After COP29, what is next for the future of climate action?
With COP29 wrapping up two weeks ago, many of the richer countries attending are feeling good about the deal that was struck last-minute, which will see £240 billion a year given to developing countries by 2035 in order to initiate renewable energy projects. However, many of these recipients do not feel like this is enough money for what is needed to prevent climate change from becoming a doomsday scenario.
Amongst the countries who argued that this amount of investment is not enough was India, whose Secretary Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Leena Nandan, told the conference “The amount that is proposed to be mobilised is abysmally poor. It's a paltry sum,".
I asked the United Nations Association Coventry Branch what they thought about the final agreed upon amount and they said: “We agree with the poorer nations that the $250 billion annually that wealthy countries offered to provide by 2035 is not nearly enough. It is less than 20% of the $1.3 trillion annually that vulnerable nations were seeking by 2035.”.
The UN’s Environment Programme released their 2024 Emissions Gap Report in the lead up to this year’s COP meeting and restated the fact that we must avoid reaching a 1.5°C increase since pre-industrial levels before the end of this decade. However, with current plans, we will be seeing a 2.6°C to 3.1°C rise this century which would be an environmental catastrophe.
Source: BBC
In response to this global warning, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced his plans to reduce carbon emissions in the country by 2030 by 68% and 81% by 2035, advising other countries to take other measures to prevent a climate catastrophe from unfolding. In speaking to the UN conference, he stated his support for investing in renewable energies. “There is no global security without climate security. And this is a huge opportunity for investment for UK businesses, for British workers, if we act now to lead the world in the economy of tomorrow”.
There was also a foreboding sense of creating a solid foundation at this year’s climate meeting, as countries tried to “Trump-proof” any agreements in anticipation of his upcoming term as President of the United States, in which he is expected to backtrack on climate change related policies and potentially pull the US out of COP altogether. This is due to previous statements calling climate change a “scam” and his previous tenure as POTUS. As a result of this, there were efforts to ensure that after Trump’s next 4 year stay in office, policy will shift back to eco-friendly measures. It is expected that China will take the US’s role as the head of the next COP meeting instead due to Trump’s presence.
This would appear to be unusual, since China is still defined by the UN as a developing nation, meaning that it lacks the obligation to cut greenhouse gas emissions or provide financial aid to poorer countries which richer nations must do. However, in a historic first, officials spoke publicly about their climate change policy and stated that they have paid over $24 billion towards developing countries for climate action since 2016. More than most other countries.
NGO’s and other environmental activist groups present at the meetings and were an aggressive force throughout, opposing many of the propositions and given solutions due to being perceived as inadequate. Former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres wrote in an open letter that the COP process is “no longer fit for purpose” unless they radically change how host countries are decided to only allow countries actually invested in minimising the impact of climate change to host the summits in the future.
When asking Tony McNally, Managing Director at Climate Change Solutions Ltd if the COP summits were still fit for purpose he said, “It needs to continue but with reform including not hosted by the big oil authoritarian states.”, which is a common rhetoric. The host of this year’s meeting was Azerbaijan, which is rich in oil and natural gas and had an economy that benefits from continued or rising exportation and consumption of those resources. Officials have previously stated a desire to expand gas production by up to a third in the next decade whilst Azerbaijan's President, Ilham Aliyev, called oil and gas “gift of God” at the climate conference.
Scientists as well have criticised this year’s COP summit, as the deadline of 2030 to prevent a 1.5C increase looms closer with seemingly not enough done to prevent it. Eliot Whittington, Executive Director of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership said “In a year where any elections around the world delivered a shift away from international collaboration towards nationalist isolation, and where multilateralism seems in danger with a weak G20 and a collapsed biodiversity COP, we are at a dangerous moment. We need more collaboration internationally and we need more leaders willing to make the case for it. COP29 did little to increase faith in a difficult and slow-moving process.
This year already is the hottest on record, and it’s especially concerning as, for the first time on record, the average temperate is 1.5C higher than the pre-industrial average. This data comes from the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service, which also labelled 2023 as the previous hottest year on record. This year has also seen many events of extreme weather with lethal heatwaves in Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Mali, mass flooding in Europe and parts of Asia and cyclones and droughts seen across the world.
Source: Copernicus Climate Change Service
Despite this however, there is still hope and things you can do to help stop the worsening of the climate crisis. The United Nations Association Coventry Branch explains “We must all try harder and that means you and your family. Climate change is by far the biggest threat facing humanity and needs to be on top of everybody’s agenda. If it continues it will lead to mass migrations of people and wars. You must ask yourself ‘Am I doing all I can to reduce my carbon footprint? Am I voting for politicians who want to increase my country’s carbon emissions? Am I putting myself above the needs of my children and grandchildren?’ “
Written by Joseph Banks