COP29 Presidency seeks support on non-negotiated initiatives

The 2024 UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) Presidency launched an action agenda on Tuesday seeking support on certain non-negotiated partnerships and initiatives to accelerate climate action. The agenda is a supplement to the negotiated programme of the conference in Baku from November 11 to 22, COP29 host Azerbaijan said.

In a letter to parties and non-party stakeholders, the COP29 President-Designate Mukhtar Babayev set out the details of the package and how to contribute to the Presidency’s vision to enhance ambition and enable action.

The agenda seeks to drive action across all climate pillars and covers a range of key priorities such as energy, finance, agriculture, cities, human development, and the climate-peace connection. Many of the initiatives particularly the Baku Initiative on Climate Finance, Investment and Trade (BICFIT), the Baku Initiative on Human Development for Climate Resilience, and the Multisectoral Actions Pathways (MAP) for Resilient and Healthy Cities integrate and address cross-sectoral synergies.

In the COP29 pledges and declarations, governments and non-governmental entities will agree on the principles and pathways for enhancing ambition in their next collective steps to confront the climate crisis.

The COP29 Presidency will share the draft texts with all parties and constituencies for their review and feedback as a sign of its transparent and inclusive approach.

The Presidency said it would then finalise the texts and republish them on the COP29 website in due course. “Azerbaijan is honoured by the confidence that the global community has placed in us to host COP29. But we are just one country and we cannot solve the climate crisis alone,” said Babayev. “We seek to inspire every actor and demonstrate what is possible with commitment and determination, and we never underestimate the value of an individual contribution.” Babayev hoped to remind everyone that even in the face of an enormous challenge, every action matters because every fraction of a degree matters.

Climate Finance Action Fund (CFAF), which is proposed to be capitalised with voluntary contributions from fossil fuel-producing countries and companies to catalyse the public and private sectors across mitigation, adaptation, and research and development, is among COP29 Presidency initiatives. It seeks to have special facilities for highly concessional and grant-based funding to rapidly address the consequences of natural disasters in developing countries in need.

COP Truce Appeal is modelled on the Olympic Truce to highlight the importance of peace and climate action. The COP29 Peace and Climate Initiative to be co-led with partners envisages tangible outcomes such as establishing a centre of excellence hub to match the needs of the most vulnerable with existing resources and foster further action for the operationalization of various initiatives on the peace and climate nexus.

The Baku Global Climate Transparency Platform (BTP) seeks to support developing country Parties in the preparation and submission of Biennial Transparency Reports, promote collaboration and knowledge exchange among Parties on the full spectrum of the Enhanced Transparency Framework, and better mobilise capacity-building resources where they are needed.

There is no consensus yet on the most critical COP29 negotiated agenda and agreement on a fair and ambitious New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG) to be set from $100 billion for the post-2025 period.

People aware of the matter said the quantum of the fund and the list of contributors were the major outstanding issues on NCQG.

Developed countries are pushing to expand the contributor base to the fund by inducting emerging economies—not necessarily historical polluters— on the list of contributors. “They are not ready to budge,” said one of the persons. “...differences have narrowed over the past few months but have not resolved.”

Developing countries have maintained they will stick to the Paris Agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and limiting global warming and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which says that finance must flow from developed to developing countries.

Developing countries expect contributions in the trillions annually from developed nations for climate change mitigation efforts as defined in their nationally determined contributions.