Anti-Azerbaijan smear campaign fails as COP29 summit yields key results Expert opinions

Four intense days of work at the COP29 summit in Baku were not in vain – experts and journalists express satisfaction with the initial agreements reached. In particular, participants discussed key objectives of the global "green" agenda and steps to achieve UN goals, actively demonstrating commitment to the climate obligations set forth in the Paris Agreement to limit global temperature increases.

In an interview with Caliber.Az, Irina Tsukerman, an American analyst and expert in energy, geopolitics, and security, as well as the editor-in-chief of The Washington Outsider, noted that COP29 stands out from previous conferences in a positive way. This is primarily due to discussions on financing climate projects.

"At COP29, agreements have already been reached to fund climate change programs with a sum of $100 billion, and we are seeing concrete commitments from countries willing to finance these initiatives. It is encouraging to see that the global community, represented by various nations, is taking this far more seriously than a few years ago. However, I must stress that it is crucial for the financing process to be fully implemented. There are precedents, such as the US pledging substantial sponsorship for climate projects in Africa, but the funds never reached African banks.

An essential aspect here is creating the necessary infrastructure to implement these programs and train qualified specialists. Often, a lack of professional personnel to launch and effectively carry out eco-programs leads to the failure of such initiatives. For example, under the Biden administration, a huge budget was allocated to various climate initiatives, only to reveal that the challenge wasn’t solely financial, but also about the readiness of communities, state leaders, and municipalities, who lacked the expertise and professional resources to properly execute these projects. As a result, funds were almost entirely wasted," Tsukerman said.

Moreover, she noted, it is incorrect to attribute scepticism towards green energy development solely to Trump.

"Trump is not at all opposed to green energy; he supports any constructive and business-minded cooperation in this area. The business world, of which Trump is a part, needs clean and low-cost energy that renewable energy sources (RES) can provide – no one wants to spend extra money. Trump fully understands that COP29 presents vast opportunities for development. However, there are certain conditions that Trump and his team adhere to: for example, they oppose the forced implementation of eco-programs ‘from above’ in an overly administrative, top-down manner. Experience shows that such programs are often ineffective and do not work. At this point in history, the US has seriously faltered with this approach. The large funds allocated for such projects were used incorrectly, and flawed marketing policies led only to higher consumer prices in the country, which ultimately contributed to the Biden administration's electoral failure," Tsukerman concluded.

At the same time, according to Belarusian political scientist and environmentalist Sergey Tomits, COP29’s achievements are evident and will shape future climate-saving efforts.

"It seems to me that an important consensus has been reached among participants from a vast number of countries. Whereas previous summits faced significant divisions in opinions, this time, for example, the world has clearly heard the voices of African nations and countries in the Middle East and Asia, who bring their own perspectives on how to advance climate innovation.

We also saw something else – many detractors and opponents of Azerbaijan’s active initiatives and international standing tried to boycott the summit and engaged in black PR, which is absurd and foolish in itself. Fortunately, we see that these attempts have completely failed, and in his speech at COP29, the President of Azerbaijan also addressed these issues. The fact is, the world is eagerly awaiting new outcomes from the summit, and it seems that Baku still has more surprises in store for environmentalists and politicians," Tomits said.