COP29 update: Day 8, 19 November

The COP29 timetable showed no formal negotiating sessions, no plenaries and no Party delegation press conferences scheduled all day.

The discussions on the New Collective Quantified Goal started to hone in on some specifics, though developed country Parties are still playing their cards very close to their chests when it comes to the size of contributions.

The G20 leaders’ meeting taking place in Rio de Janeiro reaffirmed its support for the Paris Agreement and the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal, and threw its weight behind the multilateral approach to dealing with climate change. But while the leaders’ declaration “looked forward to a successful outcome on the NCQG”, it was noticeably silent on the matter of formal financial commitments from G20 members.

Veteran analysts said the G20 declaration’s mention of the need for “increased international collaboration and support” to scale up public and private climate finance was a new twist, a subtle hint that the wealthiest nations are aware of the need to broaden funding sources.

The leaders also threw their weight behind the Global Stock Take and its main points agreed in Dubai,  including the pledge to treble renewable energy and double energy efficiency. However there was no explicit reference to a fossil fuel transition. Some sources reportedly pointed the finger at Saudi Arabia, with one observer telling Climate Home the kingdom was “happy to be destructive” at both the G20 and COP29.

UNFCCC executive secretary Simon Stiell interpreted the Rio statement bullishly, saying that G20 leaders had given COP29 negotiators their marching orders: “don’t leave Baku without a successful new finance goal.”

And there may be chinks of light beginning to leak out of the closed rooms: according to anonymous sources cited by Politico last night, the European Union has discussed internally a possible contribution to the NCQG of between $200 billion-$300 billion.

Away from the negotiating rooms, countries were keeping up the steady flow of announcements. The big news today was that the UK, Colombia and New Zealand joined a coalition of governments committing to phase out fossil fuel subsidies that was first formed last year and unveiled in Dubai.

Media sources said a half-dozen other countries, including some developing economies, were in talks with the initiative’s secretariat over joining.

And back in Rio de Janeiro, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Brazil’s president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva today launched the Global Clean Power Alliance. The initiative aims to assemble a group of countries to work together towards meeting the COP28 commitments to triple renewable energy and double energy efficiency.

The Alliance will undertake a series of “missions” to achieve its goals, the first of which is set to be a “finance mission” though no target numbers were immediately available.

 

 

 

In the negotiations

There’s precious little for us to report today, since there were no formal sessions on Article 6 matters scheduled today. Instead, ministers and co-facilitators were working behind the scenes to bridge differences between Parties and produce the best possible outcomes, as requested by the COP President. We understand the ministerial talks that took place in the afternoon focused on registries issues, but little has been shared on the outcome.

Throughout the day, we had been expecting new texts to be published at the end of the day and new consultations to take place tomorrow. However, as the evening drew near, we were told that it was highly unlikely that new texts would be published this evening. Co-facilitators will work on new texts through the night and publish the texts in the morning.

On a related track, an informal consultation on guidance to the CDM did take place today. On the weekend we had been given the impression that the CDM track had been put back to 2025 through Rule 16 of the COP’s draft rules of procedure, but we were later told that it had been “pulled back from the brink”.

However, during today’s CDM session, Parties still could not achieve a consensus for a decision, and the co-facilitators decided to forward a draft text containing multiple brackets to the COP Presidency. The key issues at stake are whether or not to fully wind down the mechanism with its governing bodies, and what to do with the resources left in the CDM Trust Fund.

 

The main event at the IETA Business Hub on Tuesday saw representatives from Global Carbon Pricing Challenge member states discuss experiences with emissions markets.

 

IETA’s COP programme is drawing to a close, and we’ve started to bid farewell to colleagues and members as they head home. The Business Hub will be open until Friday at 2200 AZT.

Today we were delighted to host the Global Carbon Pricing Coalition at the IETA Business Hub today. The panel, representing the UK, Canada, Chile, Finland and Denmark, shared their experiences with carbon pricing  regimes and gave insights into how their markets are set to evolve.

And we also heard from a panel of well-known figures from the negotiations and markets on the importance of national policies in unlocking private sector participation in the international carbon markets. We’ll be uploading recordings of most of our events in the coming week, and we’ll let you know where they can be found.

Andrea Bonzanni participated in a side event at the nearby Korean pavilion, at which government  representatives reiterated the country’s NDC-aligned target of buying 37.5 million tonnes of ITMOs by 2030.

And despite a sense that COP29 is beginning to wind down, the Hub remained busy as delegates met to discuss the progress of the talks and, today in particular, to find out what was happening behind the closed doors on the other side of the COP venue.

 

Wednesday at the IETA Business Hub

Many of the events hosted at the IETA Business Hub will be webcast – just click on the links to participate! All event times are listed in Azerbaijan time (AZT), which is three hours ahead of Central European and four hours behind Singapore time.

IETA’s BusinessHub is located in Area E, Pavilion H6, in the Blue Zone. We’re close to the pavilions of Georgia, Moana Blue Pacific and Namibia.

Wednesday is the last day of our schedule at the IETA Business Hub; it’s been a pleasure to see so many members of our community engaged in the discussions, with the side event room often packed to overflowing. We hope our schedule offered inspiration, learning and further proof that the private sector is a committed partner in the fight to decarbonise and to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Our last day has one event: at 1330 AZT (1030 CET), the HBAR Foundation will host a discussion on digital MRV systems that bring the planet’s balance sheet to the public ledger. Panelists will explore the opportunities for transparency mechanisms that enhance data quality, environmental integrity, and carbon market access for climate projects. You can join this event online here.