Sunday marked the end of the year’s most important climate summit, the 29th UN Conference of the Parties (COP29). Hosted by a petrostate and attended by nearly 2,000 fossil fuel lobbyists, the “finance COP” promised to deliver much-needed progress on the critical issue of supporting developing countries’ mitigation and adaptation efforts. But the COP29 Presidency faced other challenges, and not all of them have been addressed. So, did COP29 succeed or fail? And, most importantly, is COP still “fit for purpose”?

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More than 50,000 people attended the two-week summit in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, including 80 world leaders and at least 1,773 fossil fuel lobbyists.

The 29th edition of the United Nations Conference of the Parties was nicknamed the “finance COP,” sharp in focus on mobilizing the trillions of dollars needed – first and foremost by developing countries – to mitigate and adapt to climate change. But there is a lot more to unpack.

Earth.Org recaps the main achievements and failures of COP29 and looks at what is next for the UN summit.

Achievements and Failures

Climate finance

All eyes were on the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) this year, a key element of the 2015 Paris Agreement aimed at setting a new financial target to support developing countries in their climate actions post-2025.

The NCQG is building on the $100 billion pledge to mobilize $100 billion per year by 2020, which is set to expire next year, aiming to provide a more realistic and ambitious financial framework.

On Sunday morning, nearly two days behind schedule, negotiators finally agreed on a new finance deal: $300 billion per year by 2035. This will replace the existing $100 target, which was proposed at COP15 in 2009 but not met until 2022. But is it enough?

Global South delegates had been pushing for “trillions, not billions” throughout the summit, as recent reports have put the amount needed to deal with the consequences of climate change at some $1.3 trillion annually.

Several delegations representing least-developed countries and small island developing nations were seen walking out of consultations on Saturday morning, as negotiations headed into the final stretch eyeing at a $250 billion pledge. Countries eventually settled for $300 billion, a target that infuriated developing nations. They called it a “joke” and “insultingly low.”

Indian negotiator Chandni Raina said her country “[did] not accept the goal proposal in its present form,” calling the amount proposed a “paltry sum” and “abysmally poor.”

“It is not something that will enable conducive climate action that is necessary for the survival of our country,” she said. 

Developing countries also mainly campaigned to get public grant-based money that would not have to be paid back as many of them are already heavily burdened by debt from previous development assistance.

As per the final text, the money will come from a “wide variety of sources,” including public and private finance as well as bilateral and multilateral deals. While developed countries are “taking the lead,” the text also “encourages” developing countries to contribute, albeit on a voluntary basis.

Western diplomats have been pushing for China, the world’s biggest carbon emitter, and oil-rich Gulf nations – both of which the UN designates as “developing countries” – to contribute.

Zhao Yingmin, head of China’s climate delegation, had previously hinted that the country would only agree to make voluntary contributions to future climate finance, arguing that developed countries should be responsible for mandatory contributions under the draft finance goal.

To many, the country’s refusal to officially become a climate finance donor raises questions about how far future negotiations can go on cutting emissions and raising money.

A coalition of least developed countries and small island developing states also secured language in the final text that establishes a process to boost climate finance towards the $1.3 trillion goal. That effort will be part of a “Baku to Belem Roadmap to $1.3 trillion,” which will look for additional resources to “support support low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development pathways.”

Fossil fuels

Despite last year’s summit ending with an unprecedented call to “transition away” from fossil fuels, COP29 saw few related announcements.

The European Union along with 25 nations – including Canada, the UK, Germany and the world’s largest coal consumers India and China – pledged to commit to “no new unabated coal power” in their next round of national climate plans.

Coal, the cheapest and dirtiest fossil fuel, is the single-largest source of carbon emissions, responsible for over 0.3C of the 1.3C increase in global average temperatures. “Unabated” coal refers to the burning of coal without efforts to capturing the carbon dioxide emissions generating from it.

Separately, the UK, New Zealand, and Colombia announced they would join the international Coalition on Phasing Out Fossil Fuel Incentives Including Subsidies (COFFIS), bringing the total number of members to 16. Launched last year at COP28, the coalition aims to “remove barriers and facilitate transparency toward the phase-out of fossil fuel subsidies.”

Ahead of COP29, the 13 original members were required to publish their subsidy inventories. Only four – the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Ireland – have done so, according to Climate Change News.

Meanwhile, a top delegate of Saudi Arabia, an oil-rich country long known for repeatedly opposing measures aimed at cutting fossil fuels production, earlier this week said the “Arab group will not accept any text that targets any specific sectors, including fossil fuels.”

Hitting back at Saudi Arabia, former climate minister for Canada and chair of the UN group on net-zero emissions commitments Catherine McKenna wrote in a post on social media X: “I am so sick of Saudi Arabia’s opposition to any suggestion of a transition away from fossil fuels. We are in a fossil fuel climate crisis. Please go hard everyone at #COP29 and get it done.”

The Guardian also revealed that a Saudi Arabian delegate had made changes to an official COP29 negotiating text on the just transition work program (JTWP), a UN initiative aimed at promoting pathways which ensure that the goals of the Paris Agreement are achieved justly and equitably.

Article 6

On day one of the summit, the COP29 Presidency fast-tracked the adoption of a centralized carbon trading mechanism. The system effectively allows countries to buy credits for removing and/or avoiding planet-warming pollution around the world, such as by planting trees or protecting rainforests.

The move clears the way for the long-awaited global carbon market set out in Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement, which will be open to countries and companies to trade through under UN supervision, to become operational.

The agreement was rushed and adopted without discussion and negotiations, prompting widespread criticism. Isa Mulder, a policy expert at the non-profit group Carbon Market Watch, said that adopting the rules on the first day of the summit without discussion “undermined trust” in the UN climate conference process. “Kicking off Cop29 with a backdoor deal … sets a poor precedent for transparency and proper governance,” she said.

There were also agreements made to kickstart global carbon credit trading on Saturday, something that no previous COP had been able to achieve. They will help countries deliver their climate plans more quickly and cheaply, and make faster progress in halving global emissions this decade, as required by science.

The COP29 Presidency hailed the agreement as a “breakthrough” that “achieves full operationalisation of Article 6,” which has been stuck on issues that have plagued it since the Paris Agreement was signed 10 years ago.

“We have ended a decade-long wait and unlocked a critical tool for keeping 1.5 degrees in reach,” said COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev. “Climate change is a transnational challenge and Article 6 will enable transnational solutions. Because the atmosphere does not care where emissions savings are made.”

Rueban Manokara, global lead at WWF’s Carbon Finance and Markets Taskforce, described the deal as a “significant milestone.”

“The agreement is a compromise that reflects the challenging negotiations that have been underway since 2015, but ultimately it is positive that there is now further guidance on how Article 6 mechanisms will operate,” Manokara said, adding that while the text was “not perfect,” it provided long-sought clarity to coordinate international emissions trading and carbon crediting.

Methane

30 countries collectively responsible for nearly half of all global methane emissions from organic waste, including seven of the world’s 10 largest organic waste methane emitters, endorsed a new declaration on reducing methane from organic waste. 

The declaration strengthens the Global Methane Pledge, a voluntary pact launched at COP26 in 2021 that seeks to cut global methane emissions 30% by 2030. 159 countries currently back the pledge.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas with 28 times greater global warming potential than carbon dioxide on a 100-year timescale and 84 times more potent than CO2 on a 20-year timescale.

Separately, a UN report published ahead of the summit found that just 1% of 1,200 notifications on major methane leaks delivered to governments and companies in the past two years by a high-tech detection system were responded to.

“Governments and oil and gas companies must stop paying lip-service to this challenge when answers are staring them in the face,” UNEP chief Inger Andersen urged in a statement.

Loss and Damage

COP29 needed to deliver clear commitments and foster collaboration to ensure the Loss and Damage Fund agreed upon in principle at COP27 could effectively address the urgent and growing needs of affected nations.

Following the launch of the fund at last year’s summit, all eyes were on COP29 to address several outstanding issues critical to make the fund fully operational and effective. These included determining who would contribute to the fund and how much; setting clear eligibility criteria and streamlined access mechanisms to ensure Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) could benefit quickly and effectively, and outlining a firm timeline for operationalizing the fund to avoid delays.

