Leaders and representatives of the world's countries meet again at their annual meeting, COP 29, to discuss climate change, which has become the greatest threat to the Earth on which we share life, with its countless natural disasters, and to try to assess the progress the world has made to date in mitigating the resulting damage, and to develop future plans to confront it.
The Azerbaijani capital, Baku, will host the 29th session of the Climate Change Conference "COP 29" from November 11 to 22, 2024.
What is “COP”?
It is an annual conference that brings together the 197 countries that signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992, just two years after the Intergovernmental Panel on climate change issued its first report on the phenomenon, and the first session of the conference was held in the German capital, Berlin, in 1995.
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The agreement that the conference bears its name aims to address the increase in greenhouse gasses that are causing the Earth to warm, and to prevent "dangerous interference" caused by human activities.
After this convention, a number of important steps were taken to combat global warming. These include the Kyoto Protocol signed in 1997, and the ratification of the Paris Agreement in 2015, which aims to limit the rate of global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees, compared to the pre-industrial era.
What are the most important results of “COP 28”?
During the previous edition of the conference, which was held in Dubai, the countries gathered announced a new goal to triple the volume of renewable energy production by 2030, i.e. within only seven years of holding that edition.
But the most notable result was approving the establishment of a loss and damage fund that aims to compensate countries most affected by the effects of climate change, and funding pledges poured in from various countries, amounting to more than 600 million US dollars, according to the “UNFCCC” website.
The idea of loss and damage fund dates back to the early 1990s, when island nations demanded industrialized countries to bear the cost of protecting them from the risks of rising sea levels.
What are the most important issues raised at “COP 29”?
Financing issues are still at the top of the list of priorities for the climate conference, which has been called the “financing cup.” The countries meeting must develop mechanisms for how the loss and damage fund will operate.
The presidency of the "COP29" conference announced, via its official website, that it will work, during this edition, with countries that have previously pledged to support the fund, to transform those pledges into tangible funding that will be distributed for the first time during the year 2025.
Conference members will also discuss the issue of a “new collective quantitative target” to bridge the funding gap.
In 2009, developed countries—which account for the largest share of polluting activities—pledged to contribute 100 billion dollars annually by 2020 to support land protection efforts in developing countries. It is a goal they were unable to achieve until 2022, when it was agreed that a new target should be set.
According to the World Economic Forum website, all points related to the new goal are still subject to disagreement between different countries, starting with the goal itself, the responsibility of the contributing parties, and the ways in which that money is spent.
What is new about “COP 29”?
UN officials announced that the 29th edition of the conference would witness greater access for NGOs from developing countries, at the request of various governments to address the imbalance seen in previous editions of the conference, but the move has angered a number of Western organizations, which have received fewer seats.
In the UN Observer Guide, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Steele noted that the way the conference is conducted and the form of participation must reflect the reality of how climate change is affecting communities in every part of the world.
How is the “Earth” doing right now?
COP 29 comes just months after record temperatures were recorded during the summer of 2024, making it the hottest summer since records began.
Scientists from the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Observatory expect that this year, which is about to end, will be the hottest year since records began, and that the planet's temperature will reach more than 1.5 degrees higher than it was before the industrial era.
As for carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, they continued to increase until they exceeded 422 parts per million in September 2024, compared to less than 419 parts per million in the same month last year, before "COP28".
In September 2024, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere exceeded 422 parts per million, compared to less than 419 parts per million in September last year, before the twenty-eighth session of the conference.
