UN climate conference opens in Azerbaijan with call for substantive climate-finance action
The 29th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference, held this year in the Azerbaijani capital Baku, kicked off November 11 with a plea for attendees to clean up a mess.
“One single COP can’t deliver the full transformation that every nation needs,” UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell stated in his opening remarks. “Parties need to agree [on] a way out of this mess. That’s why we’re here in Baku. We must agree [on] a new global climate finance goal.”
Stiell argued that climate finance assistance should not be viewed as “charity” but something in the best interests of all nations, from the wealthiest to the poorest.
“If at least two-thirds of the world’s nations cannot afford to cut emissions quickly, then every nation pays a brutal price. If nations can’t build resilience into supply chains, the entire global economy will be brought to its knees,” he continued. “No country is immune.”
Up to 80,000 participants from almost 200 countries, including government leaders, experts and activists, will convene in Baku over the next two weeks to grapple with climate-finance and other global warming-related issues. The conference’s primary goal is to secure $100 billion annually to address climate-related challenges mainly in developing nations.
In his own welcoming remarks, COP29 president and Azerbaijan’s ecology minister, Mukhtar Babayev, said the outcome of the gathering will hinge on actions, not words.
“The new efforts to be defined must include more effective results,” he said. “We understand that the negotiations will not be easy, but we must achieve the main goal of the conference.”
For Azerbaijan, a major fossil fuel producer and a controversial choice to serve as host of the climate conference, COP29 represents an opportunity, and perhaps a risk. President Ilham Aliyev’s administration sought to host the conference out of a desire to boost Azerbaijan’s international prestige. Accordingly, success in achieving the $100 billion fund-raising goal would likely reflect well on the hosts. Conversely, Baku’s image could take a hit if the meeting ends inconclusively.
In the months leading up to the conference, COP29 generated lots of publicity for Azerbaijan, but much of it was negative. Aliyev’s administration received widespread criticism for carrying out a far-reaching crackdown meant to silence all forms of internal dissent in advance of the meeting. Influential Western news outlets, including the Financial Times and Economist, published analysis pieces that poked holes in Azerbaijan’s climate action record, prompting Aliyev to complain about a “smear” campaign against Baku.
Aliyev undermined his own climate messages in September with a vow to ramp up production of oil and gas. “We are currently working on several new projects in the oil-and-gas sector, and based on their development, we have new production forecasts,” he said. “I am confident that growth in the oil-and-gas sector will be positive.”
The chances that COP29 will produce desired action and financial commitments are murky. Amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, many of the world’s most influential leaders, including China’s Xi Jinping, are staying away from the conference. Among the high-profile personalities who will attend are UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, President of the European Council Charles Michel, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko and a world-famous Indian guru, Sadhguru.
The United States is sending a relatively low-profile delegation led by White House senior adviser John Podesta. Donald Trump’s electoral victory raises questions about whether the United States will make any contribution toward the COP29 financing target. Trump has vowed to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement.
While the forecast for the financing goal remains cloudy, COP29 may create chances to achieve progress on regional issues with potentially large social and economic ramifications.
For example, the Taliban in Afghanistan has sent representatives to Baku, marking the first time the radical Islamic leadership has opted to participate in the annual climate conference. The Taliban’s presence creates an opportunity for officials from Central Asian states to engage Afghan counterparts on the issue of the Qosh Tepa canal, a project in northern Afghanistan that can upend a delicate water balance across Central Asia. Central Asian states, including Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, want to bring Afghanistan into a regional water-management framework, a concept that the Taliban has so far resisted.
Source:Eurasianet
