What is happening at COP29

COP29 - Daily updates

• 11 November - Opening Day

  We are up and running in Baku, with COP29 now underway. This morning, the COP President from last year’s talks in Dubai, Dr Sultan al-Jaber, handed the reins over and commenced proceedings. This year’s COP President is Mukhtar Babayev, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources, and no doubt we’ll hear plenty from him over the next two weeks.

  It’s rare that the COPs start on a hopeful note, but this one has begun with particularly ominous overtones. Last week, the COP’s Chief Executive (who is also the deputy energy minister for Azerbaijan) Elnur Soltanov, was filmed promoting oil and gas deals ahead of the conference. Following Donald Trump’s re-election as US President, the hope of limiting global warming to 1.5ºC without overshoot is potentially all but extinguished. In another grim portent, the Copernicus Climate Change Service highlighted that 2024 is “virtually certain” to be the warmest on record, and will be the first calendar year to exceed 1.5ºC of warming.

  Trust in the COP Presidency is low, as summarised by Greta Thunberg this morning: “Azerbaijan’s entire economy is built on fossil fuels …. Despite what it might claim, Azerbaijan has no ambition to take climate action. It is planning to expand fossil fuel production, which is completely incompatible with the 1.5ºC limit and the goals of the Paris Agreement”.

  For all these reasons, even though the COPs often begin with controversy, this COP is especially unusual in its lack of enthusiasm – what is there left to say, when the COP Presidency is held by a petrostate, the world’s largest historical polluter is soon to become an active hindrance to the whole process, and temperatures are starting to reach 1.5ºC?  

  But there are two full weeks of conference to get through – and as we know from previous years, a lot will happen in that time. Ed Miliband, the UK’s energy secretary, has affirmed that in the absence of American leadership, the UK will aim to rescue the COP, and starting now there are likely to be announcements and speeches coming thick and fast. 

  Today in particular will move quickly – with lots of fast-paced speeches from world leaders as the COP gets underway. Baku is also four hours ahead of our HQ in London – so if you are based here in the UK as well, then each day throughout the COP you can expect a flurry of announcements early each morning as we catch up with the morning’s activities over in Baku.

  Don’t forget, we’re kicking off COP29 in London tonight with our collaboration with Picturehouse. If you’re London-based, you can join us at the Ritzy in Brixton from 18:30 for a screening of Common Ground (2023) followed by a panel discussion about COP, climate, and regeneration – hosted by our Director of Climate Science & Impact and joined by a number of special guests.
  

  Who has arrived at COP29 so far, and when will we hear the world leaders’ speeches?

  This year, several prominent world leaders are skipping the COP and sending their deputies instead. Papua New Guinea has pulled its ministers out of this year’s COP altogether in protest at the failure of rich countries to live up to their promises. From the USA, John Podesta, Senior Advisor to the President for International Climate Policy is in attendance, in the absence of outgoing President Joe Biden. From Kenya, Musalia Mudavadi – Prime Cabinet Secretary is attending in place of President Ruto. Other notable absences are President Lula da Silva (Brazil), President Macron (France), Vladimir Putin (Russia) and the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. 

  We’ve now seen the provisional list of speakers delivering the “national statements” – a section of the opening plenary which will see national leaders speak on behalf of their countries at the top of the COP. It looks like we’ll hear from the British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer toward the end of tomorrow (Tuesday), sandwiched between Alexander De Croo (Belgium) and Viktor Orbán (Hungary).

  There will be lots of speeches to watch out for over the next couple of days, and we’re particularly anticipating those from Mia Mottley (Barbados) who routinely gives powerful speeches at the COPs, Mohamed Muizzu (Maldives) and Hilda Heine (Marshall Islands), who represent two of the countries in Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) which are disproportionately impacted by rising sea–levels in particular, and Geraldo Alckmin (Brazil), who is attending in place of President Lula.
  

• 12 November - World Leaders' Summit

  UK announces new climate target for 2035

  Today, Sir Keir Starmer announced the UK’s latest national climate target. According to the Climate Change Committee, the UK is currently not on track to meet its existing 2030 target of reducing emissions by 68% (compared to 1990).

  Nevertheless, the new goal will seek to reduce emissions by 81% (compared to 1990) by 2035, so given that the UK is already off-track for its current less ambitious goals, this will only be realised if stringent measures are implemented. Newly-updated NDCs – national climate action plans under the Paris Agreement – are not due for submission to the UNFCCC until February, and this new target is not a fully updated NDC. Though the UK is one of the first countries to commit to an updated carbon-reduction pledge. Interestingly, the Prime Minister also noted he will not commit to increases in public sector climate finance contributions at this COP – stating instead that the private sector “ought to be paying that”.

  A breakthrough for carbon markets under Article 6

  Last night, Azerbaijan’s lead negotiator Yalchin Rafiyev stated they had “secured critical progress on one of our key priorities – Article 6”. A new COP draft decision (available here) was adopted and “takes note” of two key standards to operationalise Article 6.4 put forward by the Article 6.4 Supervisory Body – one in relation to carbon credit methodologies, and the other in relation to carbon dioxide removals.

  As yet, it’s a little unclear what the full implications are likely to be in the voluntary carbon market – voluntary actors like companies and individuals were able to purchase and ‘use’ credits from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol for example. What will be key as further discussions take place in contact groups (and beyond this COP) will be how the well-established voluntary carbon market integrates with a new UN-level compliance market – and how bodies like the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Markets (ICVCM) align and integrate with the standards and principles being decided at the UNFCCC. There is also still uncertainty about whether what’s called ‘corresponding adjustments’ are required when voluntary actors purchase and retire carbon credits – at the moment it seems like they won’t (unless the host country or standard requires them), but we don’t yet know what will become of this, and whether it will impact the claims companies can make on the basis of carbon credits purchased on this new market – and for better or for worse, the claims that can be made by companies using credits will massively impact demand for carbon credits. Hopefully more clarity will come. 

  And whilst this is generally good news for carbon markets which drive funding to emissions avoidance, reduction and removal projects around the world, some NGOs and delegates including Tuvalu have expressed discomfort at this development, calling it a ‘backdoor deal’ with the Supervisory Body drafting new standards ahead of the COP and the Presidency pushing it through without the deliberation and discussion of Parties (countries). The decision was just left to either approve or reject this already-prepared document, rather than negotiate the shape of the document itself. Whilst it was approved, this doesn’t follow standard COP protocol, and sets a poor precedent for transparency.

  What is Article 6? 