While total pledges to the fund reached $759 million at COP29, the final NCQG fails to effectively address these issues and instead merely “acknowledges” that “gap remain.”

During a high-level dialogue on loss and damage funding at the summit, UN Secretary-General António Guterres described the creation of the fund as “a victory for developing countries, for multilateralism, and for justice,” but stressed that its initial capitalisation of $700 million “doesn’t come close to righting the wrong inflicted on the vulnerable.”

Deforestation

The world has lost one-third of its forests, with deforestation driving desertification, soil erosion, and jeopardizing food security. It directly impacts the livelihoods of millions, particularly Indigenous communities, while contributing around 20% of global CO2 emissions that fuel climate change.

Ahead of the summit, the Global Forest Coalition (GFC) and allies from Central Asia and the Caucasus issued the “Baku Forest Declaration,” urging a paradigm shift in climate negotiations to prioritize forest protection, Indigenous rights, and climate justice.

“We urge climate negotiations to focus on justice, sustainability and equity, and to take into account the voices of those most affected by climate change,” the declaration read.

Despite its wide-ranging impact, the call went unheard, with little accomplished on the issue.

14 countries part of the Forest & Climate Leaders’ Partnership (FCLP) issue a political statement underscoring their commitment to scaling up finance for forests, while the UK unveiled £239 million (US$300 million) in new funding to help forest-rich nations tackle climate change.

The money comprises £188m to SCALE programme for high-integrity forest carbon markets, £48m blended finance to unlock private investment in tropical forest enterprises and £3m for UNFCCC to help countries protect forests and support local communities.

Agriculture & Food Security

On Food, Agriculture and Water Day, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the COP29 Presidency launched the Baku Harmoniya Climate Initiative for Farmers “to help farmers navigate their way through dozens of initiatives and programs working to support climate-resilient agrifood systems transformation.”

Separately, the Alliance of Champions for Food Systems Transformation (ACF) reconvened in Baku last week, one year after its launch at COP28. The alliance of five countries – Brazil, Cambodia, Norway, Sierra Leone and Rwanda – urged governments and financial institutions at COP29 to prioritise climate finance for food systems. The ACF also released a snapshots showcasing progress since the initiative was launched.

Controversies at COP29

The COP29 Presidency found itself at the center of numerous controversies.

Azerbaijan, this year’s host, is a highly fossil fuel-dependent state and the oldest oil-producing region in the world. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), oil and gas account for about 90% of the nation’s exports’ revenue and 60% of the government’s budget.

Climate activists have long called COP meetings a “farce” due to the presence of thousands of fossil fuel representatives, with this year’s host pick reigniting the debate over the role of fossil fuels in the summit.

The burning of coal, natural gas, and oil for electricity and heat is the single-largest source of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the primary drivers of global warming by trapping heat in the atmosphere and raising Earth’s surface temperature.

In April, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said his country will continue to invest in gas production in order to meet European Union demand for energy in a “sign of responsibility.” He also called fossil fuels “a gift of God,” a statement he reiterated during the first week of the summit.

“Having oil and gas deposits is not our fault. It’s a gift of God. We must be judged not by that but on how we use this resource for the development of the country, for reduction of poverty, unemployment and what is our target with respect to [the] green agenda,” Aliyev remarked in April.

The COP29 Presidency was also criticized for failing to include any mentions of a plan to phase out fossil fuels in its summit’s Action Agenda despite the COP28 unprecedented call to “transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner to achieve net-zero by 2050 in keeping with the science.”

Separately, an undercover investigation by campaign group Global Witness caught Elnur Soltanov, the COP29 chief executive and Azerbaijan’s deputy energy minister, using his role at the UN climate summit to facilitate fossil fuel deals. Meeting recordings leaked ahead of the summit show Soltanov agreeing to sponsorships in exchange for aiding oil and gas deals, a move that clashes with the global push towards climate adaptation and mitigation efforts.

“Just as we saw with the UAE last year, the event’s hosts have an agenda that is at serious odds with climate justice,” Amnesty International’s Schaaf remarked.

Human rights groups have also accused the Azerbaijani government to use COP29 to crack down on environmental activists and other political opponents.

“We’ve seen a dramatic increase in arrests and clamp down on all issues that the government may perceive critical or contrary to its political agenda,” Natalia Nozadze from Amnesty International told BBC news.

Did COP29 Succeed or Fail?

In a letter to the UN published at the end of the summit’s first week, a group of influential climate policy experts said that COP summits are “no longer fit for purpose.”

The signatories, which included former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, former president of Ireland Mary Robinson, former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres and prominent Earth scientist Johan Rockström, demanded that the current complex process of annual COP meetings be streamlined, with summits held more frequently and developing countries allowed to have greater influence in the process.

The sentiment was echoed by many delegates during the past two weeks.

Juan Carlos Monterrey Gómez, Panama’s special representative for climate change, was one of them.

“Developed nations always throw text at us at the last minute, shove it down our throat, and then, for the sake of multilateralism, we always have to accept it, otherwise the climate mechanisms will go into a horrible downward spiral, and no one needs that,” he said as he questioned the process of the deal’s adoption on Sunday.

Always have to accept a bad deal for the sake of multilateralism? What a poor negotiating position! Maybe it’s time for climate negotiators to work more closely with their peace and security counterparts – because to get any deal worth having, you have to be willing to walk away https://t.co/KTKHBhc61P

— Martin Kimani (@AmbMKimani) November 24, 2024

The letter also criticized Azerbaijan’s pick to host the talks: “We need strict eligibility criteria to exclude countries who do not support the phase-out/transition away from fossil energy. Host countries must demonstrate their high level of ambition to uphold the goals of the Paris agreement,” the group wrote.

Azerbaijan is the third petrostate in a row to host the talks after one of the world’s richest petrostates in the world, the United Arab Emirates, hosted COP28 last year and Egypt hosted COP27 in 2022. 

Some 1,773 oil and gas lobbyists attended the summit in Baku. At COP28 last year, at least 2,456 lobbyists were granted access, while COP27 allowed some 636 people linked to the fossil fuel industry to join the climate talks.

The structure and format of these meetings, unchanged since the inaugural one in 1995, no longer meet the scale and complexity of the unfolding climate crisis.

It is true that global climate negotiations have long fell far short of the urgent and transformative action needed. However, some argue that COP’s most vital role is perhaps to continue to exist, to provide a platform for countries to keep engaging, maintain momentum, apply peer pressure, and steadily address the problem while individual nations and private companies work toward more lasting and comprehensive solutions.

“The deal’s greatest success is that it at least kept the COP process from falling apart entirely,” said Katharine Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist and professor at Texas Tech University.

“Now comes the really hard part: Turning those numbers on a page into hard cash in the hands of the most climate-vulnerable countries. Recent history, and the new language adopted in Baku, don’t bode well for that,” she added.

What’s Next?

As UN climate chief Simon Stiell put it on Sunday, the Azerbaijani presidency left Brazil, which is next in line to host the talks, with “a mountain of work to do.”

“The many other issues we need to progress may not be headlines but they are lifelines for billions of people. So this is no time for victory laps, we need to set our sights and redouble our efforts on the road to Belém. Even so, we’ve shown the UN Paris Agreement is delivering, but governments still need to pick up the pace. Let’s not forget, without this UN-convened global cooperation, we’d be headed towards 5 degrees of global warming,” Stiell said.

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Developing nations, which are disproportionately affected by climate change, had been campaigning for “trillions, not billions” in climate finance from rich countries.

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Nearly 200 countries agreed to more than triple the amount of money available to help developing countries confront rapidly warming temperatures.

The deal was reached in the early hours of Sunday, far past the scheduled end of COP29 on Friday. More than 50,000 people attended the two-week summit in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, including 80 world leaders and at least 1,773 fossil fuel lobbyists.

After days of heated negotiations, rich countries pledged to provide “at least” $300 billion annually by 2035 in climate finance for developing countries. The money will come from a variety of sources, including public and private finance as well as bilateral and multilateral deals. The text also “encourages” developing countries like China to contribute, albeit on a voluntary basis.

