COP29 opened in Baku (Azerbaijan) on 11 November (until 22 November), a few days after the result of the US presidential election (see EUROPE 13521/9), prompting fears that the EU might lose an ally in the negotiations aimed at raising global climate ambitions.
At a press conference on Monday 11 November, John Podesta, the US envoy for outgoing President Joe Biden, tried to reassure everyone that “even if the US federal government under Donald Trump pauses climate action, the work to contain climate change will continue in the United States with commitment, passion and faith”.
However, he acknowledged that Trump’s promises to roll back environmental protections and to take the US out of the Paris Climate Agreement again should not be taken lightly.
The end of the fossil fuel era. Despite a future change of course on the part of its American ally, the EU, represented by the European Commissioner for Climate Action, Wopke Hoekstra, has reaffirmed the European Union’s determination to respect the climate commitments, in particular the commitment to triple renewable energies and double energy efficiency by 2030, set out at COP28 in Dubai (see EUROPE 13314/18).
In the opening address of the ministerial dialogue devoted to this subject, Mr Hoekstra recalled on Tuesday 12 November that the parties to COP28 had agreed on a way out of the “fossil fuel era” and described the path outlined by the doubling and tripling targets as “bold”.
He then highlighted the challenges and areas for future cooperation, such as the development of networks, which would require the addition of 25 million kilometres by the end of the century, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), but also the development of sustainable supply chains for critical raw materials and, finally, the need for massive public and private investment.
Climate finance. “Europe is and will continue to be the largest provider of climate finance, and we have been providing $31 billion in public finance a year, when we look into 2023”, he stressed, calling for more to be done to mobilise private finance.
As Simon Stiell, the United Nations Executive Secretary for Climate Change, pointed out at the opening ceremony, this new COP is devoted primarily to the issue of funding to combat climate change and the establishment of a “new collective quantified target” (NCQG) for developing countries (see EUROPE 13431/7).
“If at least two thirds of the world’s nations cannot afford to cut emissions quickly, then every nation pays a brutal price”, he said.
The first day of negotiations has already resulted in a consensus on Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement, which deals with how international carbon credit projects will operate (see EUROPE 13430/4).
“It will be a game-changing tool to direct resources to developing countries and help us save up to $250 billion a year in implementing our climate plans”, said Yalchin Rafiyev, lead negotiator at COP29. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)