  ‘Article 6’ is a clause in the Paris Agreement (2015) which aims to promote the use of carbon trading to allow some countries to achieve their climate targets. Since it was included in the cover text from Paris, there has been 9 years of discussion over how to ‘operationalise’ these market mechanisms. There are two main mechanisms for this: bilateral emissions trades of carbon credits called Internationally-Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (or ‘ITMOs’, captured in Article 6.2) and a UN-managed carbon market to act as a successor to the Clean Development Mechanism (captured in Article 6.4).

  Our good friends at Sylvera wrote an excellent deep-dive on Article 6 ahead of COP29, if you’d like to know more. Agreement on Article 6 was especially critical this year, as there were high hopes for consensus at COP28 last year – which ultimately failed, so the pressure was on this time to finalise Article 6 guidance this time around. 

  False start for the New Collective Quantified Goal

  One of the aims during this COP is to establish a ‘new collective quantified goal’ (NCQG) for post-2025 climate finance, and in October the co-chairs of its ad hoc Work Programme published a short document as a starter for ten, outlining what it saw as a starting point for discussion on the NCQG this year. This was rejected by Parties, driven by the G77 and China who, according to sources for Climate Home, “told [the chairs] to rip this up and start again”.

  To give you an idea of the ‘quantum’ (the financial volume) we are talking about, the G77 is proposing $1.3 trillion USD per year for the NCQG, stratified by mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage. The Least Developed Countries (LDCs) group intends to allocate a minimum of $220 billion USD per year for the LDCs.

  Lack of representation for women

  As has unfortunately been the case at every COP our team can remember, it’s another year where women are dramatically underrepresented. Our friends at SHE Changes Climate have pointed out that, in the world leaders’ “family photo” taken yesterday, there are sixty-nine men and only eight women. This disparity in gender representation is not trivial: at the highest-level intergovernmental conference to address climate change, women leaders are outnumbered by a ratio of almost 1:9 – despite the fact that women are disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change.

  According to official UNFCCC records published yesterday, there are over 65,000 participants in this COP and according to analysis by CarbonBrief, there’s a gender balance among Party delegates of 60% men to 40% women – still unequal, but actually the most gender-balanced COP in history. So whilst our family photo shows a massive disparity between male and female leaders, it tells us more about which demographic controls power around the world, than it does about which demographic is physically represented at the COP. CarbonBrief’s analysis is a great read if you are interested in a demographic breakdown of conference attendees over the years. By number of delegates, this COP’s largest delegations are from the host Azerbaijan, followed by Brazil (next year’s host), Turkey, the UAE (last year’s host), and China.

  Elsewhere around the COP

  Handily for those of us who aren’t personally on the ground in Baku, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) produces a regular update in its Earth Negotiations Bulletin which can provide a flavour of what’s going on ‘in the corridors’ at the conference. It seems that (understandably) a huge amount of concern is being spent on the implications of the re-election of Donald Trump in the USA. John Podesta tried to reassure delegates that a single US election cycle would not derail climate action at subnational and private sector level, but the IISD quotes one observer responding that: “He is right that the fight against climate change is bigger than one political cycle … but this is the cycle that counts to keep 1.5°C in reach.”

• 13 November - World Leaders' Summit

  Day 3 of COP29 and the second day of the World Leaders’ Summit is underway with the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres opening the plenary. During his speech, he stated that climate-vulnerable states have the right to be angry with rich nations for failing to deliver on climate action. This follows shortly after Brazil announced a new target to reduce emissions by 59-67% by 2035 (compared with 2005 levels) however this target has faced criticism from environmental groups for failing to align with what is necessary to limit warming to 1.5°C. 

  Similarly, today, Prime Minister Edi Rama, of Albania has taken to the stage to question the point of these events if the biggest polluters continue as usual, he stated ‘People there eat, drink, meet and take photos together – while images of voiceless leaders play on and on and on in the background To me, this seems exactly like what happens in the real world every day. Life goes on, with its old habits, and our speeches – full of good words about fighting climate change – change nothing.”

  Global Carbon Budget Report 

  Despite pledges made last year, the burning of fossil fuels has continued to rise over the past 12 months. New data released at COP29 shows that emissions from coal, oil and gas will rise by 0.8% in 2024 despite nations pledging to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels at last year’s COP. 2024 is set to be the hottest year on record after an extended streak of exceptionally high monthly global mean temperatures. The budget report was issued on the first day of COP29 highlighting that the ambitions of the Paris Agreement are in great jeopardy and that World Leaders continue to not take their climate commitments seriously.

  A race to the top 

  25 countries have announced their climate commitments, but what we really need, is a race to the top. Many leaders have taken to the stand today to remind the world the hardships their countries continue to face in light of climate change. Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Pakistan said ‘without climate justice, there can be no real resilience… I wouldn’t want other countries to face the fight Pakistan faced in 2022’ here referencing the devastating floods that impacted over 33 million people. Muhammad Yunus, chief adviser of the interim government of Bangladesh called for a new way of life to be adopted stating ‘We have chosen a lifestyle that works against the environment’. It is estimated that by 2050, Bangladesh will lose 17% of its territory as a result of rising sea levels. Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda made a sobering statement, outlining how ‘climate change is no longer a warming, but a daily devastating reality’.

  Today, a coalition of multilateral development banks presented their collective financing target of $160 billion per year by 2023 for low and middle-income countries, aimed at supporting climate mitigation efforts. This exceeds the $100 billion per annum by 2020 set in 2009 at COP15, this target was only met for the first time in 2022.

• 14 November - Finance, Investment & Trade

  Climate Finance

  Today, negotiations will be focused on climate finance looking to replace the $100 billion per annum set in 2009 which expires at the end of the year. The Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance (IHLEGCF) assessed how much money will be needed to meet the 2015 Paris Agreement goals; the report covers the imperative investment developing countries need to implement effective climate mitigation efforts.  The report found that investments must increase across all economies: US$6.5 trillion is required on average per year by 2030 to meet climate targets and that any shortfall in investment before 2030 will place added pressure on the years that follow, creating a steeper and potentially more costly path to climate stability. 

  Lord Stern, Member of the House of Lords and Chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment said this finance could come from private sector investment, about $250bn from multilateral development banks such as the World Bank, and the remainder from a mixture of sources including direct grants from developed countries to vulnerable nations, special drawing rights from the International Monetary Fund and new forms of taxation, such as levies on aviation and shipping.