Zhao Yingmin, head of China’s climate delegation, had previously hinted that the country would only agree to make voluntary contributions to future climate finance, arguing that developed countries should be responsible for mandatory contributions under the draft New Collective Quantified Goal.

The final amount is a jump from the $250 billion proposed in a draft deal on Friday, which sparked widespread condemnation as being ‘”definitely not enough.” It will replace the existing goal to mobilize $100 billion per year by 2020 for developing countries, which was proposed at COP15 in 2009 but not met until 2022.

But Global South negotiators said Sunday’s deal was a “joke” and “insultingly low.” They had been pushing for “trillions, not billions” throughout the summit and mainly grant-based money that would not have to be paid back as many developing countries are already heavily burdened by debt from previous development assistance.

Several delegations representing least-developed countries and small island developing nations were seen walking out of consultations on Saturday morning, as negotiations headed into the final stretch.

“We came here to this COP for a fair deal. We feel that we haven’t been heard, and there’s a deal to be made, and we have not been consulted … We’ve walked out because at the moment, we don’t feel that we are being heard,” Cedric Schuster, the Samoan chairman of the group, told reporters.

As COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev brought down his gavel on the final $300 deal at 2.40 am local time, countries including India, Panama and Nigeria, took to the floor to express their frustration. They accused the COP29 presidency of pushing the deal through without allowing them to object it.

Indian negotiator Chandni Raina said her country “[did] not accept the goal proposal in its present form,” calling the amount proposed “abysmally poor” and a “paltry sum.”

“It is not something that will enable conducive climate action that is necessary for the survival of our country,” she said. Recent reports have put the amount needed to deal with the consequences of climate change at some $1.3 trillion annually.

“We had informed the Presidency, we had informed the Secretariat that we wanted to make a statement prior to any decision on the adoption. However, and this is for everyone to see, this has been stage-managed. And we are extremely, extremely disappointed with this incident… We absolutely object to this unfair means followed for adoption,” Raina said, prompting loud applause from developing country delegates and a large number of civil society representatives present in the negotiating hall.

Juan Carlos Monterrey Gómez, Panama’s special representative for climate change, also questioned the process of the deal’s adoption.

“Developed nations always throw text at us at the last minute, shove it down our throat, and then, for the sake of multilateralism, we always have to accept it, otherwise the climate mechanisms will go into a horrible downward spiral, and no one needs that,” he said.

“This new finance goal is an insurance policy for humanity, amid worsening climate impacts hitting every country,” said UN climate chief Simon Stiell. “But like any insurance policy – it only works – if premiums are paid in full, and on time. Promises must be kept, to protect billions of lives.”

“No country got everything they wanted, and we leave Baku with a mountain of work to do,” said Stiell.

A coalition of least developed countries and small island developing states also secured language in the final text that establishes a process to boost climate finance towards the $1.3 trillion goal. That effort will be part of a “Baku to Belem Roadmap to $1.3 trillion,” which will look for additional resources to “support support low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development pathways.”

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After a week of heated debates on topics including climate finance, health, peace and science, COP29 week 2 kicked off with a day dedicated to youth and education, followed by negotiations on food security, urbanization and Indigenous Peoples. While all eyes are on delegates in Baku to deliver a final agreement, here’s a recap of the major pledges made and reports published in the second half of the UN climate summit.

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Recap of week 1.

Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) & Climate Targets

• Indonesia: The Indonesian Government on Wednesday announced plans to phase out coal-fired power generation in the country within the next 15 years, effectively establishing the target for 2040. The country will also retire all other fossil fuel plants and add more than 75 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity over the same time frame, President Prabowo Subianto said during the G20 Summit in Brazil.

• Joint statement: A group of nations representing 30% of global GDP and 15% of greenhouse gas emissions committed to enhancing NDCs to align with the 1.5C pathway, according to a joint statement issued Thursday. The statement was signed by the UK, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates – which announced 2035 NDC targets last week; the GZERO countries of Bhutan, Madagascar, Panama and Suriname – which have already achieved net zero greenhouse gas emissions; as well as Canada, Chile, the European Union, Georgia, Mexico, Norway and Switzerland.

Climate Finance

New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG)

A new draft text was released on Thursday. While it addresses several key issues, critical gaps remain.

• On Finance for Nature: The draft includes climate-biodiversity synergies in its context but lacks explicit mentions of climate finance for nature. While sources like debt-for-climate swaps, green bonds, and voluntary carbon markets are included, debt-for-nature swaps are absent. It also calls for 50% of finance to come from non-debt instruments.
• Former $100 Billion Goal: There is still debate over whether the previous goal was met.
• Adaptation: The draft highlights addressing loss and damage and balancing adaptation with mitigation.
• Recipients: The goal targets all developing countries, with ongoing discussions about including specific provisions for LDCs and SIDSs.
• Quantum and Contributor Base – Two options remain, both of which leave out the amount:
  • Option 1: Favored by developing countries, this includes an annual finance goal starting in 2025 and lasting until 2035. It focuses on finance from developed to developing countries, with voluntary contributions from developing nations not counting toward the goal. The sources would include government-provided finance and private finance mobilized by developed countries, similar to the current $100-billion-a-year goal. This option has a clear provision and mobilization goal.
  • Option 2: Preferred by developed countries, this sets a single goal to be achieved by 2035, allowing more time to scale up contributions. It includes a wide range of sources—public, private, bilateral, multilateral, and innovative (e.g., taxes or carbon markets). Developed countries would lead but encourage contributions from economically capable nations. This option includes both a mobilisation goal and a broader investment goal, raising concerns about diluted accountability.
• Harmful Subsidies: The text mentions phasing out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies but excludes other harmful subsidies.
• On Food Systems and Agriculture: despite their link to 30% of emissions and high vulnerability to climate impacts, the draft barely addresses them. Advocates are pushing for stronger language to scale up public finance for sustainable, resilient food systems.
• On Indigenous Peoples: their rights and traditional knowledge are recognized, along with the need for increased finance. However, language on direct access to finance for Indigenous Peoples is weaker than in earlier drafts.

Deforestation

• The Global Forest Coalition (GFC) and members and allies from Central Asia and the Caucasus have issued the “Baku Forest Declaration,” urging a paradigm shift in climate negotiations to prioritize forest protection, Indigenous rights, and climate justice. The declaration calls on the COP29’s presidency and the Parties to the Paris Agreement to address the devastating impacts of forest fires and deforestation, recognise the critical role of natural forests, and move beyond market-driven solutions to achieve sustainable climate action.

• The UK unveiled £239 million (US$300 million) in new funding to help forest-rich nations tackle climate change. The money comprises £188m to SCALE programme for high-integrity forest carbon markets, £48m blended finance to unlock private investment in tropical forest enterprises and £3m for UNFCCC to help countries protect forests and support local communities.

Youth

The UK pledged to the include Universal Youth NDC Youth Clause in the next round of national climate plans (NDCs) due in February 2025, the first country to do so. The initiative was launched by a multisectoral and intergenerational coalition last week urging governments to engage youth as partners and collaborators in delivering the next generation of national climate plans. 

Food

Food systems

The Alliance of Champions for Food Systems Transformation (ACF) reconvened in Baku on Tuesday (Food, Water and Agriculture Day at COP29), one year after its launch at COP28, to highlight progress since Dubai and to unite in urging governments and financial institutions at COP29 to prioritise climate finance for food systems. The snapshots, which showcase progress from across the ACF member countries since launch, include:

• In Sierra Leone, the implementation of the national flagship ‘Feed Salone’ strategy is sustainably driving local food production by making agriculture more competitive for investment, decreasing food imports and supporting smallholder farmers, especially women and youth.
• In Brazil, a National Program for Productive Forests (Programa Nacional de Florestas Produtivas) to promote sustainable agroforestry practices, enhance food production, generate employment, and restore degraded areas. The program’s initial phase targets the state of Pará and supports Brazil’s wider commitments to restore 12 million hectares by 2030 and create up to 2.5 million jobs.
• In Cambodia, the deployment of 1,600 agriculture officers in agricultural communes across the country, developing modern agricultural cooperatives to improve access to markets, capital and water, whilst also increasing the economic efficiency and sustainability of smallholders;
• In Norway, an annual policy dialogue with farming unions to negotiate policy measures that are tailored to farmers’ needs, delivering a ‘bottom up’ participatory approach that is designed to deliver against the country’s national and international commitments;
• In Rwanda, a commitment by 2030 to halve per capita food waste at the retail and consumer levels and to reduce food losses in farm production and along supply chains, including post-harvest losses.

