The 2024 UN climate change conference tagged ‘COP 29’ kicks off today in Baku, Azerbaijan with the issue of climate financing expected to be at the forefront of discussions.
COP 29
The United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, 2024 is the 29th UN climate change conference. This year’s conference is expected to take place from 11 to 22 November 2024.
At this gathering, world leaders would seek to come up with financing and policies to rescue the environment off the back of the hottest decade in human history experienced between 2015-2024.
Hottest Decade on Record
The period between 2015-2024 has been classified as the hottest decade on record with humanity witnessing accelerating glacier loss, rising ocean heat, and an increase in extreme weather conditions all of which have led to unprecedented economic and human costs globally. It is against this backdrop that there is the call for urgent climate action globally which requires increased funding and commitment to climate renewal efforts.
According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) update issued at the start as COP29, greenhouse gases emissions hit a record high globally in 2023 and have continued to rise in 2024. The report also notes that from January to September 2024, the global average temperature was 1.54°C above pre-industrial levels, driven partly by an intense El Niño event.
The El Nino event – a naturally occurring climate pattern that warms the ocean surface in the central and eastern tropical Pacific lasted from June 2023 – April 2024 leaving in its wake widespread droughts, flooding, and other natural disasters around the world in addition to record-breaking global air and ocean temperatures which has lasted ever since.
Speaking at the opening of COP 29, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell stated “The shift to clean energy and climate resilience will not be stopped.” before going ahead to make an urgent call for the implementation of climate agreements.
Calls For Increased Financing
A key drawback to the achievement of the UN’s climate change objectives have been the issue of finance hence the call for a new climate finance deal.
At the two-week conference countries are expected to make a commitment towards the negotiation of the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance, which will set a new financial target to support developing countries post-2025, at the end of the current $100 billion annual commitment to a better climate in 2025.
Restating the urgency of climate Finance Simon Steil stated “Let’s dispense with any idea that climate finance is charity;” runaway climate change is impacting “every single individual in the world one way or another,” . He thereafter stated that achieving a new finance deal is critical as every country would pay a terrible price if at least two-thirds of the world’s countries cannot afford to rapidly reduce their emissions.
Conclusion
Over the course of the next two weeks, there is expected to be a lot of financial negotiations in the climate conference regarded as the most important ever with Africa and other underdeveloped regions being at the center of it all.
