The 29th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the annual U.N. climate summit, has begun in Baku, Azerbaijan. COP29 is the final COP before the February 2025 deadline for updating nationally determined contributions (NDCs), with a major focus on the COP28 commitment to phase out fossil fuels.
Azerbaijan holds COP29 presidency
Sultan Al-Jaber, President of COP28, opened the 29th session with a message of motivation and hope. Azerbaijan, as a state in central and eastern Europe, holds the presidency of COP this year, with Mukhtar Babayev, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources, appointed as President of the 29th session.
With the slogan “In Solidarity for a Green World,” the conference is set to advance international efforts toward responsible climate action. Over ten days, global leaders from both the public and private sectors will deliberate on and push for actions around climate resilience, energy transition, and sustainability targets, with nearly 200 countries participating.
COP29: What’s on the Agenda?
In addition to reviewing ongoing projects and discussing climate change-related loss and damage, the session will concentrate on climate finance. The summit aims to negotiate a new climate finance fund, the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG).
Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, emphasized the importance of a global climate finance goal, noting that if most of the world’s nations cannot afford rapid emissions cuts, all countries will face serious consequences. Stiell warned that without resilience in supply chains, the global economy could suffer significantly, as no country is immune to these impacts. The discussions on climate finance stress that it should not be viewed as charity, either by contributors or recipients, but rather as a mutual benefit.
Long-term climate finance issues to be discussed
The COP will also address long-term climate finance and review the annual reports of the Green Climate Fund and the Global Environmental Facility. Key agenda items include sustainable transformation, green growth, decarbonization, energy transition, gender and climate change, mountain ecosystems, capacity-building, finalizing rules for carbon trading under Article 6, the role of AI and technology in addressing climate impacts, technology transfer, and issues concerning the least developed countries.
In addition to a new annual climate finance goal of up to $1 trillion, the summit aims to reach other significant milestones, including a deal to activate multilateral carbon credit markets and an increase in financial aid to countries affected by severe climate disasters. It will also establish a regional center for climate change technologies in Central Asia.
India at COP29
On the national front, India’s presence at COP29 will be subdued due to the absence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav. India will not host a pavilion at this COP, with its 19-member delegation led by Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, Kirti Vardhan Singh.
India’s position reflects its struggle to balance climate commitments with rising energy demands amid rapid economic growth, especially as global attention shifts toward emerging economies to lead in emissions reduction.
While this year’s conference may lack the momentum seen at previous COPs, the coming days may still yield valuable contributions to the climate action dialogue, particularly regarding common but differentiated responsibilities (CDR).
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