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Flop29: A Series of Walkouts and Exiguous Promises

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The 29th Conference of Parties or COP29 to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was held in Baku, Azerbaijan's capital, and concluded on 22 November 2024. Some major priorities were outlined for COP29. Firstly, COP29 is popularly called the ‘Finance COP’ to align finance requirements to meet global needs in the context of climate. Secondly, Article 6 of the Paris Agreement chalked out principles for carbon markets, and COP29 aimed to create guidelines to operationalise the article. The third aim was also to expand the Loss and Damage fund. The current fund does not meet the requirements to deal with the estimated damage and losses from climate change. Lastly, a primary aim is to bring adaptation on an equal footing as mitigation by providing more support in implementation, enhancing technical and financial assistance and closing the adaptation gap in finance.


To action the last requirement, a climate agreement was reached by all the attending countries’ delegates. The agreement noted an upgrade in finance goals to raise $300 billion annually by 2035. This goal rose from the $100 billion set and would be raised from 2020 until 2025. Despite the updated goal being triple the older one, it is still insufficient for developing countries to meet their needs and further tackle the climate crisis at the individual level. Nevertheless, to take a step to tackle this persisting issue, all stakeholders agreed to pitch in their part to marshal at least $1.3 trillion by 2035 so that developing countries have access to some more funds to tackle their problems in an organised and less carbon-intensive manner. A “Baku to Belem” roadmap has been charted to ensure the collection of said $1.3 trillion (Belem is where COP30 will be held --- Lisbon, Portugal).


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Despite being a conference formulated to cut greenhouse gas emissions, it set goals to keep the rise in global temperature below 1.5°C and bring adaptability and resilience to member countries. The COP body is facing a lot of institutional issues. Firstly, the host country, Azerbaijan, is a developing country that has not contributed as much to mitigate the climate crisis. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev described oil and gas as a “gift from God”, accused Western media houses of being fake and targeted charities and politicians of spreading misinformation. COP29 is also the third consecutive COP to be organised by a country that has an authoritarian regime in place --- Egypt, followed by the United Arab Emirates, followed by Azerbaijan. While some may consider Portugal being the host of COP30 as something positive, much reform is needed in COP.


COP28 in Dubai laid out the Global Stocktake or the GST that measured the world’s progress as a collective regarding the target set by the Paris Agreement. COP28, using the GST as a means, COP called for countries to reduce consumption or usage of fossil fuels, scale up usage of renewable energy, cut down emissions through transportation and protect forests. COP 29 also ignited discussions on bringing the goals and outcomes set through the GST to life. There were contradictory views, but it was a pin in this conversation. Some groups believed that the focus should not move away from implementing the GST and, most importantly, transitioning away from fossil fuels, while some said that the only way to mitigate the climate crisis is by scaling up finance requirements. Despite conversations, negotiations failed as both parties refused to budge and reach a consensus on reducing fossil fuel usage.


Despite many setbacks through this edition of the COP, one recurring theme was to ensure that Donald Trump's coming to power does not affect or reverse whatever little progress has been made in fighting the climate crisis. Many leaders and fellows thought that Trump's coming to power would enable absurd moves like pulling out of world multilateral efforts to combat climate change. This led to leaders playing it safe by increasing funds to $1.5 trillion by 2035 and also making China a key player at the COP table, despite it being a developing country, which would mean that reducing emissions would not be a hard and fast rule for China.


India voiced its opinion loud and clear regarding the $300 billion deal that was to be given by developed countries to developing and underdeveloped ones in the form of climate finance. Chandni Raina, an Indian delegate, called the document an “optical illusion” and helped stage a walkout along with the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) as a form of protest to the meagre amount promised to deal with climate change. In addition to protesting the document, India engaged in several side events ranging from ‘Integrating Disaster Resilient Infrastructure into Adaptation Strategies’ to the India-Swede Industry Transition Partnership (ITP) and also ‘Energy Transitions for the Global South: Unleashing the Role of Solar for the Global South.’


The question remains: will the Conference of Parties continue to be effective, or will it just be a few pavilions and nations coming together, restricting action to mere conversations and promising many things without actual implementation in the wake of a populist regime in the country that once led discussions on climate change?



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