COP 29: Flagship Event to Focus on Climate Financing as Renewable Transition Picks Up Pace

The Conference of the Parties (COP) consists of countries that have signed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), established in 1992. It obligates them to work jointly to maintain greenhouse gas levels at a point that would avoid harmful human-induced interference with the climate system. The COP meetings are held almost annually.

In the latest COP 28 meeting, which was held in Dubai, according to the World Economic Forum, 97,000 delegations and more than 150 heads of state attended the meeting, making it the largest attended climate COP ever. The first Global Stock Take highlighted the importance of taking decisive steps towards achieving goals related to renewable energy, a fair transition, and more under the 2015 Paris agreement.

The next climate COP (COP 29) will take place from November 11 to 22 in 2024, hosted by Azerbaijan in Baku and the theme for this COP 29 meeting is "In Solidarity for a Green World.”

Major Goals of COP 29

Global climate finance targets

During COP29, negotiators will have to establish a fresh worldwide climate finance goal for 2025 and beyond, building upon the previous agreement of $100 billion per year from developed countries to developing countries. Challenging discussions are coming up to deal with the amount and standard of climate funding, to establish reasonable demands on providers of climate funding and guarantee effectiveness, and to attract needed funding from businesses.

Preparing the loss and Damage fund

During the year 2024, the Loss and Damage Fund has achieved advancements by choosing the Philippines as the location for its board, forming partnerships with the World Bank, and appointing an Executive Director. It is anticipated that COP29 will endorse these temporary measures and raise the talks on enhancing and improving arrangements for funding loss and damage.

Negotiators will also assess the Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM), designed to tackle the effects of climate change that exceed the ability of people and ecosystems to adjust. The evaluation presents a crucial chance to bolster the WIM's function and improve its collaboration with the recently established Loss and Damage Fund and the Santiago Network, which provides support to nations at risk from climate-related loss and damage. In addition, COP29 will concentrate on increasing financial assistance within the changing structure of loss and damage governance.

Guiding the adaptation on track

COP28 created a structure for the Global Goal on Adaptation. Nations were encouraged to develop National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) by 2025 and show advancements in their execution by 2030. Additional technical discussions on monitoring adaptation progress will take place at COP29, with final conclusions anticipated in the following year.

This year, the focus should be on giving additional instructions to nations on preparing and executing their NAPs. Furthermore, COP29 could potentially generate commitments for financing adaptation and addressing loss and damage, including support for the Adaptation Fund. Finally, COP29 adaptation negotiators must ensure that adaptation is sufficiently represented in the climate finance target.