The twenty-ninth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29), held in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 11 to 22 November 2024, had as its main objective to accelerate the crucial action to combat the climate crisis [1]. With global temperatures reaching record levels this year and extreme weather events affecting people around the world (such as DANA in Spain), COP29 brought together national leaders, businesses and members of civil society to propose concrete solutions to the most important issue of our time.

One of the main topics was finance, the conference was in fact dubbed the “climate finance COP”, discussing the trillions of dollars needed to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect lives, securing livelihoods needed to cope with the worsening impacts of climate change [2]. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated in his opening speech: “On climate finance, the world must pay, or humanity will pay the price […]. Climate finance is not charity, it is an investment. Climate action is not optional, it is an imperative. Both are indispensable: for a livable world for all humanity and for a prosperous future for every nation on Earth.” [3].

Addressing the world leaders present on the second day of the conference, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell did not mince words, stating that the climate crisis is fast becoming an economic killer. Here is an excerpt of his words: “Worsening climate impacts will put inflation on steroids unless every country takes bolder climate action. Let us learn the lesson of the pandemic, when billions of people suffered because we did not take collective action fast enough. When supply chains were destroyed. Let us not repeat the mistake. Climate finance is an insurance against global inflation. Pervasive climate costs should be public enemy number one” [4].

Fig.1: Artwork at the entrance to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 29) in Baku, Azerbaijan. Royalty-free photo by Matthew TenBruggencate on Unsplash.

The conference was also a key moment to present the updated national climate action plans under the Paris Agreement, which must be official by early 2025 [1]. These should limit global warming to 1.5°C compared to pre-industrial levels and serve as investment plans for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) [1].

The first week, usually the most important one, ended with multiple unfinished business and many difficulties both inside and outside the conference. The results of the US elections, Argentina’s decision to pull out of the negotiations, the failure of developed countries to meet Adaptation Fund targets, tensions between Azerbaijan and France, and the questionable leadership of the Azerbaijani presidency all contributed to pessimism outside the capital about whether COP29 would be able to achieve its main goals as described above [5].

Encouragingly, there were some messages of solidarity and commitment in the vast majority of speeches by national leaders, who collectively recognised the recent significant impacts of climate change and called for accelerated action on a global fund for adaptation and resilience.

UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell

An important factor complicating the negotiations was the simultaneous timing of COP29, in Baku, with the G20 (forum of leaders, finance ministers and central bank governors), in Brazil. This extremely rare event made it very difficult for some leaders to attend both conferences. However, the forum’s joint statement reaffirmed the bloc’s “commitment to multilateralism […] to the success of the Baku negotiations’ and to ‘strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth” [6].

The signal on finance for the climate crisis was also very strong, the communique states that the G20 “looks forward to a successful outcome of the NCQG (Decisions on a new collective quantified target for climate finance) in Baku” and, based on the recent Climate Taskforce statement, the text contains several endorsements of initiatives to advance international finance reform, with the aim of generating more finance for climate and clean energy investments [6]. Despite these good intentions, however, no defined plan for the transition away from fossil fuels has been defined, and thus no clear path for progress on this issue has been planned. The commitment to respond positively to the call for NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions), the efforts of each country to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change, aligned with not reaching the 1.5°C threshold is constructive.

The G20 countries launched new initiatives to promote the growth of renewable energy and energy efficiency; however, the report does not capture the totality of the COP28 global agreement on an energy transition package that includes the complete abandonment of fossil fuels [6].

The final proposal for the global financial agreement was already divisive and discontented from the first drafts circulated on the final day of the summit, “The text we have now … is unbalanced, unworkable and unacceptable,” said EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra [7]. The two very different options offered left no one satisfied, even though this often means that at least a compromise was reached.

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