COP29 opens to discuss efforts tackling global warming after deadly climate-related disasters

COP29 opens to discuss efforts tackling global warming after deadly climate-related disasters

By GT staff reporters 

Published: Nov 11, 2024 

With memories of deadly floods in Spain and severe hurricane strikes in the US still fresh, and the summer of 2024 being the hottest on record, world leaders, scientists and industry representatives are gathering in Baku, Azerbaijan for the COP29 to discuss concerted efforts to respond to climate change. 

Floods in Spain 2024

However, the latest changes in the international landscape, including Donald Trump's reelection as US president given the fact that he had pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement in his first term, and emerging protectionism over green technologies, have brought uncertainty to the event.  

Making emission reduction plans and a climate funding arrangement are high on the agenda this year, Chinese analysts said, stressing that the imminent threat posed by climate change to humanity is a bugle call for countries to take more proactive measures, and developed countries should fulfill their commitment rather than shun responsibilities. 

Floods in Spain 2024

Imminent threat 

The COP29, formally known as the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is slated to be held in Baku from November 11 to November 22. 

Browsing news websites, examples of extreme weather victims and climate refugees are abundant. Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, said on Monday's COP29 opening that "This crisis is affecting every single individual in the world in one way or another."

Stiell urged parties to dispense with any idea that climate finance is charity. "An ambitious new climate finance goal is entirely in the self-interest of every nation, including the largest and wealthiest."  

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a UN body, in 2022, limiting warming to around 1.5 C requires global greenhouse gas emissions to peak before 2025 and decrease by 43 percent by 2030 to prevent irrevocable damage. 

The deadline is around the corner. 

In an interview with the Guardian on Friday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the world is still underestimating the risk of catastrophic climate breakdown and ecosystem collapse. 

Humanity is approaching potentially irreversible tipping points such as the collapse of the Amazon rainforest and the Greenland ice sheet as global temperatures rise, Guterres said, warning that governments are not making the deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions needed to limit warming to safe levels.

Ma Jun, director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, told the Global Times the lessons that should be learned from more frequent natural disasters are not only emergency response capacity building for nations, but also the importance and urgency of emission reduction. 

Countries must take more proactive measures to reduce emissions in order to avoid further increases in global temperatures, which could lead to more severe climate consequences, Ma noted.  

However, the latest changes in the international landscape, including Donald Trump's reelection as US president given the fact that he had pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement in his first term, and emerging protectionism over green technologies, have brought uncertainty to the event. 

Looming challenges  

Politico said in a Sunday report that "the world is bracing for Trump to withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement for the second time."

The Trump campaign told Politico in June that the former president would quit the global pact, as he did in 2017 during his first stint in the office. Trump has not yet issued his policy on climate change since winning the election.

The US is the biggest developed country, with many allies and great influence on global governance, and its potential withdrawal from the agreement again will undoubtedly backpedal global efforts for carbon reduction and climate change response, Xin Qiang, director of the Taiwan Studies Center at Fudan University, told the Global Times on Monday. 

The US' swinging back and forth in its climate stance not only means discontinuity in domestic policy on clean energy and carbon reduction, but also jeopardizes global cooperation and joint action, Xin said.  

Another challenge is the emerging protectionism related to green industries, such as new-energy vehicles (NEVs) and photovoltaic panels, according to Lü Xiang, research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.  

Some countries in the EU have resorted to tariffs primarily for economic reasons, but they should recognize that such protectionism is detrimental to green technology transfer and global climate cooperation, Lü said. 

A key task of the COP29 is to establish a New Collective Quantified Goal on climate financing, which represents a post-2025 climate financing commitment from developed economies to developing nations, Xia Yingxian, director of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment's Department of Climate Change, said at a news conference on Friday.

The new financing arrangement is set to replace developed countries' $100 billion annual commitment as per the Paris Agreement. The commitment was not truly fulfilled and will expire in 2025. 

Climate finance, as a focal point, hot spot and challenge in the international climate process, is crucial for building trust between developed and developing countries, and it is key to advancing multilateral progress, Xia said.

