President of 73rd session of UN General Assembly: COP29 in Baku to help achieve clear funding goals

Clear funding targets are expected to be achieved at the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) in Baku, President of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly, María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, told Report.

“We really hope that COP29 is going to be delivered on clear targets on finance, deliver on more equality, deliver on a better adaptation strategy to walk towards 2030, where we need to decrease emissions by 42 percent and then achieve net zero by 2050. And also, I would say, not only COP29 has to be a finance COP, a climate finance COP, but also, hopefully, also a COP for peace. And we are very much looking forward to seeing the finalization of a definitive peace agreement with Armenia,” she said.

“In the case of COP29, there are three things that I think the world expects, is to agree on a new goal on climate finance, which means how much money the transition to a net zero is going to cost, where is the money going to come from, and who are the countries and the communities that are in more need of investment, how is that we're going to make happen the Paris Agreement and once and for all reduce emissions, increase our resilience and adaptation capacity, and build equity.”

“Climate has been unfortunately a factor of widening the inequality gap because of the ones that have access to low carbon technologies, ones that have more capacity than others to adapt, more than the ones that have more resources than others. But on the contrary, climate should be an equalizer, access to green technologies, access to sustainable food systems, different and new industrial policies should be equalizers, should create jobs, should create, should fight poverty, and that's what we aim at,” she added.

“This new goal on climate finance is critical. The second key goal is to ensure, as I said, that the transition and the investment favors equality and promotes the fight against poverty. And the number three, I think it's critical to double down on the adaptation resources and the adaptation goal that had an incredible progress already in COP28. So, to finalize the new goal on adaptation, but not only that, but also to finance adaptation. Adaptation is the key issue for most developing economies. And when we speak about inclusion, I think this is not only the responsibility of governments alone, but a whole of society approach. And that includes women, indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, the private sector. So, this is a shared and collective responsibility. Even though the final decisions are taken by governments, but COPs have been successful because everybody's there and everybody is contributing. Everybody has expectations. And now to be concerned and responsible for climate, it's a show of global citizenship, of good global citizenship.”