COP29 Leaders Present Climate Funding and Energy Storage Objectives, According to Reuters

By Gloria Dickie

LONDON (Reuters) – Just under two months before the COP29 United Nations Climate Summit, Azerbaijan’s leadership unveiled its goals for the event, as nations grapple with how to enhance ambitions for a new financing target.

The primary focus for the upcoming November summit is for nations to agree on a new annual funding target that wealthy countries will contribute to assist poorer nations in addressing climate change. Many developing countries have expressed that they cannot ramp up their emissions reduction targets without first receiving greater financial support for necessary investments.

As discussions on the financing goal remain stalled, the COP29 presidency has presented over a dozen side initiatives aimed at elevating ambitions without requiring extensive negotiations and consensus-building among parties. These initiatives include new funds, pledges, and declarations that national governments may adopt.

Significantly, one initiative features a fund supported by voluntary contributions from fossil fuel-producing nations and companies, aimed at supporting both public and private sector efforts on climate issues. This includes grants intended to assist developing countries in recovering from climate-related natural disasters.

These supplementary agendas leverage "the convening power of COP and the hosts’ respective national capabilities to form coalitions and drive progress," stated Mukhtar Babayev, the current COP president, in a letter to all parties and stakeholders.

At the previous year’s COP28 summit in Dubai, over 120 countries committed to tripling their renewable energy capacity by 2030.

The COP29 presidency is also working to rally support for a pledge to increase global energy storage capacity sixfold above 2022 levels, targeting 1,500 gigawatts by 2030. This includes a commitment to enhance investments in energy infrastructure, adding or refurbishing over 80 million kilometers of grid by 2040.

Babayev, who serves as Azerbaijan’s minister of ecology and natural resources, emphasized that the agenda aims "to enhance ambition by connecting stakeholders around common principles and goals."

"We aspire to address pressing issues while underscoring remaining priorities," he remarked.

Another initiative aims to establish a global market for clean hydrogen, tackling barriers related to regulation, technology, financing, and standardization.

COP29 leaders have also called for a "COP Truce" to emphasize the significance of peace alongside climate action.

Despite existing climate commitments from nations, carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel consumption reached a record high last year, and the world has just experienced its hottest summer on record amidst rising temperatures.