COP29: Not a "Gift from God"

From 11 to 24 November 2024, the 29th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) took place in Baku (Aserbaidschan). Researchers from the Wuppertal Institute attended the conference and summarised the key outcomes of the negotiations under the title "Not a 'Gift from God': Disappointing Results from Baku 2024 Climate Conference and Calls for COP Reform". The analysis has now been published as a peer-reviewed article in the journal "Carbon Climate & Law Review" (CCLR, Volume 18 (2024), Issue 4).

After much conflict, the conference adopted a "New Collective Quantified Goal" (NCQG) for climate finance. However, the new finance goal falls far short of the actual financing needs. In addition, the conference failed to further solidify the signal for the global energy transition agreed at last year’s conference in Dubai – including the transition away from fossil fuels.

Despite all the resistance that once again came to light in Baku, the trend towards more climate-friendly technologies will continue, even based on pure economics. And one can expect that the Brazilian conference presidency next year will be more committed and more successful than the Azerbaijani presidency in translating the real transformation momentum into a more successful outcome.

The peer-reviewed article is available via the following link.