  On the topic of levies, there have been conversations about including cryptocurrency in a set of levies targeting high-carbon goods and services. Trump’s pro-crypto stance in the 2024 election could encourage institutional investment and increase crypto market stability. Crypto is notoriously energy-intensive – estimates say that mining Bitcoin accounted for close to 1% of global emissions last year. Charging just $0.045 per kWh for the energy would produce $5bn, according to the second report of the Global Solidarity Levies taskforce.

  More countries withdraw from COP29

  Following President Aliyev’s speech yesterday in which he accused France of suppressing climate-impacted communities in its overseas territories, France’s Ecology Minister, Agnès Pannier-Runacher announced she has cancelled her trip to Baku, and will not be in attendance for the Nature and Biodiversity talks next week. With biodiversity already taking a back seat at this event, this is a significant loss to the negotiations.

  Additionally, Argentina’s negotiating teams have been sent home. No reasoning behind this decision has been communicated yet, however President Milei has previously called the climate crisis a “socialist lie” and has threatened to pull Argentina out of the Paris Agreement.

  EU Parliament delays deforestation laws

  Outside of COP29, there’s more setbacks on new environmental protections as the European Parliament has backed a 12-month delay for the roll-out of the EU’s new anti-deforestation law. The law – assuming the changes are approved by the Council of Ministers and European Parliament – will now come into effect at the end of 2025, and will see new rules to prevent EU imports and exports of commodities grown on deforested land.

• 15 November - Energy/Peace, Relief & Recovery

  COP system no longer ‘fit for purpose’ according to leading climate figures

  An open letter to the UNFCCC Secretariat has been signed by numerous titans in climate and global politics calling for a major reform to the COP process. The letter – signed by Mary Robinson, Johan Rockström, Christiana Figueres, Ban Ki-Moon and a number of other experts – states that in its current structure, COP simply cannot deliver the change at exponential speed and scale, which is essential to ensure a safe climate landing for humanity and a fundamental overhaul is needed. The suggested measures for reform include improving the selection for COP presidencies by setting strict criteria to exclude countries that do not support the transition away from fossil fuels. Both COP28 and COP29 have been held in petrostates, with COP29 host country officials have publicly declared their support and intention to continue to grow the fossil fuel industry, describing oil and gas as a ‘gift from God’. It is reported that over 1,700 coal, oil and gas lobbyists have been granted access to COP29 with the 10 most climate-vulnerable nations having only a combined 1,033 delegates at the negotiating table. Former US President Al Gore hasn’t shied away from making his opinions on the conference known, he commented on the lack of progress that has been made regarding the transition away from fossil fuels and how it has been ”hardly even mentioned” at COP29. He stated he believes the reason for this is that ”the petrostates have too much control over the process.” The open letter also calls for the robust tracking of climate finance and improved implementation and accountability for climate targets and commitments. 

  The Green Party in the UK is showing their support for this reform. Co-leader Carla Denyer MP said ”This is a timely call for reform of an international forum that has achieved a great deal but now needs to drive action in the face of the dire climate crisis the world faces” and that ”the international agreement to phase out fossil fuels is vital and urgent”. 

   

  Integrity Council approves three REDD+ methodologies 

  The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) board has approved three REDD+ methodologies receiving CCP (Core Carbon Principles) approval. As a quick reminder, REDD+ projects use carbon finance to fund community activities that reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation to enhance sustainable forest management. These methodologies are:

  • (ART) The REDD+ Environmental Excellence Standard (TREES) v2.0, TREES Crediting Level

  • (VCS) VM0048 Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation v1.0
  • (VCS) Jurisdictional and Nested REDD+ (JNR) Framework v4.1

  Collectively, more than 323 million credits are waiting to be verified under these three methodologies during the first crediting period which promotes a shift towards higher integrity and confidence across the market. We think this is a positive step for improving both integrity in the voluntary carbon market and confidence of companies looking to buy REDD+ credits.

   

  UK government announces new principles for VCM integrity – closely aligned with the ICVCM

  In more huge news for the voluntary carbon market today, the UK government has published an announcement with six ‘principles for voluntary carbon and nature market integrity”. These principles, listed below, are highly-aligned with principles we believe at Ecologi, and the ICVCM’s Core Carbon Principles:

  1. Use credits in addition to ambitious actions within value chains; 
  2. Use high integrity credits;
  3. Measure and disclose the planned use of credits as part of sustainability reporting;
  4. Plan ahead;
  5. Make accurate green claims using appropriate terminology;
  6. Co-operate with others to support the growth of high integrity markets

  The government also announced a fresh consultation on high-integrity voluntary carbon markets; a similar consultation was taking place last year (which our team took part in!) under the previous government, but was shelved after the election. We’re really pleased to see this announcement from Kerry McCarthy MP (UK Minister for Climate), who we’ve worked with directly as part of our participation in the SteerCo of the Carbon Markets Innovation Forum.

  This is a huge step towards harmonising governmental guidance for corporates participating in the voluntary market with the proprietary standards and integrity improvements we are already seeing on the market. You can watch McCarthy’s speech in full on Youtube.

• 16 November - Science & Innovation/Digitalisation

  To give you an idea of the state of play as we close off the first week of COP29, here’s the high-level summary for today’s daily report from the IISD: 

  “The closing of the Subsidiary Bodies (SBs) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate (UNFCCC) painted a bleak picture: further consideration of several issues, including on adaptation, loss and damage, and technology, were pushed to the SB’s next session in June 2025. On the mitigation work programme and the just transition work programme, parties could not even agree to capture discussions held during the first week.”

  Today – and indeed this COP as a whole – has felt hurried and chaotic.

  A lack of progress on implementing the outcomes from the first Global Stocktake (GST), which were published ahead of last year’s COP, is a particular cause for concern. Discussions are going to continue on this next week, but the EU, AOSIS and AILAC (the Independent Alliance of Latin America and the Caribbean) have all raised concerns about the content of the text forwarded for next week’s discussion. As well as the level of coverage across the findings of the GST which should be included in the agreed document, there remain disagreements about where the particular focus of an agreement from this COP should be (such as on adaptation, financial provision, implementation, or somewhere else).

   

  On mitigation

  With all the discussion of other crucial topics like finance, adaptation, and L&D, it’s been easy to skate over the fact that – as CMA6, the sixth conference serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement – the mitigation of climate change (preventing further warming) is critically important to this COP, and every other. For this reason, the Mitigation Ambition and Implementation Work Programme (MWP) is pivotal to actioning the long-term emissions reduction goals set out in the Paris Agreement and to avoiding catastrophic consequences of greater-than-1.5ºC warming – as pointed out by Chile today. Regarding the MWP at COP29, there is still no consensus allowing discussion to progress before SB62 (the next session of the Subsidiary Bodies, which will be held in Bonn, Germany, next June). 