Hurricane Katrina US

China's role 

At the invitation of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, President Xi Jinping's Special Representative, Member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council Ding Xuexiang will travel to Azerbaijan from November 12 to 13 for the World Leaders Climate Action Summit and visit the country at the invitation of Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Shahin Abdulla oglu Mustafayev, according to Chinese Foreign Ministry. 

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at Friday's routine press briefing that China stands ready to work with other parties to uphold the goal, principles and system of the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement, advance practical actions and achieve sustainable development. China hopes to see positive outcomes on the global climate finance goal at the meeting, Mao said. 

Developed countries should earnestly fulfill their responsibilities and provide strong financial support to developing countries for their climate response. China will continue to offer assistance to fellow developing countries to the best of its capacity under the framework of South-South cooperation, said the spokesperson.

 UNICEF/David Hogsholt Storms, typhoons and other nautaral desasters cause widespread
damage in many countries in Asia. (file)

Some countries have been pressing China to contribute more funding, but Ma noted China's consistent stance is "shared but differentiated responsibilities."

Data show that from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-18th century to 1950, developed countries emitted 95 percent of the world's total carbon dioxide, and from 1950 to 2000, the emissions produced by developed countries accounted for 77 percent of the global total, Xinhua reported.

The COP29, and the overall climate change response, should be practical and respect different countries' efforts based on their national conditions, Ma said. 

Xin Qiang said China has always been a responsible major power in dealing with climate change: in addition to continuous afforestation, it has invested enormously in green transition and helps other developing countries in the cause. 

China released an annual climate action report on November 6, outlining the country's new initiatives for tackling climate change. According to the report, China's energy use structure, manufacturing, transportation and construction have been greener in the past year. 

As for global cooperation, China has signed 52 South-South cooperation documents on climate change with 42 developing countries, per the report.  

China's wind power and photovoltaic product exports helped other countries reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 810 million tons in 2023, according to the white paper issued by China's State Council Information Office in August, Xinhua reported.⍐ 

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Note: Pictures ENB

 

Greta Thunberg protests against Azerbaijan hosting global climate summit

Climate activist Greta Thunberg has attended a rally in Georgia to protest against Azernaijan hosting the annual United Nations climate talks

BySOPHIKO MEGRELIDZE Associated Press November 11, 2024,

TBILISI, Georgia -- Climate activist Greta Thunberg on Monday attended a rally in Georgia to protest against Azerbaijan hosting the annual United Nations climate talks.

Thunberg and scores of other activists who rallied in Tbilisi, the capital of the South Caucasus nation, argued that Azerbaijan doesn't deserve to host the climate talks because of its repressive policies.

U.N. climate talks, called COP29, opened Monday in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, a major oil producer where the world’s first oil well was drilled.

Thunberg described Azerbaijan as “a repressive, occupying state, which has committed ethnic cleansing, and which is continuing cracking down on Azerbaijani civil society." She charged that the Caspian Sea nation has used the summit as “a chance to greenwash their crimes and human rights abuses.”

Video. 

Protesters at COP29 call for an end to war in Gaza

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"We can't give them any legitimacy in this situation, which is why we are standing here and saying no to greenwashing and no to the Azerbaijani regime,” she said.

Azerbaijan has committed to clean energy projects, but critics have argued that’s just to export more oil and gas.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has been in power since 2003 when he succeeded his father who died after ruling the oil rich nation for the previous decade. He has been accused by critics of intolerance to dissent and freedom of speech.

Earlier this year, Aliyev won another seven-year presidential term in an election that monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said took place in a “restrictive environment” with no real political competition. Aliyev called the early vote while enjoying a surge in popularity after Azerbaijani forces in September 2023 swiftly reclaimed the Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian separatists, who had controlled it for three decades.

After Azerbaijan regained full control of Karabakh, most of its 120,000 Armenian residents fled. The Azerbaijani authorities, however, said they were welcome to stay and promised their human rights would be ensured.

Thunberg, 21, has inspired a global youth movement demanding stronger efforts to fight climate change after staging weekly protests outside the Swedish parliament starting in 2018.

The European climate service Copernicus announced earlier this month that the world is on pace for 1.5 degrees of warming this year, which is heading to become the hottest year in human civilization.