Soil

78 NGOs, including Save Soil, 4per1000, and SEKEM, have endorsed a policy recommendation document, to be presented to the UNFCCC at COP29, calling on the Convention to facilitate access to climate finance for farmers to restore soils. Key policy recommendations include:

• Making climate finance accessible to farmers for adopting regenerative agroecological practices;
• Increasing climate finance allocation to farmers for creating carbon sinks in farmland ;
• Developing supportive policies and infrastructure for adopting sustainable land practices;
• Mobilising private investment into soil regeneration;
• Integrating soil restoration into climate finance strategies.

Farmers

• A new report – “Money Well Spent?” – reveals family farmers farmers are shut out of decision-making and have no direct access to finance, highlighting how two biggest global climate funds are failing to get finance to grassroots farmers organisations where it can have the most impact. Read the full report.

• The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the COP29 Presidency on Tuesday launched the Baku Harmoniya Climate Initiative for Farmers “to help farmers navigate their way through dozens of initiatives and programs working to support climate-resilient agrifood systems transformation.”

Livestock Emissions

A new hub spearheaded by the International Livestock Research Institute and launched on Tuesday will provide a one-stop-shop for solutions to help the livestock sector in developing countries meet rising demand for animal-source foods while keeping emissions to a minimum.

The Livestock and Climate Solutions Hub will bring together new and existing approaches to support the transition to climate-smart, sustainable livestock production in low- and middle-income countries. The solutions may be technical, such as advances in animal health, genetics and nutrition, or practical, such as improved management of livestock systems based on circular economy principles.

Nature

A global group of over 70 NGOs, business coalitions, companies, Indigenous Peoples organizations and influential individuals has issued an urgent COP29 Nature’s Leaders Statement calling for UNFCCC Parties to properly recognize and finance nature’s role in addressing the climate crisis, or risk undermining global efforts to limit global warming to 1.5C.

The statement, coordinated by Nature4Climate, a coalition of 28 international members, emphasizes the need for countries to deliver an ambitious and actionable New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance, recognizing that healthy ecosystems are not merely co-benefits – they serve as cost-effective climate solutions that urgently need dedicated funding. The statement includes three specific asks:

1. Deliver a fair, ambitious, and actionable New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance that is adequate to the urgency and scale of needs and priorities of developing country Parties, ensures social and environmental integrity, and leaves no one behind.
2. Maintain the recognition of the crucial synergies between the Rio Conventions and the interdependencies between finance for climate, biodiversity, land degradation and the sustainable development goals.
3. Ensure that climate finance delivery respects, promotes and considers the rights, needs and priorities of Indigenous Peoples and local communities as key actors of change, as well as secures improvements in their ability to directly access funding. 

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Follow our COP29 coverage and updates here.

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As world leaders and negotiators meet for the UN COP29 Climate Change Conference, an array of topics is on the menu, from climate finance to renewables and carbon trading. But an increasingly urgent nutrition crisis, exacerbated by climate change, must also be among the top priorities to mobilise action after recent global momentum. 

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By Afshan Khan and Brieuc Pont.

Between now and 2050, 40 million more children are estimated to have stunted growth and 28 million more will suffer from wasting due to climate change, according to the latest reports. Worsening climate conditions are forecast to increase the rates of wasting and underweight by 50%.

With 757 million people already undernourished in 2023 and ongoing climate extremes worldwide, COP29 presents the opportunity to deliver on commitments in the COP28 Declarations on Food and Agriculture. This is a particularly critical and opportune moment ahead of next March’s Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit in Paris – the world’s best opportunity to reverse years of lost progress in tackling malnutrition in all its forms.

Malnutrition undermines economies worldwide, limiting a person’s ability to reach their full potential. Stunting affected almost a quarter of children under five in 2022, costing low- and middle-income countries at least $135.4 billion annually. Shockingly, the average child born today is expected to reach only 56% of their full adult productivity, due to poor health and education.

Capitalizing on recent renewed attention on tackling malnutrition is therefore essential, and will require urgent, coordinated efforts from governments, financial institutions, United Nations agencies, the private sector and civil society.

Firstly, climate funding for initiatives to tackle climate-induced malnutrition must be increased. The World Bank estimates that scaling up proven nutrition interventions to 90% coverage will require an additional $128 billion from 2025 to 2034. This figure may seem high, but the benefits far outweigh the costs: investing in proven nutrition interventions is estimated to generate $2.4 trillion in economic benefits, equivalent to a return of $23 for every dollar invested. Proven interventions could save 6.2 million children under five from preventable deaths and prevent 980,000 stillbirths. 

Take the effect of anaemia on women’s health and productivity as an example. One in three women between 15 and 49 years of age are affected by anaemia globally. This has serious and wide-reaching impacts on their prospects, perpetuating gender inequality and affecting the health and nutrition of their children. The annual economic cost of inaction on anaemia in women and children is $274 billion. 

Furthermore, this is likely to worsen as increased carbon dioxide in the air can reduce iron content in key food security crops such as wheat, rice, barley, and maize. Malnutrition, wherever it is found, disproportionately affects women and girls. In a majority of low- and middle-income countries, women eat last and least. 

Financing institutions and governments must work together to develop innovative funding solutions to unlock the resources needed to end malnutrition while also addressing climate change. These investments are the keys to unlocking long-term prosperity.

But increasing funding alone will not be enough to address both climate and nutrition crises. These are cross-cutting issues and must be integrated not only into health systems, but also across social protection, education, and food systems. Supporting farmers to become more resilient to the impacts of climate change will help preserve local incomes and their communities’ supply of nutritious food. Integrating nutrition into climate policies is therefore essential to ensure resilient populations. 

Finally, eliminating malnutrition also comes down to political will. For example, the “Crecer Juntos” (“Growing Together”) initiative, launched in 2019 by the El Salvador government to improve breastfeeding rates, has exceeded its 2025 target already, a year ahead of schedule. An accompanying Crecer Juntos Act for Comprehensive Protection was approved in June 2022, which will ensure child-related institutions protect children’s development, including better nutrition, illustrating how political will and leadership are key to advancing nutrition gains. 

COP29 presents the opportunity to demonstrate the importance of nutrition and health in the climate agenda and set the stage for widespread action in the New Year.

In March 2025, France will host the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit, offering a key opportunity for renewed financial and political mobilisation at both global and national levels. It will focus on bringing together development finance institutions and innovative financing mechanisms to mobilise the investments needed to tackle malnutrition in all its forms, advancing the 2030 agenda. The summit will also drive political commitments to improve nutrition outcomes and create a more supportive environment for financing, policy, and programmatic decisions.

Later in 2025, the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement will host its Global Gathering, where SUN countries can review progress, share lessons, and enhance accountability to ensure continuity of N4G commitments.

Let’s be clear: eliminating malnutrition in all its forms – in which 2.5 billion adults are overweight, 890 million live with obesity, and 390 million are underweight – will be no small feat. However, solutions and investments exist. COP29 can serve as a springboard to galvanize political will and financial commitments in 2025, with a series of unprecedented opportunities for nutrition. Key events like the G20, N4G Summit in Paris, the Financing for Development Conference, and the UN Food Systems Summit+4 will provide platforms to keep nutrition high on policy agendas and sustain coordinated, concerted action.

By investing in nutrition amidst climate change, integrating efforts across sectors, and fostering political commitment, we can change millions of lives and create a healthier, more nourished future and more sustainable planet. This is not just a call to action—it is a rare chance to end malnutrition for all.

Featured image: EC/ECHO/Martin Karimi via Flickr.

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The leaders of the world’s largest economies convened in Rio de Janeiro for a two-day summit. Together, these nations account for more than 80% of global emissions.

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G20 leaders agreed to step up multilateralism and increase climate finance “from billions to trillions” during a meeting in Brazil but fell short of explicitly addressing planet-warming fossil fuels.

