"Experts React: COP29 Highlights, Challenges, and Emerging Trends in Global Climate Policy"
26 November, 2024
Originally published: https://www.csis.org/analysis/experts-react-cop29-highlights-challenges-and-emerging-trends-global-climate-policy
The 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) brought heads of state, diplomats, climate experts, business leaders, nongovernmental organizations, and activists to Baku, Azerbaijan, to assess global climate efforts and discuss opportunities for cooperation. Amid a series of new pledges and commitments, parties agreed on a global carbon market framework, enabling countries to trade emissions credits under the Paris Agreement. Additionally, after some heated exchanges and a run into overtime, developed countries agreed on a 300 billion USD annual climate finance target. The so-called New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) will support climate actions in developing countries.
CSIS experts react to some of the conference’s most notable highlights and preview an era of uncertainty for international climate efforts.
Wilder Alejandro Sánchez, Senior Associate (Non-resident), Americas Program
An important meeting under the COP29 banner was the Leaders’ Summit of the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) on Climate Change. Small island nations, like the Caribbean states, Mauritius, and the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, or the Solomon Islands and Micronesia in the Pacific, face an existential risk due to climate change and global warming and its effect on rising sea waters.
SIDS delegations must have a voice at the table of negotiations regarding climate change so that decisions will be specifically aimed at ensuring that their nations survive. The Baku Declaration on Amplifying SIDS’ Voice at COP29 for a Resilient and Sustainable Future was adopted during the summit.
Part of the Canadian pledge during the Global Methane Pledge ministerial meeting at COP specifically addressed SIDS, as Ottawa committed 7.5 million USD over four years to reduce methane emissions from the waste in Belize, Grenada, Guyana, Saint Lucia, Fiji, and Samoa. Similarly, the United Kingdom pledged 6.7 million USD to the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Insurance to ensure “more Pacific countries have the insurance they need in place” before catastrophic weather events.
Baku was eager to provide the SIDS states with a voice at COP. During the preparations leading up to the conference, President Ilham Aliyev met with the governor-general of Tuvalu, the prime minister of the Kingdom of Tonga, and the minister of foreign affairs of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. The Azerbaijani government also reportedly financially supported the participation of SIDS delegates at COP and preceding meetings.
The SIDS are the first to experience the devastating consequences of climate change. For them, climate change-exacerbated weather events, particularly rising sea waters and hurricanes, are national security and existential threats. COP29 and future iterations of COP must focus more on protecting SIDS and helping their populations.
