The COP29 summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, is expected to lay the groundwork for a new climate finance target.
The worsening climate crisis presents a unique opportunity to revise the financial models used in developing countries. The upcoming 29th UN Conference on Climate Change (COP29), known as the Finance COP will be a pivotal moment for leaders to enhance their climate commitments.
Loss and damage, adaptation, mitigation, and the Loss and Damage Fund will be major themes of this COP summit.
Africa faces significant challenges due to the impacts of climate change, despite contributing minimally to global greenhouse gas emissions. The continent is projected to experience more drastic temperature rises than the worldwide average, causing heatwaves to intensify, droughts to endure longer, and floods to occur more often.
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Climate activists and experts in Africa have outlined several priorities they want to be addressed, including fighting for a new collective climate finance goal well beyond the previous $100 billion goal, addressing loss and damage as the central issue, and ensuring the implementation of the international carbon market mechanisms.
A new climate finance target (NCQG) will replace the current U.S. $100 billion annual target, marking a significant step toward addressing the urgent challenges from climate change.
In addition, the summit will focus on the regulation of carbon credits and transparency and strengthen Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) before resubmitting them in 2025. NDCs are fundamental to the pledge-and-review framework of the Paris Agreement, primarily aimed at achieving global temperature goals through mitigation.
There is, however, a consensus that current governance mechanisms do not address the Paris Agreement’s other objectives, including adapting to climate change and aligning financial flows with low-emission, climate-resilient development.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) Standing Committee on Finance reports that to fulfill the targets outlined in their NDCs under the Paris Agreement, developing countries will need between $5.8 trillion and $11.5 trillion by 2030.
In a conversation with allAfrica‘s Melody Chironda, COP29 Chief Executive Officer Elnur Soltanov called for an inclusive representation of African nations in global climate talks, especially around climate finance and adaptation. He said Azerbaijan is committed to ensuring developing countries, particularly African ones, are heard at COP29.
How is COP29 working to ensure that the voices of African countries are adequately represented in global climate negotiations, especially concerning issues like climate finance and adaptation?
As a COP29 Presidency, we know that the status quo is not working for Africa and that the continent’s voice has not been adequately heard. At COP29, we will facilitate an inclusive process where the voices of all developing countries will be heard, and finance and adaptation will be prioritized for the most vulnerable countries, including those in Africa.
To achieve this, Azerbaijan will use its experience in leading inclusive multilateral diplomacy, most notably through its recent successful chairmanship of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and its efforts to ensure everyone’s voices were heard, and their interests represented.
Our aim is for COP29 to create significant opportunities for African countries. Currently, not enough money is flowing into climate action in the region, and that’s not just a missed opportunity for Africa, it’s a missed opportunity for the world. We know that finance volumes need to increase and become more accessible for African nations to support their climate action measures.
That is why we are working to agree on a new climate finance goal (NCQG), that will help more money flow to the region to support much-needed action on climate change both in terms of adaptation and mitigation.
At the recent meeting of the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) in Nairobi, agreeing on the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) was confirmed as one of Africa’s key priorities for COP29. We want African countries to be a central voice in this debate and the COP29 Presidency has been actively engaging with the climate community in this region.
The COP29 Presidential team has already traveled to Nairobi for the United Nations Environment Assembly and visited the Republic of Congo to participate in the International Conference on Afforestation and Reforestation, we also visited Ethiopia, carefully listening to their needs and priorities.
Loss and damage have been significant concerns for African nations facing the impacts of climate change. Given the central focus on climate finance at COP29, particularly concerning the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), Article 6 on carbon markets, and the Loss and Damage Fund, how do you plan to ensure that the financial commitments made are ambitious and equitable, especially in addressing the needs and challenges faced by African countries?
Agreeing on a fair and ambitious NCQG is our top negotiated priority for the year. We are determined that the NCQG will deliver multiples that are adequate to the scale and urgency of the climate crisis. But we are not just focused on the size of the NCQG, we also need to make sure the qualitative parts of the NCQG, like transparency and accessibility of funding, work for developing country Parties.
We are also working more broadly to remove the barriers that stop developing countries from investing in climate action. This includes encouraging multilateral development banks and financial institutions to improve access to concessional finance.
We also hope to finalize the operationalization of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement at COP29 this year. Getting Article 6 fully functioning will enable greater international cooperation between countries to reach their climate targets, and in doing so, it will unlock more financial support for African countries.
Turning to loss and damage, despite contributing less than 4% of global emissions, Africa is the continent most vulnerable to climate change. In fact, 17 of the 20 countries most threatened by climate change are in Africa. Within the current list of the 45 Least Developed Countries, as classified by the United Nations, 33 are in Africa.