The leaders of the world’s largest economies met at Rio de Janeiro’s Modern Art Museum while the year’s most important climate summit, COP29, is underway in Baku, Azerbaijan. The two-day meeting tackled an agenda ranging from ongoing conflicts to climate change, poverty reduction and tax policy.

Issued Tuesday, the final G20 declaration said countries “welcome and fully subscribe to the ambitious and balanced outcome of the UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai (COP28), in particular the UAE Consensus,” without explicitly addressing the pledge made at the UN climate summit last year to “transition away” from fossil fuels.

They pledged a “strong commitment to multilateralism,” particularly with regards to the progress made on the Paris Agreement, which US President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to leave again.

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G20 nations account are largely responsible for global warming, accounting for some 85% of the world economy and more than three-quarters of climate-warming emissions.

The burning of coal, natural gas, and oil for electricity and heat is the single-largest source of global greenhouse gas emissions. These are the primary drivers of global warming as they trap heat in the atmosphere and raising Earth’s surface temperature.

In 2022, G20 governments provided $1.1 trillion in fossil fuel subsidies, by far the highest volume for at least a decade, mostly in a bid to protect consumers against the 2022 energy price crisis brought about by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Early estimates for 2023 suggest G20 provided $945 billion in support for coal, gas, oil and fossil power – a 19% year-on-year fall but still “well above” historical levels, according to BloombergNEF.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has urged countries to halt new gas and oil field projects, arguing that this is the only way to keep the 1.5C-compatible net-zero emissions scenario alive.

Addressing the leaders in Rio on Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said new emissions reduction targets announced last week in Baku by Brazil and the UK – two G20 nations – “got us off to a good start.” But, he added, “all countries must do more.”

“Every country’s new plans must align with 1.5-degrees – with unambiguous, absolute emissions reduction targets for 2030 and 2035. Cover the whole economy, all sectors, and all greenhouse gases. Contribute to global goals agreed at COP28 to triple renewables capacity, double energy efficiency, and halt deforestation – all by 2030. And align fossil fuel production and consumption plans with 1.5-degrees,” Guterres said.

The critical 1.5C threshold was established at the 2015 COP21 climate summit, when 196 parties signed the legally binding Paris Agreement. They agreed to keep limiting global warming to below 1.5C or “well below 2C” above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. Beyond this limit, experts warn that critical tipping points will be breached, leading to devastating and potentially irreversible consequences for several vital Earth systems that sustain a hospitable planet.

In the agreement, G20 leaders said they “support the implementation” of stocktake targets of tripling renewables and doubling the rate of energy efficiency improvements by 2030.

The failure to include direct reference to fossil fuels upset many lead negotiators at COP29, the Financial Times reported. The two-week UN climate summit, which is taking place in petrostate Azerbaijan, is set to conclude on Friday.

“[COP29] is a fragile enough process as it is,” one G7 negotiator was reported as saying in Baku on Tuesday, adding that the lack of an explicit statement by the G20 meant “the gradient of the climb we have this week just got steeper.”

Finance

The G20 sent a positive signal on climate finance, a centerpiece of the ongoing COP29 negotiations.

“We look forward to a successful New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) outcome in Baku,” the final agreement said, reiterating language on the need for “trillions” of dollars.

The latest Stern-Songwe report warns that by 2035, developing countries, excluding China, would need $1.3 trillion per year in climate finance. This will require an increase in private sector investment – which high-integrity carbon credits can help generate.

G20 leaders also said they support the COP29 Presidency and “commit to successful negotiations in Baku.” This, UN climate chief Simon Stiell noted, sends “a clear a clear message to their negotiators at COP29: do not leave Baku without a successful new finance goal.”

Stiell last week said G20 leaders must agree to provide the finance that the world’s poorest need to tackle the climate crisis or face “economic carnage.”

Disinformation

Also on Tuesday, the Brazilian government, in partnership with UNESCO and the UN, launched a joint effort to strengthen research and measures to address disinformation seeking to delay and derail climate action.

The Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change is a dedicated multilateral collaboration among sates and international organizations to fund research and action promoting information integrity on climate issues “in preparation for COP30 in Brazil,” said President Lula.

The initiative comes as Trump’s re-election in the US sparked fears that the country will backtrack on much of the Biden administration’s progress on climate.

Over the weekend, Trump announced several controversial cabinet picks, which include climate deniers, fossil fuel advocates and people with no political experience.

Featured image: Paul Kagame/Flickr.

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The 29th United Nations climate change conference (COP29) kicked off on November 11 in Baku, Azerbaijan, with some 53,000 attending. Building on previous negotiations, the UN climate summit is expected to seal and ensure efforts toward climate justice, focusing primarily on providing vulnerable nations with adequate funding to adapt to and recover from the impacts of climate change. Here is a recap of everything that happened during COP29 week 1.

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Recap of week 2.

Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)

• United Kingdom: Speaking on the second day of the summit, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that his country will cut greenhouse gas emissions by 81% by 2035 relative to 1990 levels. Greenpeace said the move was as a sign that the UK is “willing to be a global leader on climate.”
• Indonesia: Speaking at an event eld on the sidelines of COP29, Indonesia’s Environment director at the National Development Planning Ministry, Priyanto Rohmatullah, said his country plans to start taking measures to pursue greenhouse gas emission reduction targets at the provincial level starting in 2025. The country aims to reach net-zero by 2060 or sooner.
• Brazil, United Arab Nations (UAE): Brazil announced its new commitment to reduce emissions by 59% to 67% by 2035, as compared to 2005. Compared to the previously established 2030 target, the ambition for absolute emissions reduction has increased by 13% to 29%. Meanwhile, the UAE committed to a target of reducing emissions by 47% by 2035 compared to the 2019 baseline. However, neither NDCs are aligned with the 1.5C goal. They also do not present a pathway to reduce their oil and gas production – critical as both countries have expansion plans. 

Carbon Trading/Article 6

Article 6.4

The COP29 Presidency fast-tracked the adoption of a centralized carbon trading mechanism on day one of the summit. The move clears the way for the long-awaited global carbon market set out in Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement, which will be open to countries and companies to trade through under UN supervision, to become operational. The system effectively allows countries to buy credits for removing/avoiding planet-warming pollution around the world, e.g. by planting trees or protecting rainforests. But while this is viewed as tangible progress Article 6, which has been stuck on issues that have plagued it since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015, there is still no clarity on the methodology to implement it.

The agreement was rushed and adopted without discussion and negotiations, prompting widespread criticism. Isa Mulder, a policy expert at the non-profit group Carbon Market Watch, said that adopting the rules on the first day of the summit without discussion “undermined trust” in the UN climate conference process. “Kicking off Cop29 with a backdoor deal … sets a poor precedent for transparency and proper governance,” she said.

REDD+

The Integrity Council approved three methodologies for issuing high-integrity carbon credits for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD+). Leading nature NGOs have welcomed the announcement as Article 6 negotiations rumble on. A high-integrity carbon market has the potential to unlock funding that would not otherwise be available for natural climate solutions.

The latest Stern-Songwe report warns that by 2035, developing countries, excluding China, would need $1.3 trillion/year in climate finance. This will require an increase in private sector investment – which high-integrity carbon credits can help generate.

Methane

Tracking

The new United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) “An Eye on Methane” report highlights how little governments do to check methane emissions despite making pledges. The analysis finds that only over 1% of governments and companies have responded to methane alter leaks from around the world. Read the report.

Companies pledges

Oil and gas companies are exacerbating the climate crisis by failing to set strict targets to stop methane leaking into the atmosphere, according to a report from financial think tank Carbon Tracker. While most large producers have announced plans to cut emissions from their operated Upstream assets to “near zero” by 2030, the report reveals no companies have set targets that cover all methane emissions related to their business activities.

The report assesses and ranks pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions made by 30 of the largest oil and gas producers. It reveals that the industry’s commitment to reducing overall emissions has stalled for the second year running and also warns that companies’ strategies for meeting their emissions targets are of “questionable credibility.” Read the report.

Meat and Dairy

A new analysis by the Changing Markets Foundation exposes methane greenwashing tactics by Big Meat and Dairy, revealing woefully inadequate national strategies for methane reduction in countries where largest meat and dairy corporations are headquartered.

