This third policy insight article comes at the conclusion of the proceedings of COP29 as well as the CCS COP29 De-Brief Panel, where we heard from four individuals who attended COP29 as either negotiators, advisors or observers. Their broad range of insights and experiences form the basis for this article to unpick further whether COP29 was a success, failure or continuance.
This third policy insight article comes at the conclusion of the proceedings of COP29 as well as the CCS COP29 De-Brief Panel, where we heard from four individuals who attended COP29 as either negotiators, advisors or observers. Their broad range of insights and experiences form the basis for this article to unpick further whether COP29 was a success, failure or continuance.Conferences of the Parties (COPs) are annual meetings of governments which are convened under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which was a treaty adopted in 1992. They seek to advance global responses to climate change and come to agreement on targets, support and accountability measures. These events are positioned as a crucial forum for governments to convene and together fight against global climate change. However, the extent to which they actually achieve what they set out to do so is contested. Negotiations often result in concessions being made on important issues and this COP was no different.
This year COP29 was held in Baku, Azerbaijan. The significance of the location cannot be ignored, Azerbaijan is one of the world’s major oil and gas producers due to the reliance of its economy on the extraction of fossil fuels. Despite this, COP29 was labelled the finance COP due to the central focus on providing financial support for developing countries to combat the impacts of climate change. This is the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance, which at COP29 negotiations sought to increase on the base line of US$100 billion per year by 2025. It was agreed that this would be raised to US$300 billion per year. This may be a lot of money, but is nowhere near the US$1.3 trillion that developing countries, those who are bearing the cost of climate change right now, hoped to reach.
In addition to the negotiations surrounding the NCQG, agreement was reached on Article 6 (carbon markets) from the Paris Agreement. Marking nearly 10 years since this agreement was formulated at COP21 in 2015. As expected, there was not agreement on everything. No consensus was reached on how last year’s global stocktake would be used, rather shifting this to COP30 next year in Brazil. As well as the over shadowing of proceedings of Donald Trump’s re-election in the USA, due to his pledge to remove the country from the Paris Accord.
At the end of Michaelmas term, CCS held a panel discussion to de-brief on the events of COP29 with four individuals who attended the event (Zita Wilks, Ana Romero, Beth Doherty and Shreya Patel). We were very privileged to hear about their views and experiences at the COP. The biggest take aways were that steps in the right direction are being made but we are not moving far enough, with specific reference to the NCQG, as well as the importance for a wide range of voices having a platform to speak. In their nature, COPs are the convergence of states from around the world to negotiate on climate targets. However, that does not mean that each person or country gets heard the same, due to financial resources, the size of their delegation or perceived global standing. In addition, one aspect which we discussed was the involvement, or often lack thereof, of the youth in these conversations. Each individual appreciated that steps forward have been taken but there is still a lot more ground to cover if we want to protect our planet and its population in the years to come.
It is important that hope is not lost. COP events create a forum for international discussions around the climate and what solutions are possible. The media attempt to cover the proceedings as much as possible, with headlines focusing on the major outcomes or disagreements of the proceedings. However, this does not encompass every discussion, issue or protest which occurs at COPs. The multitude of conversations which occur mean that there is something of interest for everyone with topics ranging from climate finance to agriculture and biodiversity being covered. It is clear that progress has been made, specifically on the NCQG, since the previous COP and so it is hoped that this continues into the coming years as we look to COP30 in Brazil in 2025.
