COP29 in Azerbaijan: Focus to be on climate finance agreement

Why in the News?

  • Azerbaijan, the host of COP29, announced the launch of a Climate Finance Action Fund (CFAF) to support developing nations’ climate efforts.
  • The fund aims to collect voluntary contributions from fossil fuel-producing countries and companies.
  • The main agenda of COP29 is to finalize a climate finance agreement post-2025, requiring developed nations to mobilize funds to assist developing countries.

Proposals and Fund Details

  • Azerbaijan will make the initial contribution to the fund, although the target amount remains unspecified.
  • The fund will finance climate projects in developing countries and support the implementation of national action plans.
  • Operationalization of the fund requires a corpus of at least $1 billion and commitments from 10 countries.

Other COP29 Proposals

  • Azerbaijan has proposed increasing global energy storage capacity sixfold by 2030.
  • It also seeks a global green hydrogen market and reducing the carbon footprint of digitization and data centres.
  • These proposals are outside COP29’s official agenda but aim to galvanize global climate action.

What is COP?

  • COP is the annual United Nations climate conference.
  • It originated from the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, where 154 countries signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
  • The aim was to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations and prevent dangerous human interference with the climate.
  • Since 1994, 198 signatories to the UNFCCC meet annually at COP to discuss climate actions.
  • Success of earlier treaties like the 1987 Montreal Protocol (to protect the ozone layer) and the 1991 US-Canada acid rain agreement inspired the creation of the UNFCCC

Milestones and Key Agreements

  • The first COP took place in Berlin in 1995, leading to discussions on implementing the UNFCCC.
  • By COP-3 in Kyoto (1997), countries agreed on binding obligations for industrialized nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, leading to the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol.

Associated Article:

https://universalinstitutions.com/peace-and-climate-action-focus-of-cop-29-in-azerbaijan/