Changing Markets analysed the policy landscape in the 11 countries where the largest meat and dairy companies are headquartered, and found that nearly all national strategies lack mandatory requirements for agricultural emissions reductions, cuts in livestock production, or the inclusion of agriculture in any form of greenhouse gas pricing scheme. Instead, the landscape is dominated by supply-side, technically-oriented policy solutions and support – particularly for biogas from manure – that will fail to achieve the significant emissions reduction required to avert climate breakdown. Read the report.

Climate Finance

New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG)

The first, 35-page NCQG draft negotiating text released on Wednesday links climate finance with biodiversity, land, and sustainable development and recognizes Indigenous Peoples’ climate leadership.⁠ Key issues remain to be discussed, including the total amount, review frequency of climate reporting, and the timeline.

In the latest NCQG text published on Saturday, participants focused on technical aspects like access, transparency, and factors that enable or hinder progress. However, major political challenges persist, largely because many components are intertwined with the overall structure of the goal. There is ongoing debate about whether it should be a single-layer provision or a multi-layer goal with broader financial sources. Observers note this reflects the typical divide between developed and developing countries. Numerous options are still bracketed in the text.

Read this explainer by Carbon Brief to learn more about the NCQG.

Adaptation

Finance flows to enhance adaptation efforts are not remotely close to what is needed, particularly in climate-vulnerable developing countries, to keep up with the rapidly intensifying impacts of climate change, according to the latest edition of the UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Adaptation Gap Report. An increase of US$6 billion in funding from the developed world between 2021 and 2022, the largest year-on-year increase since the Paris Agreement, represents an “encouraging sign,” UNEP said last week. Yet the world is far off track on what is really needed, estimated at around $359 billion a year.

Agriculture

A new report found that total climate finance gap for agriculture and land-use across Africa totals US$55.47 billion by 2030 – broken down into $15.8 billion for mitigation objectives and $32.68 billion for adaptation objectives. Concerningly, the percentage of debt instruments as a share of total annual allocated funding appears to be increasing – in the last three years, debt related instruments have on average accounted for 43.7% of the annual total Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) allocations (peaking at 52% of the annual total in 2020). This increase in the use of debt instruments is of particular concern given the debt vulnerability of countries in the region. Read the report.

Energy

Multiple countries including the UK, Uruguay, Belgium and Sweden committed to increasing the amount of global energy storage sixfold compared to 2022 levels, or 1,500 Gigawatts of capacity by 2030. The commitment comes a year after 133 countries committed at COP28 to tripling renewable energy capacity and doubling rates of energy efficiency by 2030.

Renewable Energy

(From E3G) The COP29 Presidency marked energy day with the launch of three energy pledges:

1. Global Energy Storage and Grids Pledge, which targets a sixfold increase in global energy storage to 1500GW and a significant grid expansion by 2030 – critical for tripling renewables and decarbonising the power sector.  
2. Green Energy Zones and Corridors Pledge, which is a welcome attempt at establishing regional and international cooperation on renewable energy deployment and regional power transition infrastructure, but any attempts to use this pledge to expand gas infrastructure need to be curbed.  
3. Hydrogen Declaration, which aims to catalyse a global clean hydrogen market. Decarbonizing production of hydrogen is important, but the focus needs to be on green hydrogen, which for cost reduction is dependent on the renewable tripling target. While Green H2 is important for industrial decarbonisation, it is not a silver bullet, and should not delay action on fossil fuels. 

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Asian Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank agreed to finance the construction of two Azerbaijani solar power plants that are estimated to cost $670 million in total.

Sea Level Rise

A new World Bank report said adapting to a sea level rise of up to 0.5 metres (1.64 feet) will cost the three most vulnerable Pacific atoll nations nearly $10 billion – equivalent to about 20 years of gross domestic product.

Deforestation

14 countries part of the Forest & Climate Leaders’ Partnership (FCLP) issue a political statement underscoring their commitment to scaling up finance for forests. They called for greater private sector investment and highlighted that momentum is now building to bring finance for forest carbon to scale, to greatly increase impact.

⁠The UK and Guyana formerly took on the role of co-chairs of the FCLP from the US and Ghana.

⁠Through the FCLP, around $55 million – representing 10.6% of total pledge funds – reached Indigenous Peoples (IPs) and local communities (LCs) in 2023, up from 2% in 2022.

Food

Food waste

A new report by global environmental action non-profit WRAP shows of the 195 countries attending COP29, only 12 have committed to reducing food waste and just 17 to tackling food loss. In total, 24 countries (12%) commit to reducing food loss and/or waste while 88% attending the global climate conference have made no commitments to address either so far in their NDCs. Read the report.

Smallholder farmers

Based on an investment of $300 per farmer per year, One Acre Fund calculates that approximately $153 billion would be required annually to support the estimated 511 million smallholders worldwide farming less than two hectares of land to build climate resilience. Currently just $2 billion of global climate finance from both public and private sources reaches smallholder farmers, revealing a financing gap of $151 billion. The social enterprise estimates that filling this gap would yield $403 billion in value for smallholders globally, taking into account higher yields, increased revenue, improvements in soil quality, healthier families, and the long-term economic and ecological benefits of agroforestry. Read more.

You might also like: Opinion: To Save Our Soil, Invest in Smallholder Farmers

Others

• Backtracking: France and Argentina have withdrawn their top negotiators from the COP29 summit in Azerbaijan.
• Host: In his keynote address at the COP29 climate summit, Azeri President President Ilham Aliyev hit out at the West in defence of oil and gas. Aliyev earlier this year called fossil fuels “a gift from God.”
• Controversy: Elnur Soltanov, the COP29 chief executive, appeared to use his role at the UN climate summit to facilitate fossil fuel deals, as shown in leaked meeting recordings. The undercover investigation by campaign group Global Witness exposed Soltanov, also Azerbaijan’s deputy energy minister, agreeing to sponsorships in exchange for aiding oil and gas deals, a move that clashes with the global push towards climate adaptation and mitigation efforts.
• Lobbyists: At least 1,773 fossil fuel lobbyists have been granted access to COP29, according to an analysis by the Kick Big Polluters Out coalition. At least 2,456 representatives from the world’s largest polluters were granted access to the talks last year, which saw 85,000 people in attendance. This year, some 52,000 people are attending the summit. The Guardian also revealed that at least 480 lobbyists working on carbon capture and storage (CCS) have been granted access to the talks this year, five times more than were present at COP28.
• Human rights violations: Human rights groups accuse the Azerbaijani government to use COP29 to crack down on environmental activists and other political opponents.
• COP reform: A group of influential climate policy experts, including former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, the former president of Ireland Mary Robinson, the former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres and the prominent Earth scientist Johan Rockström said in a letter that COP summits are “no longer fit for purpose.” They demanded that the current complex process of annual COP meetings be streamlined, with summits held more frequently and allowing developing countries greater influence in the process. “We need strict eligibility criteria to exclude countries who do not support the phase-out/transition away from fossil energy. Host countries must demonstrate their high level of ambition to uphold the goals of the Paris agreement,” the group wrote.

Remarks

• UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Exxon’s CEO Darren Woods, the Kremlin envoy and former US climate envoy John Kerry urged President-Elect Donald Trump not to leave the Paris Agreement again.
• Brazil’s President Lula, whose country will host COP next year, is urging Trump to not walk away from the climate fight. 
• US climate envoy John Podesta said the fight “for a cleaner, safer” planet will not stop under Trump even if some progress is reversed. “Although under Donald Trump’s leadership the US federal government placed climate-related actions on the back burner, efforts to prevent climate change remain a commitment in the US and will confidently continue,” Podesta said on Monday.
• Simon Stiell, the UN’s climate chief, said G20 leaders must agree to provide the finance that the world’s poorest need to tackle the climate crisis or face “economic carnage.”

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While still lagging on an earlier target of a 68% emissions cut by 2030, the UK was praised for putting forward a plan that is considered far more ambitious than those of most nations attending the UN summit.

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The British government unveiled a fresh target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2035, reinforcing Britain’s leading role in combating global warming.

