In November 2024, the global community will gather in Baku for the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29), Simon Stiell, executive secretary of UN Climate Change, said at a virtual event on October 17 hosted by the Brookings Institution, ahead of the COP29 Climate Conference in Baku, Report informs.
At COP29 in Baku all governments must agree on a new goal for international climate finance that truly responds to the needs of developing countries, he noted.
According to Stiell, COP29 must be the stand-and-deliver COP, recognizing that climate finance is core business to save the global economy and billions of lives and livelihoods from rampaging climate impacts.
"It’s not my job to prejudge what the new goal will look like. But it’s clear public finance must be at the core. As much of this finance as possible needs to be grant or concessional, and must be made more accessible to those who need it most," he noted.
The head of the UNFCCC noted that the main aspect of the discussion will be improving the effectiveness of climate financing. It is planned to consider mechanisms for attracting private investments and creating incentives for green investments in financial markets, he added.
"The vital business of who pays and how much can be agreed in Baku, but we are not going there to renegotiate the Paris Agreement. It’s also important we put in place mechanisms to track and ensure that promised funds are delivered," he added. "More work also has to be done to rapidly ramp up funding for adaptation and get international carbon markets working for everyone."
"To protect the progress we made at COP28, and convert the pledges in the UAE Consensus - to triple renewable energy, double energy efficiency, boost adaptation and transition away from fossil fuels - into real-world, real-economy results. And we must get the Loss and Damage Fund working fully, dispersing money to those who need it most," he noted. "This is a moment of profound fracture between nations and within them. In times like these, there is a temptation to turn inward. A delusional belief that what happens in my neighbor's backyard is not my problem or my concern."
"So let's instead choose the game-changer path ahead – the one that recognizes that bigger and better climate finance is entirely in every nation's interests, and can deliver results everywhere," he added.