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UN Climate Change Conference 2024: COP29 in Baku at a glance
Azerbaijan is hosting the next UN Climate Change Conference. akzente answers the key questions about COP29.
- When and where will the UN Climate Change Conference 2024 take place?
- Why was Azerbaijan chosen as the host country for COP29?
- What are the goals of the UN Climate Change Conference?
- Why is there talk of it being a ‘finance COP’?
- Is input expected from the host country?
- What is the situation regarding global warming?
- Why is it called COP29?
- Who participates in the conference?
- What is the Paris Agreement?
- What results were achieved at COP28 in Dubai?
- What have been the most important conferences and decisions?
When and where will the UN Climate Change Conference 2024 take place?
The next UN Climate Change Conference is being held from 11 to 22 November, in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. As was the case with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last year, holding the event in Azerbaijan means that an authoritarian, oil-producing state is hosting this year’s conference. That said, the South Caucasus country not only has far fewer financial resources than the UAE, it has also less experience of international conferences. The location therefore drew criticism in the run-up to the event. This was further exacerbated by the fact that schools will be closed during the conference and part of central Baku will be blocked off. Transparency and critical feedback, which are usually welcome at climate change conferences, will be unlikely here. All these factors combined are dampening expectations for the outcomes of the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29). In Germany, there are hopes that greater impetus will be achieved again at COP30 which, symbolically, is taking place on the edge of the Amazon forest in the Brazilian city of Belém.
Why was Azerbaijan chosen as the host country for COP29?
The COP venue rotates among five regional groups in the United Nations: Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Western Europe and Others (including North America and Australia) and Eastern Europe. This time it was the turn of Eastern Europe. Bulgaria had also expressed interest in hosting COP29. However, this was rejected by Russia because Bulgaria is a member of the European Union. Azerbaijan was therefore the only consensus option.
What are the goals of the UN Climate Change Conference?
The members of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meet once a year at the UN Climate Change Conferences to drive the transition to a climate-neutral world. The aim is to further refine and implement the decisions laid out in the 2015 Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement envisages reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by the middle of the century and achieving the 1-5-degree target. The planet must not heat up by more than this compared to pre-industrial levels because the consequences would no longer be manageable. Implementation of the Paris Agreement also includes adapting people and societies to the changing climate. This transformation costs a great deal of money, with figures estimated at hundreds of billions of US dollars annually. Developing countries, in particular, cannot raise these sums alone.
Why is there talk of it being a ‘finance COP’?
The subject of climate finance will be high on the agenda in Baku. Up to now, an arrangement has been in place for richer states to mobilise USD 100 billion per year for developing countries. This target was achieved last year for the first time. However, the arrangement is coming to an end in 2025. Negotiations will therefore take place in Baku on a new finance target, a ‘New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG)’, which is to apply from 2025 onwards. Discussions around the NCQG will be an important part of the negotiations in Azerbaijan.
Is input expected from the host country?
Azerbaijan has announced a range of initiatives, including a fund to which oil-producing countries are primarily to contribute. The aim is for the fund to provide money to the developing countries hit hardest by climate change. It is not yet clear how the fund will work, how it will differ from existing funds or whether many countries will support it. It also remains to be seen whether other initiatives, for instance on agriculture and green energy, will bear political fruit. This depends in large part on the countries and (UN) organisations that support these initiatives.
What is the situation regarding global warming?
If efforts continue at their current pace, we are heading towards global warming of 2.8 degrees. This figure is from the latest IPCC report from early 2023. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recently announced that global warming is advancing much faster than previously predicted. According to the WMO, the crucial 1.5-degree mark will be exceeded as early as 2028 unless more resolute countermeasures are taken.
Why is it called COP29?
The abbreviation COP stands for ‘Conference of the Parties’, the Parties being the states that have signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a binding agreement under international law. Each COP is numbered, and we are now at 29. The first UN Climate Change Conference (COP1) was held in Berlin in 1995, after the UNFCCC came into force.
Who participates in the conference?
The 198 Parties to the Convention take part in the conference. Other participants include ‘observers’, which are mainly international organisations but also the Palestinian territories and the Vatican City State. Several thousand non-governmental organisations will also be represented. The conferences are organised by the UNFCCC secretariat in cooperation with the host country. The largest COP took place in Dubai in 2023. This time far fewer attendees are expected – partly because of muted expectations for the conference as a whole but also because hotel prices in Baku are incredibly high.
What is the Paris Agreement?
This legally binding document was adopted by the Parties in the French capital in 2015 (at COP21). It is considered a breakthrough in international climate policy, as it contains a specific, common climate action target, namely to limit global warming to less than two degrees and, if possible, less than 1.5 degrees Celsius. Since then, the international community has been working with national climate goals, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which each country must set out and submit at regular intervals. The NDCs are to become more and more ambitious until emissions of climate-damaging gases are low enough to allow climate change to be brought under control.
What results were achieved at COP28 in Dubai?
Experts did not have high expectations for COP28 in Dubai leading up to the event. The host country had faced considerable criticism as an oil state. In fact, however, quite a lot was achieved: not only was the 1.5-degree target confirmed, the end of the fossil fuel era was signalled for the first time, too. ‘Transitioning away from fossil fuels’ was how the COP28 final declaration was worded, and this is generally interpreted as the beginning of the end for all fossil fuels. The COP representatives also decided to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030, and to double energy efficiency. The Loss and Damage Fund was made operational thanks to various funding pledges in Dubai, including from Germany. The fund aims to provide financial support to developing countries in the event of damage caused by major droughts or floods, for example.
What have been the most important conferences and decisions?
International climate policy dates back to the Rio Conference (also known as the Earth Summit) in 1992, where delegates adopted the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which has been regarded as the ‘mother of all climate decisions’ ever since. In it, the international community pledged for the first time to stabilise the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere in order to prevent interference with the climate system. The Convention entered into force in 1994. It was followed in 1997 by the Kyoto Protocol, which laid down specific reduction commitments of on average 5.2 per cent compared to 1990 emissions, initially for industrialised countries. When the Protocol expired, the international community was not able at first to agree on a new model to replace it. A low point in climate negotiations was reached in Copenhagen in 2009. It was not until six years later, in 2015, that delegates reached a consensus on the Paris Agreement. Instead of fixed reduction commitments for certain countries, it provides for Nationally Determined Contributions for all countries. The Paris Agreement continues to be updated and expanded.