Elnur Sultanov, the CEO of COP29 speaking to Rudaw on November 11, 2024. Photo: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Finding resources to correct the course of global climate goals is the main aim of the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Baku, the chief executive officer of the COP29 said on Monday.
“The biggest deal is the climate crisis we are facing. And, what COP28 revealed is that we are not on course to achieve the goal of 1.5 [degrees Celsius], and 1.5 is the fighting chase to save the world,” Elnur Sultanov, the CEO of COP29, told Rudaw’s Hawar Abdulrazaq.
Under the 2015 Paris agreement, countries agreed to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions in a bid to keep the global average surface temperature at 2 degrees Celsius and to work to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
“COP29 therefore is about how we can find resources, especially finance, to make sure that we can course correct in terms of the national plans, including the NAPS [National Adaptation Plans] and NDCs [Nationally Determined Contributions], so that we can achieve 1.5. This is overarching goal of our COP29,” Sultanov said.
The UN Climate Conference, also known as COP29, is bringing together 198 countries in Baku from November 11 to 22. More than 200 world leaders are expected to attend the summit this year, in addition to over 1,600 representatives of international organizations.
COP29 aims to provide $100 billion per year to developing nations based on a 2009 agreement that has not met its goals.
“The important part of the climate finance should be flowing from the developed countries, you are very right. But climate finance is much larger concept right. So, we believe that that kind of public money should catalytic. Should be used stratigically to unlock the private sector as well,” Sultanov said.
Despite the challenges ahead, heads from 48 countries are absent, including economic powerhouses such as the United States and China.
The US has sent a delegation to the discussions, but it is anticipated that the financial commitments made by the current administration will be dismissed by the president-elect Donald Trump who does not endorse initiatives aimed at addressing climate change.
The G20 countries, including China and the US, account for an estimated 77 percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions.
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