COP29 the United Nations Climate Change Conference—ended yesterday (Monday) in Baku, Azerbaijan, with world leaders agreeing upon a bunch of deals designed to fix the global climate crisis. But environmental activists and policy experts have at best been mixed over the summit’s outcomes.
It’s a two week conference, which almost 200 countries are at, to get the Paris Agreement goals moving and make sure we are staying under well below 2 degrees Celsius warming to pre industrial. The most dramatic result was a deal by major economies to phase out coal power by 2040, a longtime goal of climate backers. This is a turning point in the fight against climate change, UN Secretary General António Guterres said. Leaders reaching a series of agreements aimed at addressing the global climate crisis. However, the summit’s outcomes have been met with mixed reactions from environmental activists and policy experts.
The two-week conference, attended by representatives from nearly 200 countries, focused on accelerating efforts to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The most significant outcome was a pledge by major economies to phase out coal power by 2040, a move long sought by climate advocates.
This agreement marks a turning point in our fight against climate change, said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. It’s a sign of the end of the fossil fuels era, to move away from coal.
The 40 countries including China, India and the United States agreed to coal phase out. But the specifics are distinct: Developing nations have until 2045 to phase out their contributions to the fund. Other critics argue that the timeline for actually achieving this is too slow when we need so much action on the climate crisis.
Doubling funding for climate adaptation in developing countries by 2025 was another major outcome of the summit. This decision responds to long-standing concerns of vulnerable nations over the imbalance between mitigation and adaptation finance. It is to induce countries to build resilience to climate impact, including rising of sea level, extreme weather and agricultural disruption.
Although these achievements, many observers disenchanted that the conference did not provide more tangible action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the near term. The final communiqué reiterated the aim to hit net zero emissions in 2050 — without any 2030 targets, as scientists have said is needed for staying within the 1.5-degree warming limit.
“We welcome the progress on coal and adaptation finance but the proposals at this summit did not deliver the urgent action that is required to avert climate catastrophe,” said the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. “We’re still a long way off where we’ll be able to live like this, time is running out.”
On that issue, there were heated debates at the conference over whether countries that are already experiencing severe climate impacts should get funding to compensate for that. A framework for such a fund was approved at the COP28 last year in Dubai, but disagreements continued as to who would supply and how the money would be dispersed. These details are to then be negotiated further, and the parties to agree on a decision at next year’s conference.
A notable development was the presence of renewable energy companies and start-up clean technology companies at the summit. Side events series described innovations in green hydrogen, carbon capture and energy storage and the resultant growing economic opportunities in the transition to a low carbon economy.
Greenpeace International Executive Director Jennifer Morgan said Clean energy is no longer just a concept in the laboratory but increasingly driven by the private sector. What we are trying to do is to accelerate a transition but we do need governments to put in place the right policy frameworks and incentives.
This also dealt about the role played by natural solutions to solve climatic changes. 100 countries have signed a declaration to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030. As part of the agreement commitments are made to help sustain agriculture and support indigenous communities who are key to forest conservation.
And as delegates left Baku, attention was shifting to implementation of all the pledges made in Baku. It was many observers who stressed that robust monitoring and accountability mechanisms need to be put in place so countries will follow through on their promises.
Alok Sharma, then COP26 President, said the true test of this summit’s success will be in what happens in the months and years that follow. Now we need to increasingly translate these agreements into policies and investments that really bring about change on the ground.
Implications of the outcomes of COP29 will be very significant for world efforts to address climate change in the next decades. The conference achieved some important victories on key matters, but many climate experts and activists are concerned about the overall speed at which things are moving. The reaches of global warming are already clear around the world, meaning more vigorous climate action is likely to be demanded in the run up to next year’s summit.