The 29th UN Climate Conference – also known as the Conference of Parties (COP-29) – which is the UN’s initiative to address climate change brought about by burning fossil fuels to mitigate its effects and transition into cleaner forms of energy has just ended. That it was held in Baku, Azerbaijan -which is the oldest oil exploration town since 1840 and was declared open by its President who declared petroleum a “gift from God” – suggests some of the major forces operating at the meeting where all 200 countries in the UN were represented. Petroleum represents 90% of Azerbaijan’s exports. COP28 was held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates also a major oil exporting nation.
COP21 in 2015 created the Paris Agreement, which is a legally binding international treaty on climate change and entered into force on 4 November 2016. Its overarching goal is to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.” To achieve these goals, each country has commitments for greenhouse gas emissions to peak before 2025 at the latest and decline by 43% by 2030. The challenge from the beginning was funding for the necessary initiatives: the developed countries that became “developed” by burning fossil fuels and created most of the global warming, refused to face their responsibilities.
After much hot air was released in several conferences, the agreement was reached at COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009 that the developed countries would raise US$100 billion annually by 2020. This would help to mitigate the damage wrought by climate change such as rising seas and also help poorer countries wean themselves away from fossil fuels. It was not unexpected that this goal would not be reached after the Trump administration withdrew from the Paris Agreement in 2017. While the Biden Administration rejoined in 2020, it is expected that the US will again withdraw next year. The target was finally reached in 2022 but was recognised as “too little, too late” and in the end turned out not to be outright grants but disguised low-interest loans.
COP29 was supposed to be a “finance conference” with a goal of commitments for US$1.3 trillion annually from the developed economies. This proposal was received by the latter with much derision and ripostes that developing economies like China and India must make much larger contributions. What was ironic was these two countries were actually contributing to mitigation efforts bilaterally in the poor countries etc but these are not reported in the statistics.
Up to the day that COP29 was supposed to end on Nov 24, there was no agreement on the quantum of commitment from the rich countries. Finally, after proposing US$250 billion annually they grudgingly conceded to US$300 billion. Obviously, poor countries, which have been at the receiving end of the stick as colonies of the richer colonies for centuries, were bitterly disappointed. India’s delegate dubbed the agreement “paltry”, “nothing more than an optical illusion”, that is unable to “address the enormity of the challenge we all face.”
The most notable outcome of the Baku meeting was that the clause on “transitioning away from fossil fuels” – which had been adopted at COP 28 – was now excised. In facing the same dilemma of trying to simultaneously address the goal of improving the living standards of its people -like countries such as India – we have to be practical in our approach. Fortunately, we have been satisfying our nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to climate action and initiatives such as the GtE plant and AFHEP should assist in continuing along this path.
As we proceed towards COP30, which will be held in Belem, Brazil next year, we will have to support efforts for the developed countries to rise to the threat precipitated by Climate Change. Even as Trump again removes the US from the Paris Accord in the face of Climate Change induced more ferocious hurricanes, we must keep the pressure on.