  We have seen some leadership from the UK here in stressing the importance of progress on mitigation – supported by the EU, AOSIS, AILAC, the LDCs, and the EIG (the Environmental Integrity Group, consisting of Switzerland, South Korea, Mexico, Liechtenstein, Monaco and Georgia). In contrast, the African Group, the LMDCs (the Like-Minded Developing Countries – consisting of China, India, Saudi Arabia, and around 20 other countries) and the Arab Group accused richer countries of trying to prescribe mitigation action ‘top-down’, also criticising the procedural decision to push further discussion to SB62.

  With 2024 set to be the first calendar year that will breach 1.5ºC warming, and global annual emissions still rising instead of falling, the lack of consensus is alarming. By the time SB62 comes around in June, we will have produced around another 23 gigatonnes of emissions, at current rates. However, it’s also easy to see why consensus is so hard. More on that in tomorrow’s update.

• 17 November - Rest Day

  Today is the traditional ‘rest day’ at the halfway mark of the COP. Tomorrow we’ll start Monday’s update with a short roundup of the top news from the first week of COP, but for today we’ll take a little space to reflect on the overall picture of the COP so far.

   

  Our view. In our team throughout this week, the topic of conversation has been centred around where this COP has gone wrong, and where it’s likely to end up. There is a non-zero chance that this one goes the way of COP15 in Copenhagen back in 2009 – in disarray, with a weak agreement that makes it all feel like a waste of everybody’s time. There’s also a possibility that this COP achieves no agreement at all, especially if it spirals into a failure to achieve quorum (for example if too many parties leave – either in protest or because talks overrun too much and negotiators simply have to go home).

  The COPs always begin with a degree of cynicism, but this one started on a number of negative notes, and a continued stream of news both inside and outside of the COP has meant this conference has maintained a particularly dejected feel to it throughout its first week. Whether that’s the blocking of peaceful protest, the underhand oil and gas deals and praise of fossil-fuels, the boycott of Baku by leading political representatives including from France, rumours of Argentina’s potential withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, or President-elect Trump’s nomination of a climate-denier to be the USA’s Secretary of Energy – it’s something of a death by a thousand cuts. The open letter from the Club of Rome which was published on Friday won’t have helped matters: there is now a public call from some of the world’s most authoritative climate voices saying the COP process is “not enough to solve the problems” we face.

  On carbon markets, there have been breakthroughs, though not without controversies of their own. And whilst these could be transformational for carbon markets, this is only a tiny proportion of what the COP should be targeted at achieving. If tentative agreement on Article 6 and a handful of carbon market side-announcements from individual parties like the UK and non-state actors in the VCM are the only meaningful things to come out of this COP, then it will still be remembered as a resounding failure on the whole.

  So it’s hard to see where this COP turns around. By this Wednesday, we should start to have a good picture of what’s possible as this conference draws to a close. We’ll start to see the draft cover texts and no doubt the latest round of political strong-arming and all the rest; we know by now that the second week is always much longer than the first.

  And we also know from experience just how much things can change in the second half of the conference – but as it stands, it’s all looking a bit negative. At best, we are looking at a largely nothing-y COP with the – admittedly quite large – exception of some carbon market wins. At worst, we’re looking at a real disaster COP which achieves very little, and even raises existential questions for the state of climate governance through the UNFCCC as a whole. This week will tell us which of these we land on – or who knows, maybe we’ll be surprised.

• 18 November - Human Capital/Youth/Health/Education

  Today we begin the second week of talks at COP29. Progress during week 1 has been limited, with calls from the UNFCCC Secretariat for major reform to the COP process. As we move into the second week, there’s hope for advancements on climate justice and financing to ensure vulnerable nations can both mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change. Here is a quick roundup on the key takeaways from week 1: 

  Article 6 of the Paris Agreement – Carbon Trading 

  On day 1 of the summit the COP29 presidency made significant steps to operationalise Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement, focusing on two key standards in relation to carbon credit methodologies and carbon dioxide removals. This would enable countries to trade carbon credits internationally under UN supervision. Whilst this is considered good news for carbon markets the agreement was said to be rushed and the lack of inclusive deliberation in drafting these standards has led to many describing it as a ‘backdoor deal’. 

  UK’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC)

  UK Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer announced an ambitious update to the country’s Nationally Determined Contribution. The UK aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 81% when compared with 1990 levels by 2035 in an effort to tackle climate change and position the UK as a leader in global climate finance. Environmental groups have warned that this will only be realised if stringent measures are implemented considering the UK is currently not on track to meet its existing 2030 target of reducing emissions by 68% (compared to 1990).

  UK Carbon Market Principles 

  The UK Government has introduced six new principles to enhance the integrity of voluntary carbon and nature markets. These principles, aligned with the ICVCM’s Core Carbon Principles are as follows; 

  1. Use credits in addition to ambitious actions within value chains;
  2. Use high integrity credits;
  3. Measure and disclose the planned use of credits as part of sustainability reporting; 
  4. Plan ahead; 
  5. Make accurate green claims using appropriate terminology;
  6. Co-operate with others to support the growth of high integrity markets.

  This move represents a significant effort to align corporate participation with robust standards to further enhance the integrity improvements we are already seeing across the market. 

  Climate Finance for Developing Nations

  The Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance (IHLEGCF) assessed how much money will be needed to meet the 2015 Paris Agreement goals and launched their third independent report.  The report found that investments must increase across all economies with US$6.5 trillion being required on average per year (for developing nations excluding China) by 2030 to meet the Paris Agreement targets and that any shortfall in investment before 2030 will place added pressure on the years that follow, creating a steeper and potentially more costly path to climate stability. New forms of taxation, such as levies on aviation, shipping and even cryptocurrency have been suggested as a means to achieve this significant target.

