Yahoo Finance COP29 Presidency sets out agenda, emphasises upcoming work on New Collective Quantified Goal
COP29 will take place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from Nov 11 to 22.
The COP29 Presidency from Azerbaijan has set out its plan for the November climate change conference, which lead negotiator Yalchin Rafiyev has billed as a “litmus test for the Paris Climate Agreement”.
At the Bonn Climate Change Conference on June 12, COP29 President-Designate Mukhtar Babayev led Azerbaijan’s delegation to briefings and consultations on the broad conference agenda, explaining the rationale behind its initiatives across finance, energy, education, health and labour, digitalisation, and nature and biodiversity.
The Presidency also outlined work on five initial priority areas with partner agencies from the UN, spanning human capital, agriculture, the urban environment, energy storage and finance, and investment and trade.
Earlier this week, the COP29 Presidency unveiled its two-pillared plan to “enhance ambition and enable action”. This involves supporting the parties, or countries, to “raise their ambition” through their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), among others.
Rafiyev says the COP29 Presidency also aims to broker a “fair and ambitious new climate finance goal, finalise Article 6, strengthen global financial institutions and ensure the private sector commits to climate action”.
New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG)
When parties signed the Paris Agreement in 2015, the deal introduced a new collective quantified goal on climate finance (NCQG). The NCQG is meant to replace the existing climate finance goal of US$100 billion per year, a blunt move to kickstart fundraising among developed nations.
The NCQG is meant to be adopted this year at COP29 in Azerbaijan. The Bonn conference is an “important moment” in creating a “substantive framework” for a draft text on the NCQG, says Rafiyev.
Rafiyev says the COP29 Presidency aims to set the stage for parties to “agree [on] a fair and ambitious NCQG, taking into account the needs and priorities of the developing country parties”. “Our efforts on climate finance should represent progression beyond previous efforts, delivering multiples, adequate to the scale and urgency of the problem.”
Describing the coming NCQG negotiations as “one of the defining challenges of the climate crisis”, Rafiyev calls on all parties to “bridge the gaps, bring together options into potential solutions and narrow down the choices as much as possible here in Bonn”.
Deputy lead negotiator Samir Bejanov noted that the COP29 Presidency had already held 400 engagements before Bonn, a further 50 during the first week of Bonn, and was committed to continuing consulting with parties and non-party stakeholders.
The Bonn Climate Change Conference is the 60th meeting of the Subsidiary Bodies to the UNFCCC, lasting June 3 to 13.
According to a press statement, Babayev and the COP29 Operations team also hosted a briefing on logistics, operations, transport and hospitality for COP29 and consulted with parties to ensure that the upcoming conference is “accessible to all”.
COP29 will take place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from Nov 11 to 22. Like last year’s host, the United Arab Emirates, Azerbaijan has been criticised for being a fossil-fuel producer, as sceptics believe the discussions will be hampered by oil- and gas-producing nations.
Photos: COP29 Presidency
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