Speaking on the second day of the UN climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his country will cut greenhouse gas emissions by 81% by 2035 relative to 1990 levels.

The new target is line with recommendations from the Climate Change Committee, an independent advisory body to the government that last month said the target should exceed the current 78% reduction goal set by Boris Johnson’s Conservative government three years ago.

“With this government, the UK will lead the way and lead Britain and the world into a cleaner, safer, and more prosperous future for all,” said Starmer.

UK emissions were estimated at 384 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent last year – a 52% reduction since 1990. Powered primarily by coal – the dirtiest fossil fuel – for 142 years, the country closed its last remaining coal power station, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, in October.

“The United Kingdom’s new emissions reduction target is a shining example of climate leadership,” said Stientje van Veldhoven, World Resources Institute’s vice president and regional director for Europe, adding that it puts the country on track to achieve its net zero goal by 2050.

For Greenpeace, the new target is a sign that the UK is “willing to be a global leader on climate.”

“The target is a welcome indication that the new UK government recognises the urgency of reducing emissions to prevent dangerous climate impacts, guarantee greater energy security and create jobs,” said Tanya Steele, WWF-UK’s chief executive.

The announcement follows a recent legal dispute that found the country’s net-zero strategy to be in breach of the law for the second time. Handing down the verdict in May, the High Court of Justice gave the Secretary of State 12 months to draw up a revised plan that is in line with its emissions reduction target of 68% by 2030 relative to 1990 levels. 

Starmer and Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are the only two G7 leaders attending the summit. Combined, the seven economic superpowers accounted for 18% of global power sector emissions in 2023.

Featured image: UN Climate Change/Kamran Guliyev via Flickr.

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Non-profit campaign group Global Witness posed undercover as a fake oil and gas investor group asking Elnur Soltanov, chief executive of COP29, to facilitate deals in exchange for sponsoring the event.

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The COP29 chief executive appeared to use his role at the UN climate summit to facilitate fossil fuel deals, as shown in leaked meeting recordings.

The undercover investigation by campaign group Global Witness exposed Elnur Soltanov, also Azerbaijan’s deputy energy minister, agreeing to sponsorships in exchange for aiding oil and gas deals, a move that clashes with the global push towards climate adaptation and mitigation efforts.

“We have a lot of gas fields that are to be developed,” he said in a video call with a man posing as a potential investor for EC Capital.

In the recorded conversations, Soltanov expressed openness to fostering discussions between the fictitious oil and gas group and state-owned oil and gas company SOCAR.

“There are a lot of joint ventures that could be established. SOCAR is trading oil and gas all over the world, including in Asia,” Soltanov said.

He said that while the purpose of COP was “solving the climate crisis,” EC Capital should “incorporate your activities with SOCAR’s activity during COP, so that you can … talk business to them and also participate in the COP29 process.”

“I would be happy to create a contact between your team and their team [Socar] so that they can start discussions,” Soltanov told the fake investment group. Shortly after the call, one of SOCAR’s most senior executives emailed the fake investment group.

The Azerbaijani Parliament has issued a statement condemning what it called a “hybrid attack,” and said it “will appeal to the relevant state institutions for a more in-depth investigation of the issue.”

In a statement, Amnesty International described the footage as “alarming,” though it said it did not come as a surprise.

“It comes as no surprise that a senior official from Azerbaijan’s COP29 team is using the opportunity to broker fossil fuel deals,” said Marta Schaaf, Amnesty International’s programme director for climate justice. “Fossil fuels make up about half of Azerbaijan’s economy and the vast majority of its export revenues, with its state-owned oil and gas company a major source of income for President Ilham Aliyev’s government.”

She continued: “However, this alarming footage once again reinforces the dangers of holding COP29 in a country that has close links to fossil fuel companies.”

‘Farce’

Climate activists have long called COP meetings a “farce” due to the presence of thousands of fossil fuel representatives, with Global Witness’ investigation reigniting debates over the role of fossil fuels in the summit.

The burning of coal, natural gas, and oil for electricity and heat is the single-largest source of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the primary drivers of global warming by trapping heat in the atmosphere and raising Earth’s surface temperature.

This year’s talks are taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan, a highly fossil fuel-dependent state and the oldest oil-producing region in the world. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), oil and gas account for about 90% of the nation’s exports’ revenue and 60% of the government’s budget.

In April, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said his country will continue to invest in gas production in order to meet European Union demand for energy in a “sign of responsibility.” 

“Having oil and gas deposits is not our fault. It’s a gift of God. We must be judged not by that but on how we use this resource for the development of the country, for reduction of poverty, unemployment and what is our target with respect to [the] green agenda,” Aliyev remarked.

The COP29 presidency was also criticized for failing to include any mentions of a plan to phase out fossil fuels in its summit’s Action Agenda despite the COP28 deal’s unprecedented call to “transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner to achieve net-zero by 2050 in keeping with the science.”

Azerbaijan is the third petrostate in a row to host the talks after one of the world’s richest petrostates in the world, the United Arab Emirates, hosted COP28 last year and Egypt hosted COP27 in 2022. 

At least 2,456 oil and gas lobbyists attended COP28 last year, an unprecedented number. At the 2022 COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, some 636 people linked to the fossil fuel industry were granted access.

An investigation by the Centre for Climate Reporting (CCR) and the BBC last year revealed that the COP28 presidency was planning to use meetings with foreign countries to push for oil and gas deals. Despite COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber repeatedly denying his involvement, leaked documents show that fossil fuels were among the talking points in meetings between UAE energy companies and 15 nations ahead of the summit. 

“Just as we saw with the UAE last year, the event’s hosts have an agenda that is at serious odds with climate justice,” Amnesty International’s Schaaf remarked.

Featured image: UNEP/Ahmed Nayim Yussuf via Flickr.

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An ever-increasing amount of money – currently estimated at about US$356 billion – is needed annually from now until 2030 to finance domestic adaptation to climate change, the UN environmental body said.

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Finance flows to enhance adaptation efforts are not remotely close to what is needed, particularly in climate-vulnerable developing countries, to keep up with the rapidly intensifying impacts of climate change, the UN environmental arm said on Thursday.

An increase of US$6 billion in funding from the developed world between 2021 and 2022, the largest year-on-year increase since the Paris Agreement, represents an “encouraging sign,” the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said last week. Yet the world is far off track on what is really needed, estimated at around $359 billion a year.

While it is true that the $28 billion in funding achieved in 2022 put the world closer to achieving the target set in the Glasgow Climate Pact of at least doubling adaptation finance to developing countries from 2019 levels by 2025, even achieving it would only close the current adaptation finance gap by about 5%, UNEP’s latest Adaptation Gap Report warned.

The growing financial needs to support climate adaptation are the result of the rapidly deteriorating global climate.

2024 is on track to be the hottest year in history after record summer temperatures globally, beating 2023. Human-made climate change, linked to rising concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, is directly linked to more extreme, intense, and frequent extreme weather events, which are now wrecking havoc across all continents. The poor and vulnerable, including women and disadvantaged groups, are hit hardest.

Article 7.1 of the Paris Agreement introduced a Global Goal on Adaptation, a set of objectives and targets that aims to guide and measure the progress and effectiveness of climate adaptation at the global level, effectively recognizing adaptation as a key component of the global response to climate change along with mitigation and finance.

But according to Inger Andersen, UNEP’s Executive Director, the goal is in great danger unless we collectively step up action.

“People and the natural systems upon which our livelihoods depend are increasingly in danger from the hell and high water that climate change is bringing. The world must get serious about adaptation, now,” said Andersen.

171 countries currently have at least one national adaptation policy, strategy or plan in place, though the quality varies, and 26 fragile or conflict-affected states still have no such instrument in place, the report said.

More on the topic: Assessing the Progress on the Implementation of the Global Goal on Adaptation

Thursday’s report calls on nations to “dramatically” increase efforts to adapt to climate change, starting with a commitment to act ambitiously on adaptation finance at COP29, set to kick off on Monday in Baku, Azerbaijan.

One of the most hotly anticipated deliverables of COP29, dubbed the “finance COP,” is the development of a New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance.