  Week 2 at COP29

  Running alongside COP29 today is the G20 summit in Brazil – the G20 is a group of twenty of the world’s largest economies that gather annually. The summit works to address major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stability, climate change mitigation and sustainable development. The G20 account for 80% of global emissions and the UN Secretary General António Guterres has called on them to “lead by example” after negotiators at COP29 are no closer to agreeing the a $1 trillion deal for climate investments. In a similar vein, the Loss and Damage Collaboration have written an open letter to the President and Ministers at COP29 on establishing the New Collective Quantified Goal, within the letter the collaboration states “The NCQG must be established prior to 2025 and we only have five days left to make that deadline. We are counting on you, not just to make that deadline, but to ensure that the NCQG is ambitious and aligned with the needs of developing countries as prior decisions mandate and moral and legal obligations dictate” 

  Over the weekend, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary, Simon Stiell, told G20 leaders heading to Brazil that the the global climate crisis should be order of business Number One at the summit in Rio and that G20 leaders must signal loud and clear that international cooperation is still the best and only chance humanity has to survive global heating.

  COP29 Presidency picks up on stalled negotiations and frustration among attendees 

  Reports continue to confirm that frustration is high at COP29 due to the lack of progress on negotiations, so much so that the COP29 Presidency has stepped in to rescue negotiations on the key issue of climate change mitigation encouraging the politicians to “reach a fair and ambitious deal” saying they must “they must deliver and engage immediately and constructively”. The COP29 President announced that Brazil and UK Ministers have been drafted in to push forward the negotiations on climate finance, developed nations are yet to name the figure they think is appropriate despite this being one of the core focuses of the conference this year.  

• 19 November - Food, Agriculture & Water

  It’s day 8 in Baku and for once, things are off to a positive start. Today, leaders at the G20 summit issued a joint statement reaffirming the goals of the Paris Agreement and that “just, equitable climate action must remain at the center of the global agenda”. Leaders at the summit reiterated the outcome of the first global stocktake in Dubai, which confirmed a transition away from fossil fuels, and agreed to scale up climate finance. It is hoped that this boost from the G20 will encourage negotiations along.

  The >$1 trillion needed per annum continues to be a key discussion point. Adonia Ayebare, the G77 chairman (Uganda), said the G77 was “not comfortable” with vague wording coming out of the G20 summit saying that this money should come from “all sources”, and that the G77 has been insisting the money comes from public sources in the form of grants, rather than loans to not increase the debt burden placed on developing countries. Fiji‘s deputy prime minister, Biman Prasad, told COP29 delegates that “the reality of the situation is that 1.3 trillion pales in the face of the seven trillion that is spent annually on fossil fuel subsidies”

  Climate change and food security 

  Today, the focus for discussions is food, agriculture and water and a new report published by the Stockholm Environment Institute and Mistra Geopolitics reveals that the impacts of climate change pose threats to food production and trade, with critical implications for food security globally. Geopolitical tension is also further impacting food production with food trade being weaponized in conflicts, further exacerbating the impacts of climate change. 

  In particular, climate impacts such as droughts and flooding have significantly impacted food production and security and will continue to do so should global warming continue. Key messages from the report include the need for enhanced collaboration among small groups of countries with common goals or shared risks emerges as a potential solution to manage transboundary climate risks to food security and the shift towards plant-based food and reducing food waste to reduce environmental impacts and enhance food availability and security.

  There is no doubt that the food industry has a key role to play in the transition to net zero economies, this is something that we are exploring in today’s Ecologi hosted webinar “The role of the food industry in the road to Net-Zero: COP29 Spotlight” along with industry experts from leading consultancy MyEmissions. Click here to register for your free spot. 

  UK, New Zealand and Colombia join the International Coalition on Phasing Out Fossil Fuel Incentives Including Subsidies (COFFIS)

  Today, 3 more countries joined COFFIS, showing their support for the phasing out of fossil fuels. The coalition now has 16 member countries including Austria, Antigua and Barbuda, Belgium, Canada, Costa Rica, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Spain and Switzerland in addition to the three aforementioned countries. Members of COFFIS have committed to come to COP30 with a robust plan for the phasing out of fossil fuel subsidies. 

  Ed Milliband, the UK Energy Secretary said “our mission is to make the UK a clean energy superpower, getting off the rollercoaster of international fossil fuels and switching to homegrown energy in the hands of the British people”. 

  Declaration on Reducing Methane from Organic Waste

  Launched today at COP29, more than 30 countries have endorsed the Declaration on Reducing Methane from Organic Waste. Research found that food loss and waste accounts for 8-10% of annual greenhouse gas emissions, with methane from rotting food waste in landfill alone representing a total of 3% of total global greenhouse gas emissions. Despite this, according to the World Food Programme there are still as many as 309 million people globally facing food insecurity in 2024. Martina Otto, Head of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition at the UNEP highlighted the importance of reducing methane emissions as a means to address climate change. Otto called on all nations to integrate methane reduction measures into their Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement.  

  Australia pledges A$50m to the Loss and Damage Fund

  Today the Australian Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, announced that Australia will contribute A$50m to the global loss and damage fund; making it the sixth largest contributor. The loss and damage fund was established at COP27 and operationalised at COP28 to support the most vulnerable nations in coping with the loss and damages they face due to climate change – including loss of life, damage to infrastructure and displacement. Whilst this pledge has certainly been welcomed with open arms, it cannot be ignored that Australia is one of the world’s largest exporters of fossil fuels responsible for 1.15 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in 2023. Bowen has expressed his desire for Australia to “decarbonise and grow” whilst helping their friends and neighbours to decarbonise and develop their economies too.

• 20 November - Urbanisation/Transport/Tourism

  It is Day 9 at COP29 and this morning the Climate Change Performance Index has published the climate performance of 63 countries and the EU, which together account for over 90% of global greenhouse gas emissions. This year, Denmark has come out on top however only in 4th place – the first 3 spots of the ranking have been left empty to signify that no country has done enough to earn a top 3 place. The UK has improved its ranking significantly since last year when it only ranked in the 20th space, today the UK ranks in 6th place owing to its shift away from fossil fuels; closing down the last coal fired power plant and not issuing any new fossil fuel licences moving forwards. Argentina is one of the biggest losers this year moving down to 59th place, the newly elected Argentinian government does not believe in manmade climate change and the wording “climate change” has been removed from all official documents – there have been talks about Argentina even pulling out of the Paris Agreement but today Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein has confirmed they are simply “reevaluating their position”, as opposed to abandoning the agreement all together. 

  Draft texts expected this evening

  During COPs, various texts are crucial for negotiations and decision-making. There are different types of texts as outlined below: 

  • Negotiating Texts: Draft documents outlining potential agreements or policies on climate change mitigation, adaptation, or finance. These are constantly revised and debated.
  • Decision Texts: Once agreements are reached, they are formalised in legally binding or non-binding documents which are formally adopted by the COP.

