UN Climate Change Conference Baku – What’s New?

By: Muhammad Maroof

What impact did the largest climate change conference in the world have on the future of climate financing?[1] The latest United Nations Climate Change Conference (“UNFCCC” or “the COP29”) concluded November 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The conference was attended by representatives of 195 countries who discussed a multitude of climate related changes and policy.[2]

What is the UN Framework of Climate Change Conference?

The UNFCCC is the United Nation’s “entity tasked with supporting the global response to the threat of climate change.”[3] Founded in 1992, the UNFCCC has 198 members,[4] and is the “parent treaty” for the Paris Agreement and the Kyoto Protocol.[5] The ultimate goal for all three of these agreements are the same, “stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system, in a time frame which allows ecosystems to adapt naturally and enables sustainable development.”[6] The latest conference negotiators from around the world met to finalize a “new goal on climate finance, ensuring every country has the means to take much stronger climate action, slashing greenhouse emissions and building resilient communities.”[7] This article focuses on the climate financing decisions finalized at COP29.

What is climate financing?

Climate financing is funding used to fight climate change, through investments in adaptation, mitigation, and resilience.[8] Typically, developed countries provide funding through a combination of grants and loans to help underdeveloped and climate-vulnerable nations strengthen their infrastructure against climate change.[9] An example of climate financing includes finding climate-resilient seeds (e.g. “drought resistant, flood resilient and disease. . . resistant seeds”[10]) for farmers and providing cash assistance to areas with frequent floods.[11] Climate financing is important because as greenhouse gas emission increase, so does the frequency of extreme weather.[12] When developed nations fund efforts to reduce emissions in underdeveloped countries, global emissions decline, which benefits the planet.[13]

During past COP summits, “world leaders had pledged to mobilize $100 billion annually in climate financing by 2020 to support climate action in developing countries.”[14] This goal had only been met only once, in 2023, and even when the amount was raised, there was criticism about how the money was distributed.[15] Critics raised concerns about both the method of donation and the transparency of reporting.[16]  Oxfam, an international non-profit organization, found that the reported amount of $83 billion in support, was only made up of $24.5 billion in actual funding.[17] The rest of the amount was either loans to underdeveloped countries, or just overestimates of the amount pledged by the countries.[18] Oxfam also estimates that half of the money is given out as loans, which does not do much to help underdeveloped countries because they are left with huge amounts of debt.[19]

What did the COP29 change?

The COP29, produced an agreement which increased the goal of climate financing given to developing countries from $100 billion annually, to at least $300 billion per annum by 2035.[20] The agreement does not specify who should pay or loan this money. Instead, it allows for the money to be supplied on a volunteer basis from developed countries.[21] This funding will come in the form of grants and low interest loans.[22] One of the biggest criticisms from developing countries is that the new agreement failed to eliminate loans, a key goal of the meeting.[23] Rather than fostering development, this policy could worsen economic conditions and hinder developing countries from enhancing their climate infrastructure in the future.

Conclusion

The COP29 has proponents optimistic because of the increased goal of $300 billion in climate financing for developing countries. Most of the criticism is coming from developing countries themselves, who think that this form of financing will not help them in the long run and instead make it a burden to follow through with building a better climate infrastructure. With the vague and unclear language as to what form the funding will be in, and who the funding will come from, the effect of the latest agreement is quite uncertain.

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[1] McSweeney, R., & Viisainen, V., Analysis: Which countries have sent the most delegates to COP29?, Carbon Brief, (Nov. 12, 2024), https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-which-countries-have-sent-the-most-delegates-to-cop29/

[2] Id.

[3] About the secretariat, UNFCCC (last visited Mar. 3, 2025), https://unfccc.int/about-us/about-the-secretariat

[4] Id.

[5] Id.

[6] Id.

[7] About COP 29, United Nations Climate Change (last visited Mar. 3, 2025), https://unfccc.int/cop29/about-cop29

[8] Int’l Rescue Comm., What is climate finance and why is it so important?, Rescue.org (Dec. 5, 2023), https://www.rescue.org/article/what-climate-finance-and-why-it-so-important

[9] Tom Crowfoot, COP29 key takeaways, and other nature and climate stories you need to read this week, World Econ. F. (Nov 27, 2024), https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/11/cop29-key-takeaways-nature-climate-stories-news/

[10] Climate resilient seeds Q&A, Practical Action (last visited Mar. 14, 2025), https://practicalaction.org/news-stories/climate-resilient-seeds-qa/#:~:text=Climate%20resilient%20seeds%20are%20seeds,disease%20and%20pest%20resistant%20seeds.

[11] Int’l Rescue Comm., supra note 7.

[12] Why finance climate action?, United Nations, (last visited Mar. 5, 2025), https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/why-finance-climate-action

[13] Id.

[14] Id.

[15] Nicholas Micinski, Why the “Finance COP” in Baku Missed the Mark, Carnegie Endowment (Jan. 28, 2025), https://carnegieendowment.org/posts/2025/01/cop29-climate-finance-scale-logistics?lang=en

[16] Id.

[17] Rich countries’ continued failure to honor their $100 billon climate finance promise threatens negotiations and undermines climate action, Oxfam Int’l (Jun. 5, 2023), https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/rich-countries-continued-failure-honor-their-100-billon-climate-finance-promise

[18] Id.

[19] Id.

[20] COP29 UN Climate Conference Agrees to Triple Finance to Developing Countries, Protecting Lives and Livelihoods, United Nations Climate Change (Nov. 24, 2024), https://unfccc.int/news/cop29-un-climate-conference-agrees-to-triple-finance-to-developing-countries-protecting-lives-and

[21] Nicholas Micinski, supra note 15.

[22] Tom Crowfoot, supra note 8.

[23] Nicholas Micinski, supra note 15.