With African countries standing to lose the most from the climate crisis, we must act swiftly on loss and damage. The COP29 Presidency is working intensively with the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage to get it fully up and running as soon as possible, which is mandated with assisting developing countries in responding to economic and non-economic loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change.
Azerbaijan hosted the third meeting of the Fund’s board in Baku in September, where critical progress was made, including electing Ibrahima Cheikh Diong as the new Executive Director of the Fund and endorsing the hosting agreement and trustee arrangements with the World Bank.
This lays the groundwork for the Fund to start disbursing funding in 2025, and we will use the COP29 summit in Baku to work with countries who have pledged to the Fund to convert these pledges into tangible funding.
The COP29 Presidency will continue to call for further pledges and remains committed to fully supporting the operationalization of the Santiago Network, which is working to catalyze the technical assistance of relevant organizations to implement relevant approaches in addressing loss and damage for developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.
How will COP29 in Baku shape the future of energy transitions in Africa, particularly in balancing the continent’s growing energy demands with global climate commitments?
Africa is well positioned to be a world leader in the rollout of renewable energy projects, with 60% of the best locations in the world for solar energy generation. However, only 1% of the world’s total solar capacity is installed on the African continent.
Currently, Africa’s climate finance inflows remain very low, at 3% of global climate finance, and tend to focus on small-scale, fragmented, and uncoordinated operations, primarily in middle-income countries. To change this and allow Africa to realize its potential to develop vital renewable energy projects, we must increase the volume of climate finance and make it more accessible for African nations.
As a developing country ourselves, Azerbaijan understands these issues well, which is why we are working to agree on a new climate finance goal at COP29, that will help more money flow to developing nations to support action on climate change.
We are also talking to other stakeholders, such as international financial institutions, and multilateral development banks, as they have a unique role in mobilizing low-cost financing in developing countries, and we think they can do more to make the international financial system work better for developing countries, and for the planet.
What will the COP29 Presidency be asking of African countries at the COP29 Climate Change Conference in Baku this year?
This year, we are asking all countries to show that they are coming to COP29 with the highest possible ambition to act on climate change. That means taking all the action that we can on climate change, in light of our different national circumstances.
Working with the UNFCCC, and the COP28 and COP30 Presidencies, we are supporting countries across the world to write new national plans on reducing emissions, fighting the effects of climate change, and improving the transparency of reporting on their efforts.
We see these national plans as part of the opportunity for African countries at COP29. By laying out detailed plans for how they will reduce emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change, countries are guiding investment into these efforts, and making it easier to attract investments.
Looking at climate action as an investment opportunity, these plans will help African countries to balance economic development with climate action.
For this approach to succeed, we will also need to see developing countries submitting Biennial Transparency Reports (BTRs). To support these efforts by developing countries, the COP29 Presidency recently launched the Baku Global Climate Transparency Platform, which is designed to build mutual trust and confidence among Parties, support developing countries in preparing and finalizing their BTRs, encourage universal participation in the Enhanced Transparency Framework, and advance the transparency agenda beyond COP29.
We have already held workshops this year to support countries, including many African countries, in writing their first national transparency reports.
We are also determined to lead by example. Azerbaijan is working on updating our own national climate plan and transparency report, that will align our emissions reductions to the pathway that keeps us on track for 1.5C.
As COP29 CEO, what are your top priorities for the conference, and what key goals and outcomes do you aim to achieve in Baku to advance global climate action?
I am optimistic that together we can make real progress when the world comes to COP29 in Azerbaijan. As a COP29 Presidency, we want everyone to focus on our moral duty and collective interest to confront the climate crisis. Ultimately, COP is a Party-driven process, and we need all hands on deck as billions of people are counting on the Parties to meet these responsibilities and seize these opportunities.
We will address our top priorities through our two-pillar plan for climate action this year, enhancing ambition and enabling action.
To enhance ambition, we will work with all countries to upgrade their ambition in line with the Global Stocktake, through national plans and reports on mitigation, adaptation, and transparency.
To enable action, we will bring the Parties together to agree on a fair and ambitious new climate finance goal, which can enable the delivery of climate action across the world, including African nations.
This is our top negotiated priority for the year. Climate finance will lie at the heart of our efforts at COP29, as a critical enabler of climate action globally, which is why we are also working with the private sector and multilateral development banks to make the global financial system work better for people and the planet.
Through this two-pillar plan of enhancing ambition and enabling action, we will build the foundation on which all future climate action can rest, in Africa and globally.