  The lead negotiator at COP, Yalchin Rafiyev, has today said we can expect a new set of presidency texts soon, including a text on the New Collective Quantified Goal, action to cut emissions, adaptation and national climate plans. The texts are expected to be released at midnight tonight, Baku time and are an important step forwards towards final negotiations. 

  As we head into this final stretch of talks and negotiations, we would like to invite you to our post COP wrap-up webinar on the 29th November, hosted by our Director of Climate Science and Impact, Sam Jackson. The webinar will deep-dive on everything that happened at COP29, providing an overview of the action and outcomes from this year’s climate conference, as well as the implications for businesses in their climate action. 

• 21 November - Biodiversity/IPLCs/Gender/Oceans

  Thursday is set to be a busy day at COP29 as the draft texts were released last night. Today, we can expect negotiators to fiercely to-and-fro on the specifics in the draft texts, leading to the next set of documents some time later today or tomorrow. Here’s a brief overview of what we have so far: 

  New Collective Quantified Goal draft text:

  Undoubtedly the biggest talking point at this year’s conference is climate finance for developing countries. So far, nobody has been able to decide who should pay, how much they should pay and what the structure of this goal should look like. The text has revealed two options for how this goal might look; the first reflects developing-country preferences, and the second is what developed countries want to see. Here is a summary of what both options propose:

  Option 1: An annual goal starting in 2025 and running until 2035. The finance would be provided by developed countries’ governments as well as private finance. This option also invites developing countries to also provide finance voluntarily, but this wouldn’t count towards the goal. 

  Option 2: A goal to be delivered by 2035 – allowing developed nations more time to ramp up financial contributions. Within this option it refers to a “wide range of sources and instruments, including public, private and innovative sources, from bilateral and multilateral channels” to meet the finance goal. 

  Unsurprisingly, this development has been met with criticism as it lacks a crucial piece of information, how much developed countries will pay – whether it will be measured in billions of dollars, or trillions. The EU Climate Commissioner, Wopke Hoekstra has said the text currently on the table is “clearly unacceptable” he goes on to describe the options as “unworkable” and has called on the COP29 Presidency to “step up the leadership”. 

  Article 6.2 (bilateral carbon trades) draft text:

  The draft text on Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement provides updates and recommendations for the operationalisation of the article on bilateral carbon trades. Compared with the NCQG, this text is comprehensive and lays the groundwork for enhanced clarity and standardisation of the Article 6.2 mechanisms. Key takeaways from the draft text include; 

  • Engaging a cooperative approach to trading with strict transparency measures including unique identifiers and public reporting via a centralised platform. 
  • Prevention of double counting through robust accounting with safeguards such as clear metrics, methodologies and reporting standards 
  • Support for developing nations to help them participate effectively, through addressing equity concerns. 

  Article 6.4 (UN-managed carbon market) draft text:

  The draft text on Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement is concerned with the operationalisation of a UN-managed carbon market. The key takeaways from this text include; 

  • A request for the supervisory body to refine standards and methodologies in relation to the carbon market to ensure regulatory stability and robust scientific input for high integrity projects.
  • A request for the supervisory body to engage with interested stakeholders, communities and the science and knowledge of Indigenous people 
  • A decision that host parties must authorise Article 6.4 emission reductions for use towards Nationally Determined Contributions or other mitigation purposes. 

  The supervisory body is also expediting its work on further standards and tools in relation to baselines, additionality and leakage (amongst others) including post-crediting period monitoring and durability of storage.

  Mitigation draft text:

  Mitigation texts have been met with much criticism. The draft text states that nations will continue striving to keep 1.5C alive. It states that doing so will require global emissions in 2035 to be at least 60% lower than in 2019. An array of interventions to reduce emissions are named, but there’s no direct mention of fossil fuels or renewable energies, this follows reports of Saudi Arabia saying that the Arab Group would reject any texts targeting fossil fuels. 

  The UK Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Miliband, said “I’m afraid the text doesn’t yet meet the moment and the demands of this COP. On mitigation, we see, as other colleagues have said, increasing disasters all around us. So in this context, standing still is retreat, and the world will rightly judge us very harshly if this is the outcome… In particular, we know we have this task over the next year to set ambitious NDCs consistent with 1.5ºC and I’m afraid the text does in no way adequately reflect the burden on us all to do that”. 

  It is clear that the texts published today offer no progress on the call made in Dubai last year to transition away from fossil fuels risking a huge backwards step on all the progress that has been made to date. 

  Biodiversity continues to take a backseat

  Whilst all of the attention today remains firm on the draft texts, there have been no reports on the discussion topics of the day, namely biodiversity and oceans. Whilst disappointing, this development is unsurprising based on it’s position within the agenda signalling that it was considered a lower priority item than its predecessors. 

  Over the past 50 years years global wildlife populations have shrunk by around 73% which is why we developed our Business for Biodiversity Campaign, seeking to fund £200,000 worth of capital for nature restoration, and for every £1,000 contributed we will fund an extra 250 trees globally. To learn more about our Business for Biodiversity campaign click here.

  Indonesia to phase out fossil fuels by 2040 

  Good news at this years conference feels few and far between but a positive new commitment has just been announced by the Indonesian government to phase out all fossil fuel plants by 2040. President Prabowo Subianto said “Indonesia is rich in geothermal resources, and we plan to phase out coal-fired and all fossil-fueled power plants within the next 15 years. Our plan includes building over 75 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity during this time”. He also goes on to acknowledge that Indonesia is one of the most forest rich countries globally and that they are “dedicated to optimising the potential of 557 million tons of carbon credits”. 

   

  The state of play

  Things are winding down a bit in Baku for today, with no new draft texts expected to be published until the early hours of the morning. The COP is scheduled to finish at 18:00 Baku time (14:00 GMT) tomorrow, which seems very unlikely, given how much negotiating there is left to do – especially over the NCQG. We’ll be keeping an eye on things and will update if there are new textual updates before tomorrow.

• 22 November - Final Negotiations

  Good morning from Ecologi HQ on (what is supposed to be) the final day of the 2024 UN climate change conference in Baku. News is sparse this morning and there’s been nothing to report overnight – but we’re expecting further draft documents from the UNFCCC any moment. We’ll provide analysis of the key points from those as soon as we have them.

  Meanwhile, we’re hosting our next Ecologi webinar for businesses today. At 12:30 GMT, join Crista Buznea, our Head of Sustainability Marketing for an online session on How can businesses avoid greenwashing?. This is the latest in our series of COP29 webinars and is designed to support businesses with effective and accurate sustainability messaging. Details and registration can be found on our webinars page.