Speaking at the rally in Tbilisi on Monday, Thunberg emphasized that the hottest year ever recorded comes after global greenhouse gas emissions reached an all time high last year. Holding the climate change conference "in an authoritarian petro state is beyond absurd,” she said.⍐

Time to Show Global Cooperation Rising to This Moment: UN

 Time to Show Global Cooperation Rising to This Moment: UN Climate Change Executive Secretary at COP29 Opening

The following is a transcript of remarks made by UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell at the opening of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, on 11 November 2024.

Excellencies, Delegates, Colleagues, Friends,

It is an honor to welcome you to COP29.

I thank Dr. Sultan Al Jaber and the Emirati Presidency for their tireless work, as they pass the baton to President Babayev and Azerbaijan.

In tough times, up against difficult tasks, I don’t go in for hopes and dreams.

What inspires me is human ingenuity and determination. Our ability to get knocked down and to get up again over and over again, until we accomplish our goals.

The lady I’m standing with, in this picture, is my neighbour, Florence, in Carriacou. In July this year, this was us, standing in all that remained of her home after the devastation of Hurricane Beryl.

At 85, Florence has become one of the millions of victims of runaway climate change this year alone.

She was focused on one thing: Being strong for her family and strong for her community.

And there are people like Florence in every country on Earth.  Knocked down, and getting back up again.

This UNFCCC process is the only place we have to address the rampant climate crisis, and to credibly hold each other to account to act on it.

And we know this process is working. Because without it, humanity would be headed towards five degrees of global warming.

In these halls, we negotiate on specific pieces of the puzzle each year. It can feel far away from what’s happening in Florence’s living room. We cannot afford to continue up-ending lives and livelihoods in every nation - so let’s make this real:

Do you want your grocery and energy bills to go up even more?

Do you want your country to become economically uncompetitive?

Do you really want even further global instability, costing precious life?

This crisis is affecting every single individual in the world one way or another.

And I’m as frustrated as anyone that one single COP can’t deliver the full transformation that every nation needs. But if any of your answers to those questions was no, then it is here that Parties need to agree a way out of this mess.

That’s why we're here in Baku. We must agree a new global climate finance goal.

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.  No country is immune.

So, let's dispense with the idea that climate finance is charity. An ambitious new climate finance goal is entirely in the self-interest of every single nation, including the largest and wealthiest.

But it’s not enough to just agree on a goal. We must work harder to reform the global financial system. Giving countries the fiscal space they so desperately need.

And here in Baku, we must get international carbon markets up and running, by finalising Article 6.

We need to move forward on mitigation, so targets from Dubai are realized.

We mustn’t let 1.5 slip out of reach. And even as temperatures rise, the implementation of our agreements must claw them back.

Clean energy and infrastructure investment will reach two trillion dollars in 2024. Almost twice that of fossil fuels.

The shift to clean-energy and climate-resilience will not be stopped. Our job is to accelerate this and make sure its huge benefits are shared by all countries and all people.

We must agree adaptation targets. You can't manage what you don't measure. And we need to know if we're on a pathway to increasing resilience.

And we must continue to improve the new mechanisms for financial and technical support on loss and damage.

We can’t make decisions in the dark. Biennial Transparency Reports, due this year, will give us a clearer picture of the progress we're making, and the gaps that we need to fill.

[Next] year, all countries will deliver their third generation of national climate plans – NDCs.

To support countries in creating and communicating them, the UNFCCC will launch a Climate Plan Campaign.

It will mobilise action from all stakeholders, and align with the efforts of the UN Secretary-General and the incoming Brazilian COP Presidency.

In parallel, we'll re-start Climate Weeks from 2025. Aligning them more closely with our process and the outcomes it must deliver.

At the Secretariat, we will continue to work tirelessly with what we have got, while being clear on what funding we need, so we can deliver on what’s increasingly being asked of us.

And we will keep focus on the safe, inclusive, and meaningful participation of all observers at this COP.

In the past few years, we’ve taken some historic steps forward.  We cannot leave Baku without a substantial outcome. Appreciating the importance of this moment, Parties must act accordingly.

Show determination and ingenuity here at COP29 – We need all parties to push for agreement right from the start - To stand and deliver.

Now it is the time to show that global cooperation is not down for the count. So I urge you all, let us rise together.

I thank you.⍐