.
- The Baku Global Climate Transparency Platform (BTP): A platform that will support developing country Parties to prepare and submit Biennial Transparency Reports, promote collaboration amongst all Parties and better mobilise resources.
Azerbaijan’s Green Energy Transition Initiatives
The COP29 host country plans to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2050 and develop their potential for renewable energy. Similarly, they have committed to increase renewable power capacity to 30% by 2030.
In an effort to become a green energy leader, they’re also looking at wind, green hydrogen, solar and hydro energy.
What are people saying about COP29?
Like every year, COP29 has been the topic of conversation for the past few months. Although organisers have labelled this year’s conference “the finance COP”, there have already been reports that executives at Bank of America, BlackRock, Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank, ING, and Lloyd’s of London are not attending COP29.
This is partly due to political uncertainty from the US presidential elections (Donald Trump has stated that he intends to withdraw the US from The Paris Agreement if he wins), whilst others are more focused on other climate events happening this year.
Criticisms of COP29
COP29 has not been without its fair share of valid criticisms. Amidst reports that Azerbaijan has offered to cover the costs for negotiators from climate-vulnerable islands who are travelling to the UN Climate Change Conference, the COP29 host country has been accused of ‘peace-washing’ and hypocrisy.
These sentiments come as Azerbaijan calls for global truce during COP29, which will take place over a year after the host country launched a military offensive on Nagorno-Karabakh, causing hundreds of thousands of Armenians to flee the region.
Paul Polman, a climate activist, peace campaigner and former Unilever chief has said: “The idea of a ‘Cop truce’ is a deeply cynical PR stunt by Azerbaijan designed to distract the world’s attention away from its ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh last year.” While Azerbaijan has denied that the COP Truce is a PR stunt, it’s worth mentioning that they have a $4.7 million contract with PR firm, Teneo.
NGOs such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Freedom Now have called on the EU and other states to put pressure on the Azerbaijani government to ‘reverse their human rights crackdown’, release their political prisoners (many of whom have had their trials frozen until after COP29), and allow activists and journalists to freely participate and engage with the upcoming conference.
Final thoughts
Tackling the climate crisis is of utmost importance, and with all eyes on COP29, there’s never been a better time to call upon the policymakers, put pressure on climate-negative companies and learn about the planet, straight from the experts.
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