  New texts overdue 

  As we report this at 9.30 GMT the new texts, including the all important NCQG text, are now over an hour overdue. Faith in the event ending on time is starting to diminish and whether the COP29 presidency can deliver a deal on climate finance remains unknown.

  New NCQG draft text released

  A number of new draft texts have just come through, and the new draft text on climate finance is the one everybody’s frantically scrutinising now.

  The new NCQG text “decides” on a goal of $250 billion (USD) per year for developing countries by 2035, “with developed country Parties taking the lead” as part of “[calling] on all actors to work together to enable the scaling up of financing to developing country Parties for climate action from all public and private sources to USD 1.3 trillion per year by 2035”.

  Developing countries have previously stated they would need at least $1.2 trillion (USD) per year by 2035 to afford to decarbonise and develop sustainably, whilst dealing with the impacts of climate change. This text is still a draft, and so countries still have the opportunity to accept or reject the proposition – and the Presidency has hinted at one more iteration toward final texts this evening. We’ll see how that pans out, and how the negotiators are feeling about this latest draft text, soon.

  Our view. To us, it seems that whilst the numbers are now in the text, the wording is weak – the language “calls on” is not binding, and there is no real definition to the phrase “with developed country Parties taking the lead”. At the same time, the 250 billion per year coming from “a wide variety of sources” is ambiguous – what amount exactly are the national governments on the hook for – as opposed to blended finance streams and ‘mobilised’ (private) finance? This wishy-washy language often happens at this stage in the COP in order to make the text agreeable but give all Parties sufficient wiggle-room to interpret the text how they and their national interests see fit. The text is also significantly more concise than its previous draft – coming in at just over 4 pages, when the previous version was 10 pages long. Again, the shorter the documentation, the easier it may be to achieve consensus – but this may have an impact on how much substance there actually is in there.

  Other draft texts released

  We also now have our hands on another tranche of draft documents from other topics being discussed at the COP – adaptation, mitigation, and more.

  The latest draft text on mitigation continues to tiptoe around the subject of fossil fuels and fails to even reference the 1.5ºC warming limit, or the outcomes from last year’s Global Stocktake. Rather, it emphasises the need for international collaboration to provide finance, technology transfer and capacity building to developing countries. Whilst a realistic chance of staying beneath the 1.5ºC warming slips away, if the mitigation text stays this way then this COP has undoubtedly been a failure on accelerating mitigation action.

  Reactions so far

  Reactions to these new draft texts have been far from complimentary. Whilst the Azerbaijani Presidency is calling the latest draft texts “a balanced and streamlined package” of outcomes from the COP, a number of NGOs including Oxfam International, 350.org, and WWF have commented on the new text, with opinions ranging from “embarrassing” to “inadequate” to “immoral”. Understandably, groupings like SIDS and AOSIS are also unhappy with the draft text. Small island states like those represented by SIDS and AOSIS are extremely vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change, and so a lack of funding to them from the richer countries is, they feel, akin to directly causing even further harm.

  We’re now expecting a plenary at around 18:00 GMT where the country delegations will comment formally on the current iteration of the draft texts. Assuming the negotiators are willing and able to continue, it’s likely that agreement is still at least 24 hours away.

  Future COP venues unclear 

  We’ve had another new text published from the UN this afternoon, this time relating to the dates and venues of future COPs. We already knew that COP30 (from 10th – 21st November 2025) will be hosted by Brazil, in Belém – this is re-confirmed in the document. COP31 (from 9th – 20th November 2026) is proving a little unusual: we know that Australia and Turkey have placed bids to host that conference, but a decision has not yet been made. Often the host country will win its bid because the other bids from other countries get dropped, but it seems neither country in this case has backed down. The text pushes the decision back to the 62nd session of the Subsidiary Body (in June 2025) and it will be confirmed at COP30 next year.

  COP32’s dates have been confirmed (as 8th – 29th November 2027), but it’s too soon to know who’s hosting that one. By convention it should be in Africa, since host countries are meant to rotate between the UN Regional Groups.

• 23 November - Overtime (Final Negotiations)

  Good morning from the first full day of overtime for COP29 in Baku. The plenary we were expecting to take place at 18:00 GMT yesterday didn’t take place, and still hasn’t. We have been seeing reports that the plenary would take place “no earlier than” 10:00 local (06:00 GMT) this morning, but that time is now long past and still no sign. We’ll keep you posted when we know more.

  We also still have none of the updated draft texts we are waiting for – the main ones being climate finance (the NCQG), the UAE dialogue (regarding the outcomes from the Global Stocktake) and mitigation. There is a report this morning that rich countries have agreed to up the finance pledge to $300 billion USD per year in the NCQG – though this is still unlikely to be enough to be agreeable to developing countries. At that point the options available for developing countries would be to accept a bad deal, or to walk away.

  We’re also approaching the time in the conference where the number of present delegates might dip below the threshold for quorum – the minimum number of present delegates that need to be present to formally pass an agreement. The plenary (where the texts would be gavelled through) requires 2/3 of parties to achieve quorum, and the longer the deadlock remains over the weekend, more and more negotiators and delegates will be have to return to their home countries – threatening the opportunity for any agreements to be reached at this COP at all.

  Update 12:00 GMT:
  It’s now midday here in the UK and 16:00 over in Baku. The latest formal update we’ve seen is that there is scheduled to be a “closing plenary” at 19:00 local time (15:00 GMT). But we still have no new draft texts to look at ahead of that time – and of course, plenaries have been scheduled over the past 24 hours and then not gone ahead after all.

  Time is slipping away, and journalists on the ground are reporting frayed tempers and patience wearing thin. From what we can gather, European leaders are pushing hard for additional cash commitments and mitigation ambitions – and being stonewalled by “the last stand by the old fossil fuel world”.

  Update 16:00 GMT:

  Well, we still haven’t had a plenary yet. If you’re tuned into the news channels at this point, you’ll see that talks are “on the brink of collapse”. Failure to achieve quorum is a real risk at this stage. It’s looking ever-more likely that this COP will be concluded in what’s called a ‘COP-bis’ – a sort of part 2, which would likely be next June in Bonn, Germany.

  Meanwhile, the Guardian is reporting that Saudi Arabia was given editing rights, and made unilateral changes to the current draft text on the Just Transition Work Programme. This isn’t the proper process, and has understandably outraged a wide range of party representatives and civil society. Saudi Arabia’s negotiating position has been one of the biggest obstacles to agreement during this COP (see our update for Thursday 21st November above for more on this). 

