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<\/p>\nUnited Nations climate summit president Mukhtar Babayev highlights the new climate finance target as top priority for the November talks. Will Azerbaijan be able to get the\u00a0dealmakers, including China, to agree on a\u00a0price to pay to help developing countries adapt to climate\u00a0change?<\/p>\n
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COP29 president-designate Mukhtar Babayev has sent out his first communication as head of the United Nations climate conference in November, urging governments to start\u00a0<\/strong>negotiating\u00a0over how to break the deadlock on finance to help developing nations tackle global warming.<\/p>\n In a climate action\u00a0plan addressed to about 200 nations, Babayev described the new collective quantified goal (NCQG) on climate finance \u2013 the first climate finance goal after the Paris Agreement \u2013 as the upcoming conference\u2019s \u201ctop negotiating priority\u201d.<\/p>\n The letter comes following the mid-year negotiations in Bonn, Germany in June which ended in stalemate, as rich countries started ducking their\u00a0commitments to provide more finance as agreed in COP28.<\/p>\n Part of the deadlock was due to a possible return of Donald Trump to the White House a few days before COP29, according to some negotiators. Rich countries worry about agreeing on a financial target that the\u00a0United States\u00a0might not contribute to, based on Trump\u2019s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement when he was in office, leaving them to foot the bill.<\/p>\n US politics notwithstanding, climate finance has eroded trust at\u00a0<\/strong>the climate talks for years. One of the most complex issues is whether high-emitting developing countries, notably China, should have to contribute.<\/p>\n Apart from funding, the COP29 presidency stated that it will prioritize asking parties to resubmit their targets to reduce harmful greenhouse gases. It also highlighted how it aimed to include all voices in its climate plans, especially Indigenous peoples, local communities, women, youth, and other sectors.<\/p>\n Babayev\u2019s action plan is released amid concerns over Azerbaijan\u2019s record on climate and human rights.<\/p>\n A fossil fuel heavyweight, the small Caucasus country relies on\u00a0oil and gas for 90 percent of its export revenues. At the same time, the authoritarian state has been called out by activists for curtailing media and civic freedoms.<\/p>\n Eco-Business spotlights\u00a0the climate summit agenda and examines how COP29 leadership can help steer its\u00a0climate\u00a0objectives through the haze of geopolitics and doubts cast\u00a0by\u00a0a petrostate\u00a0hosting the world\u2019s biggest climate conference.<\/p>\n Easing United States-China tensions for the sake of climate finance<\/strong><\/p>\n The COP29 presidency says in its letter that its top negotiating priority is agreeing a \u201cfair and ambitious NCQG\u201d, but makes no mention of how the world\u2019s biggest emitters, United States and China, are not contributing much to it.<\/p>\n The US and China account for about 80 percent of global industrial nitrous oxide emissions \u2013 two-thirds of which comes from China.<\/p>\n As of March, the US has pledged US$17.5 million to the loss and damage fund \u2013 a\u00a0minuscule contribution compared to counterparts like\u00a0France and Germany, who each committed US$100 million or more. China did not make a pledge to the loss and damage fund established at COP28, but has provided alternative climate funding through its South-South Climate Cooperation Fund and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).<\/p>\n The traditional climate finance debate, which argues that developed countries must contribute more resources because they are responsible for most of the world\u2019s emissions, will not result in significantly more funding from them.<\/p>\n The US has argued for China to start contributing to the loss and damage fund, but the latter has so far resisted,\u00a0as it is not categorized as a developed country under international standards.<\/p>\n Such tension could be used by the two super powers to weaponize climate finance during COP29 as \u201ccountries are more interested in fighting each other than climate change,\u201d said Li Shuo, director of China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute.<\/p>\n \u201cThis dynamic needs to be avoided because the US and China will play a prominent role in unlocking the NCQG package. But leaving all decisions to the COP\u00a0talks\u00a0would be too dangerous,\u201d said Li.<\/p>\n Both countries need to come to an agreement before the actual summit, he said. Although there will be no more pre-COP talks, another opportunity for both nations to meet will be when a top US climate diplomat travels to China ahead of the conference to continue discussions on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n The COP29 presidency can resolve tensions around NCQG by finding a way to reflect China\u2019s low carbon support to other developing countries through its overseas infrastructure initiatives, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe traditional climate finance debate, which argues that developed countries must contribute more resources because they are responsible for most of the world\u2019s emissions, will not result\u00a0in significantly more funding from them,\u201d\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n \u201cFor real world impact, a much larger scale of finance should be mobilized. This is where China will play a much bigger role, simply because it is the largest clean technology provider in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Is\u00a0Azerbaijan making a \u201cmockery\u201d of the climate talks?<\/strong><\/p>\n The letter called on parties to submit\u00a0their updated 1.5 Celsius-aligned targets to reduce harmful greenhouse gases, noting that Azerbaijan would lead by example, along with its COP28 and COP30 partners, the United Arab Emirates and Brazil.<\/p>\n The target, known the \u201cnationally determined contribution\u201d (NDC) is submitted or updated by countries every five years, as requested in the Paris Agreement commitment made in 2015.<\/p>\n But Azerbaijan\u2019s pledge to submit\u00a0a\u00a0national climate\u00a0plan contradicts\u00a0its\u00a0ramping up\u00a0of fossil fuel production, said Laurie van der Burg, public finance lead of US-based nonprofit Oil Change International.<\/p>\n During a high-level meeting in April to prepare for COP29, Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev\u00a0told participants that the country\u2019s oil and gas reserves were \u201ca gift from God,\u201d while announcing plans to expand gas production mainly to respond to European Union market demands.<\/p>\n Early this month, the COP29 host launched a venture with its state oil company to raise at least US$50 million for what it said were green projects ahead of the summit.<\/p>\n \u201cUnless the COP29 host recognizes\u00a0that there is no such thing as\u00a0a 1.5-aligned climate plan with more coal,\u00a0oil, and gas infrastructure, it risks making a mockery of the unprecedented mobilization that led to the COP28 decision to phase out fossil fuels,\u201d said van der Burg.<\/p>\n Climate plan promises inclusion but keeps mum on human rights\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Babayev wrote in his letter that COP29 is committed to inclusivity throughout the process, holding over 170 consultations in Bonn, so that upcoming climate plans will reflect the needs of Indigenous peoples, local communities, women, youth, and other sectors.<\/p>\n Such inclusion starts with the presidency\u2019s appointment\u00a0of\u00a0women and youth leaders in\u00a0its organizing committee, following its short-lived all-male COP29 board announced in January that was met with widespread criticism.<\/p>\n The Azeri government\u2019s COP29 organizing committee now has 12 women, including three in the presidency team. It initially received backlash for its original all-male committee.<\/p>\n