The goal to mobilize $100 billion annually by 2020 to help developing countries adapt to climate change, set as long ago as 2009 and only met in 2022, was widely recognized as insufficient in response to the intensifying climate emergency. 

The NCQG intends to surpass that figure and align climate finance with the real needs of countries at the forefront of climate impacts. According to estimates, if this new goal is to adequately support the world’s transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient future, it needs to be in the trillions of dollars, not billions.

More on the topic: Climate Finance: What Can We Expect From COP29 and What Must Happen?

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Scheduled to take place in Baku, Azerbaijan, in November, COP29 is shaping up to be a defining conference, particularly for global climate finance. Building on previous negotiations, the UN climate summit is expected to seal and ensure efforts toward climate justice, focusing on the ability of the most vulnerable nations to adapt to and recover from the devastating impacts of climate change. Earth.Org looks at crucial elements of COP29: the changing landscape of climate finance, the development of a new financial target, the Loss and Damage Fund, and the ramifications for global climate justice.

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This upcoming COP, the latest in a line of annually held COPs since 1995, comes at a time when the situation concerning the impacts of climate change is rapidly worsening – both in intensity and frequency. 

The world temperatures continue to rise with devastating consequences including deadly heatwaves, wildfires, floods and hurricanes. The scientific consensus is clear: time is running out to limit warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, the target set by world leaders in the 2015 Paris Agreement to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

The core of any discussion at COP29 will be centered around how international cooperation must be ramped up in order to tackle these pressing issues. The Baku summit is expected to be a “finance COP,” sharp in focus on mobilizing the trillions of dollars required for mitigation and adaptation against climate change. Climate finance has been a contentious and critical issue of global climate negotiations, and COP29 offers an opportunity for nations to recalculate their financial commitments and adopt new targets.

In recent years, the pledges of developed countries to assist developing countries in addressing climate change have consecutively failed to materialize. For instance, the promise of US$100 billion a year, made at COP15 in 2009, was supposed to be a down payment toward long-term climate finance. However, estimates show that actual delivery on climate finance remains way below this target. In fact, a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published in May indicated that only about US$83 billion had been mobilized in 2020, leaving what has been promised far from what is needed up until 2022​.

COP29 is planned to fill that gap and show the new way by setting a more ambitious and realistic New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) regarding climate finance. But the summit also aims to improve the mechanisms through which these funds are dispensed, so that money arrives exactly where it is most needed among countries and communities. This conference will also operationalize the Loss and Damage Fund established at COP27 to grant financial assistance to countries suffering from climate-induced losses.

More on the topic: Climate Justice and Loss and Damage: A Look At What COP28 Meant for Historical Responsibility in Climate Action

Climate Finance in the Context of COP29

Climate finance is a denotation that covers all public and private financial resources channeled towards activities which seek to mitigate climate change and enable countries to adapt to its impacts. This becomes important in view of meeting the objectives of the Paris Agreement because these funds enable both mitigation – meaning reduction of greenhouse gas emissions – and enhancement of climate resilience in the most vulnerable countries.

The two priority areas where climate finance is most needed include mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation involves the attempt to reduce or avoid the emission of certain greenhouse gases. It involves investing in renewable energy technologies, enhancing energy efficiency, and supporting carbon capture and storage projects. Adaptation, on the other hand, is aimed at helping countries deal with the impacts of climate change through, among other things, building flood defenses, better management of water systems, and climate-resilient agricultural practices.

The scale of the challenge is enormous. According to the World Bank, developing countries will need US$4.5 trillion annually by 2030 to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets. While this is happening, climate-related losses and damages are widening. Economic costs attributed to extreme weather events – most of them worsened by climate change – reached an estimated US$329 billion globally in 2021, according to Aon’s Weather, Climate, and Catastrophe Insight report.

Yet despite the increasing need, the flow of climate finance is well below what is needed. One major obstacle to scaling up climate finance has been a lack of confidence between the developed and developing nations. Several developing countries argue that the inability of rich countries to meet their financial commitments undermines global cooperation on climate. This trust issue is something COP29 will have to face, especially through discussions about NCQG.

A New Climate Finance Target

Of all the anticipated deliverables of COP29, probably the most hotly anticipated has been the development of an NCQG on climate finance. The goal to mobilize $100 billion annually for developing countries, set as long ago as 2009, is widely recognized as insufficient in response to the intensifying climate emergency. 

The NCQG should intend to surpass that figure and align climate finance with the real needs of countries at the forefront of climate impacts. Therefore, it is expected that COP29 will result in a more ambitious, realistic, and achievable financial target that truly reflects the scale of the global challenge. According to estimates, if this new goal is to adequately support the world’s transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient future, it needs to be in the trillions of dollars, not billions.

A key issue to be addressed at COP29 is who contributes to this new goal. The burden for climate finance has traditionally fallen to a large extent on the developed world, reflecting the fact that developed countries bear the lion’s share of the responsibility for global greenhouse gas emissions. But over the past two decades, a number of countries that would normally fall under the heading of developing have become large emitters in their own right, notably China. As a result, increasing pressure is placed on these countries in terms of responsibilities for global climate financing.

Another point of contention is the tracking and disbursal mechanisms. Many developing nations have criticized the system as non-transparent and incomprehensible, hence inaccessible. For this reason, COP29 offers a platform for discussing such systems to better mobilize and distribute funds.

Support for Vulnerable Nations

The formal establishment of the Loss and Damage Fund for financial assistance to countries suffering from losses and damages due to climate-related disasters was undoubtedly a historic outcome of COP28. It marked an important milestone toward climate justice since these vulnerable nations – particularly Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries – have called for compensation for the damage they suffer at the hands of climate change when their contribution toward global emissions has been very minimal.

However, the Loss and Damage Fund is a recent creation, and this year’s COP will prioritize establishing functional specifics, laying the groundwork for it to become one of the core components of international climate finance. It is supposed to help countries recover from destructive events such as hurricanes, floods, droughts, and rising sea levels. 

The current pledged amounts are, however, below the estimated needs. The Heinrich Böll Foundation estimated that the cost of loss and damage could reach a high of $580 billion annually by 2030, far over current financial commitments​.

In response, COP29 will likely closely consider innovative finance mechanisms that leverage private investments and tax fossil fuel companies to ensure the fund receives the resources needed to support vulnerable nations.

You might also like: Loss and Damage Fund Contributions at COP28 Cover Less Than 0.2% Of Climate-Related Losses in Developing Countries 

Implications of Global Action on Climate Justice

Beyond the technical discussions of climate finance and the Loss and Damage Fund, COP29 will potentially have broader implications for global climate justice. At its core, climate justice addresses the disproportional impacts of climate change on the most marginalized and vulnerable people. It is, in essence, recognition that those who have contributed least to the problem often suffer the most from its effects.

Strengthening national commitments to climate change is one important way COP29 can advance global climate justice. Countries are expected to send updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) prior to the conference articulating their plans for emission reduction and adaptation to climate change.

Identifying how to enhance national commitments, considering their fairness and equity, remains one of the essential challenges COP29 will have to address. Developed economies like the US and the European Union will increasingly face pressure to adopt more ambitious climate goals, partly due to historical responsibility and partly because they are superior in the financial and technological resources to provide leadership in the transition toward a low-carbon economy. In turn, developing countries are likely to demand more in terms of climate finance, technology transfers, and capacity building as the quid pro quo for being able to strive toward their own climate objectives without compromising on development priorities.

Whereas much of the climate negotiations fall under the Paris Accord, which commits countries to submit increasing ambition through NDCs over time, COP29 will be an important checkpoint in terms of progress assessment and efforts toward calling for an increase in countries’ climate ambitions.

The Path Forward

As COP29 approaches, the stakes could not be higher. Many countries – particularly in the Global South – are already suffering from the disastrous impact of climate change, and the window for proper climate action is closing. COP29 represents one of the remaining opportunities to put the world on a path toward climate justice.

If the Baku summit is to succeed, it needs to front the whole gamut of complexities arising from the climate crisis: mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, and financing issues. More than that, it must take on the core issues of justice and equity that have often been pushed to the margins of the climate negotiations. However, climate change is not an issue of concern for the environment alone; it is a human rights issue that disproportionately affects the most helpless in society.

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