  More updates to come, hopefully soon.

  Update 18:00 GMT:

  We’ve now had what was “part 1” of the closing plenary according to the Presidency, which was very unusual. The plenaries normally take hours, with the COP President hastily gavelling through a huge number of (mostly obscure) texts, with Parties having the opportunity to speak to put commentary on the record. Usually all of that happens after agreement has been reached on the key items on the agenda, which hasn’t happened here yet. 

  Article 6 documents agreed

  Among the documents gavelled through by the President were the two documents pertaining to Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, on carbon markets. The final documents approved related to Article 6.2 on bilateral carbon trades between countries (CMA/2024/L.15) and Article 6.4 on a new UN-regulated carbon market (CMA/2024/L.16). This is a big breakthrough for carbon markets in general, and one we’ve been anticipating all through the conference since the first iteration of the draft text was tabled on the first day (see our update for Tuesday 12th November above), and the agreement will provide clarity which will have positive implications for businesses operating in the carbon markets.

  However, the plenary has now been suspended whilst further talks take place on the remaining big ticket items. We still have no consensus on climate finance (the NCQG), on mitigation, or the just transition. Those will be the ones to watch as we enter the final hours. We’re told to anticipate that there will be a ‘part 2’ to the closing plenary later this evening (it’s already 22:00 in Baku), but there’s a huge amount of uncertainty still.

  NB: the closing plenary looks like it’s going to start at 00:30 in Baku, so subsequent updates will follow in the Sunday 24th November update below.

• 24 November - Overtime (Final Negotiations)

  Part 2 of the closing plenary is about to begin, just after 00:30 on Sunday in Baku. The past few hours have been tense – though the COP Presidency’s strategy of gavelling through the easy wins first to smooth through further negotiations appears to have paid off.

  It looks like we are going to have an agreement on a text – which has not been formally published, only handed to (some?) delegates – on the New Collective Quantified Goal. But the fact that the document hasn’t been published is extraordinary – we assume the President is going to put forward a text which has not yet been published for gavelling through. How can the COP President be sure that there’s consensus on the agreement when there isn’t a formally-published document to agree on? This is another episode in the saga of extremely unusual COP proceedings from the Azerbaijan COP Presidency. 

  For now, we are rattling through various other proceedings. We don’t know yet whether this is going to be the final plenary, or if we’ll have yet another one.

  Update 20:50 GMT:

  Wow. Okay. So after 20 minutes of gavelling – mostly on elections of additional officers under each of the COP, CMP and CMA (the Conferences of the Parties to the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, respectively) – the President has called time again on the plenary session. He said the plenary will resume “later tonight” and then clarified there will be a “20-25 minutes” gap whilst they review the documents. There’s shaking of heads and visible confusion in the plenary hall. We can’t recall ever seeing anything like this…

  Update 21:30 GMT:

  We now have the texts, listed below:

  • Global goal on adaptation (CMA/2024/L.20)
  • NCQG (CMA/2024/L.22)
  • Mitigation work programme (CMA/2024/L.23)
  • UAE dialogue (CMA/2024/L.24)

  Procedurally, it seems as though these are the best-and-final texts we’re going to get. If there isn’t consensus on these, it seems impossible to believe there could be another round of negotiations. This COP has already become the 5th-longest overrunning COP ever, according to the IISD.

  In the NCQG text, the number for climate finance from developed to developing countries is $300 billion USD per year by 2035. This is up from the current $100 billion USD per year pledge, and up from the $250 billion USD per year by 2035 that was in the previous draft of this document. Crucially, a new clause has appeared, adding that there will be a “Baku to Belém Roadmap to 1.3T” (referring to the 1.3 trillion USD that this yearly figure is targeted to reach) chaired by the outgoing Azerbaijan and incoming Brazil COP Presidencies, with the work concluding before COP30 next year. $300 billion USD per year is still very low compared to what many of the developing country negotiating blocs have been pushing for – so we’ll soon find out whether this vague ‘roadmap’ will make the NCQG text agreeable enough to agree to.

  Mukhtar Babayev, the COP President, had said they would need “20-25 minutes” to review the texts – it’s now been over 40 minutes, and so far there’s no word about a reconvening of the plenary.

  Update 22:40 GMT:

  The plenary has resumed and the draft decision for the New Collective Quantified Goal (CMA/2024/L.22) has been adopted, to a lengthy round of applause in the plenary hall. It’s a deal that is not satisfactory for anybody, but it’s been gavelled through – and at various times over the past several days, that has felt very unlikely. The amount of cash will be “at least $300 billion” USD per year from developed to developing countries by 2035, with the Baku to Belém Roadmap to 1.3T established to ramp that figure up over time.

  Now we hear from a number of countries including Cuba and India heavily criticising the agreement of the text. India’s representative is furious – saying India is “extremely, extremely disappointed” with the fact that the text has been gavelled through when the Indian delegation had requested to pass comment before the decision – stating they “absolutely object” to the “unfair means followed for this adoption”. She speaks of how the process has undermined trust and has not been inclusive – similar criticisms to those raised by the Club of Rome in their sharp call for reform of the COP process earlier during the COP. She calls the document an “optical illusion” stating in no uncertain terms that “India opposes the adoption of this document”, to applause from the hall. Earlier, the representative from Cuba had said he “profoundly regrets the insufficient outcomes” of the finance negotiations. The representative from Bolivia speaks next, expressing solidarity with India and noting that this level of finance “is extinguishing international cooperation” – again to applause in the room. There is a huge amount of discontent about both the low cash figure and the wishy-washy language in the deal, as well as the way in which it was gavelled through by the Presidency. Nigeria calls the text “an insult” and “a joke”. Malawi notes that the text is “not what we expected to get” after the series of discussions which took place today. Pakistan notes that the financial pledges put forward by the developed countries do not match with the needs of developing countries. The representative of the European Union defends the agreement of the text, and notes that as COP28 will be remembered as the beginning of the end of fossil fuels, COP29 will be remembered as the start of a new era of climate finance.

  The plenary and adoption of remaining documents will likely continue for a good while – despite the fact that it’s almost 03:30 in Baku. Now that the main agreement of this COP29 has been formally reached, we’ll bring to an end our daily coverage. In the coming days, we’ll have plenty of updates and analysis on the Ecologi blog, at our webinars and in-person events to help you to digest the immense saga that has been Azerbaijan’s COP29. Thanks for being with us.