The 29th annual Conference of the Parties (COP29) is taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan. What happened in the first week of discussions?
Taking place in Azerbaijan from 11th to 22nd November, the 29th annual Conference of the Parties (COP29) is a vast gathering of government representatives and climate experts. Negotiations take place over two weeks each year, and decisions are made on the best approaches to tackling the causes and consequences of climate change.
Around 50,000 delegates are attending COP29, alongside high-profile attendees including UN secretary general Antonio Guterres, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Sultan Al Jaber, and World Bank president Ajay Banga.
However, there will also be seats left empty at the highest tables: President Emmanuel Macron, Premier Xi Jinping, President Joe Biden, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India are all not attending. This leaves four of the top 10 largest economies, and largest carbon emitters, absent from this year’s proceedings.
Nevertheless, discussions are ongoing, particularly around ‘climate finance’. The United Nations defines climate finance as finance for activities supporting action on climate change mitigation and adaptation. With extreme weather events brought on by unprecedented global temperature spikes, smaller nations and developing countries have never been more vulnerable to the dangers of climate change.
These countries want to see climate finance total over $1 trillion a year by 2030, which will require a vast increase in investment and a full restructuring of how the finance is delivered.
The week has not been without controversy, either. Proceedings launched with a fiery speech from Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who raved about oil and gas, and by Day 3 Argentina’s entire delegation had been forcibly withdrawn by their far-right President Javier Milei. Tensions are high, and concerns are mounting about the ability of this year’s COP to deliver meaningful change.