COP29 in Azerbaijan will be ‘moment of truth’ for the world

This year’s COP29, the latest annual United Nations Conference of Parties on climate change, is described by the UN as a ‘critical event for global climate action’. Hosted by Azerbaijan, COP29 is especially significant as it will serve as a pivotal platform for evaluating progress on global climate actions and enhancing international climate ambitions, writes Political Editor Nick Powell.

Senior officials involved in preparing for COP29, accept that this will not be the year when it can be confidently announced that the target will be met of keeping global temperatures no higher than 1.5 degrees Celcius above pre-industrial levels. Nor is there any appetite for accepting that the target will be overshot, creating the task of cooling the planet down again.

What is expected when COP29 is held in Baku in November is concrete progress on the issue of climate finance, funding the costs of achieving a sustainable future and putting right the ecological damage. Agreeing the cost, how the money will be distributed and how the bills will be paid are ambitious objectives but there’s a real determination to meet them this year.

Senior officials talk of a dedicated fund through which fossil fuel companies will be expected to pay their contribution. Azerbaijan’s own state oil company, Socar, can be expected to make a substantial initial payment to start the process. Although long a major source of oil and gas, Azerbaijan is itself diversifying into green energy production and expects to produce 30% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030.

It is of course not immune to the effects of climate change, with desertification affecting some regions of the country and a fall in the water level in the Caspian Sea another area of concern.

The Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the United Nations Development Programme held an event earlier this month in Brussels, entitled COP29: Empowering Climate Action through Ambition, Implementation, and Inclusivity. The keynote address was given by Yalchin Rafiyev, Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan and COP29 lead negotiator.

He described how Azerbaijan wanted COP29 to enhance ambition, by helping countries to update their climate change plans and enable action by agreeing definitions for climate finance. He said there is a need to agree a fair and ambitious climate finance goal that is adequate to the urgency and scale of the problem.

The minister observed that the most challenging elements are agreeing the quantum -the amount of money required- and the contributor base -who pays how much. “It’s a moment of truth”, he added.

As a sign that the world is truly recognising the size and importance or the task, Azerbaijan wants all the countries represented at COP29 to agree to a ‘COP truce’, a global ceasefire in all military conflicts for the duration of the Conference.

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