A lot of absenteeism and financing as the main goal at COP29, which starts today in Azerbaijan

A total of 197 states and the European Union (EU) face from this Monday in Baku (Azerbaijan) the challenge to the financingn international climate without forgetting to specify measures to reduce emissionstwo of the main points of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29), which takes place from November 11 to 22.

The summit is held two weeks after the conclusion of the COP16 on biodiversity in Cali (Colombia), which also had financing as one of the central topics and which concluded without an economic agreement to protect biodiversity by 2030 due to a lack of quorum .

According to the analysis of the Moeve company, the success of the summit will be determined by the agreement on the New Quantified Collective Goal, part of the Paris Agreement designed to set a financial target to support developing countries in their climate actions 2025. The current one is $100 billion a year and is considered insufficient. However, there is no consensus on the exact amount or formulas to be used to increase ambition, as Moeve points out.

In this way, some developing countries are calling for annual financing to be increased to one trillion European dollars through public financing alone, an amount and a manner that environmentalists agree on. On the other hand, the majority of developed countries, as well as the EU, advocate multi-level financing with a less ambitious target for public financing, supplemented by private funds.

As with other COP events, the main objective prevent the limit of 1.5ºC from being exceeded higher temperature compared to pre-industrial levels. Something that, according to the European Copernicus Observatory, would already have been achieved this week. “It is almost certain that 2024 will be the hottest year on record and the first in which temperatures rise above 1.5ºC compared to pre-industrial levels,” Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said last Thursday.

Absences

Despite the good words of numerous world leaders about the need to face climate challenges and consolidate efforts to preserve the planet, political, economic and financial interests have changed the order of their priorities compared to previous years and will many complete their responsibilities within seconds and even third swords. For example, there will not be the president of the US.: Neither the outgoing Joe Biden – he confirmed that he would not attend for the second consecutive year – nor his successor elected this week in the presidential elections, Donald Trump – whose critical positions on environmental challenges are well known – so after the withdrawal of John Kerry as leader of the US delegation in recent years, his place will now be taken by the top climate advisor in Washington, John Podesta.

The Russian president will also not be present Vladimir Putinabsent from numerous international forums since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has intensified since 2014 with the Russian invasion of Ukrainian territory in 2022, and will instead send its Prime Minister, Mijail Mishustin.

Equally notable absences will be those of the President of China, Xi Jinpingand from Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, although both will be present at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, which also starts next week.

Among key European leaders they have confirmed that they will not go either Ursula von der Leyenthe President of the European Commission, busy configuring her cabinet after renewing her position at the European elections last June, although it is possible to see the European Commissioner for Climate, the Dutchman Wopke Hoekstra.

Ecologists ask for “more concreteness”

Ecologists in Action, WWF, Greenpeace, SEO/BirdLife and Friends of the Earth have demanded that countries increase their contributions to international climate finance and make their measures to reduce emissions more specific. For example, they explained that the two main topics of the negotiations will be financing and mitigation measures. Regarding the former, discussions will focus on the New Quantified Collective Goal, part of the Paris Agreement, designed to set a financial target to support developing countries in their climate actions beyond 2025.

Greenpeace Executive Director Eva Saldaña has insisted that when it comes to increasing global climate finance funds, “the fuel industry and other major polluters must pay.” Looking ahead to the summit, he has stated that they will demand that all governments reject the ‘pressure’ from the ‘fossil lobbies’ and defend society against the ‘eco-social emergency’.