COP29 to be test for Paris Agreement, says president-designate

COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev has said that the Baku global climate conference COP29 will be a crucial test for both the Paris Agreement and multilateralism.

At the opening of the UN Pre-Conference of the Parties to the 2024 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (Pre-Cop29) in Baku, Caliber.Az reports, citing local media.

He said the Azerbaijani presidency is committed to an inclusive, transparent and impartial COP29.

Babayev stressed that since its election as COP29 host, Azerbaijan has organised many meetings where the importance of an immediate transition from words to action was stressed.

“Throughout the year, the COP29 chairmanship listened to everyone's problems, concerns and priorities. In the first six months after COP28, the economic impact of extreme weather reached $41 billion. From Typhoon Yagi in Southeast Asia to Hurricane Milton in the US. Everyone is suffering and the cost of inaction is rising. We believe there is broad agreement with the COP29 Chairmanship's vision to increase ambition and galvanise action. We have also launched the COP29 Programme of Action to complement the formal process,” he said.

COP29, scheduled for November in Azerbaijan, follows the decision taken at COP28 in Dubai in December 2023. Baku will host between 70,000 and 80,000 international participants over the two weeks. In the run-up to COP29, the world will focus on finding cooperative solutions to the global climate crisis, with a particular emphasis on the role of human capital in sustainable development and resilience.

The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. It was adopted by 196 Parties at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris, France, on 12 December 2015. It entered into force on 4 November 2016. Its overarching goal is to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.”

However, in recent years, world leaders have stressed the need to limit global warming to 1.5°C by the end of this century. That’s because the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change indicates that crossing the 1.5°C threshold risks unleashing far more severe climate change impacts, including more frequent and severe droughts, heatwaves and rainfall. To limit global warming to 1.5°C, greenhouse gas emissions must peak before 2025 at the latest and decline 43% by 2030.

The Paris Agreement is a landmark in the multilateral climate change process because, for the first time, a binding agreement brings all nations together to combat climate change and adapt to its effects.

By Khagan Isayev