COP29: Time to move from talk to action

The 29th session of the Conference of Parties (COP29) starts today in Baku, Azerbaijan, and is expected to run for the next 12 days.

Here, member states will take stock of progress since last year’s Dubai meeting, where countries agreed to create a new fund to tackle severe losses that vulnerable countries face as climate change intensifies.

The first international agreement to tackle climate change’s main driver – fossil fuels – was also signed.

These two resolutions were meant to transform existing programmes and systems and hasten the reduction of emissions and to stop the spread of climate change impacts already being experienced.

Although one year is a short time for any meaningful implementation of these policies comprehensively, many of the short-term expectations remain a mirage in the face of a fast-heating world.

COP29 takes place as the globe is undergoing an escalation of the effects of climate change that are now spreading to countries that were previously considered safe.

The common denominator in making the world a habitable planet remains availability of funds to fast-track adaptation programmes.

The United Nations says that at COP29, governments must commit to an increase in climate financing in order to close the widening climate adaptation efforts among Global North and South countries.

Countries in the Global South continue to shoulder the worst outcomes of climate-related catastrophic events, yet they emit the lowest percentage of greenhouse gases that are responsible for global warming.

The pain becomes even more unbearable as these poor nations grapple with debt stress from high-interest loans given to them by developed nations and global lending banks, as well as inflation.

This leaves the countries poorer and with few resources to support the programmes meant to address climate change.

Developed countries can no longer bury their head in the sand, as experts have sounded the alarm that global average temperatures could double from 1.5°C to 3.1°C before this century ends.

Global North countries must rise up to be counted and their leaders should avoid turning the Baku meeting into a mere talk show to generate documents that never get acted upon after their release.