The United Nations Climate Change Conference has ended in Baku, and several important agreements have been reached in recent days on climate change, water resources, emissions and financing.
The COP29 Presidency launched the Declaration on Reducing Methane Emissions from Organic Waste, with the support of more than 30 countries. The signatories of the declaration together account for 47 percent of global methane emissions from organic waste, and some of them are Japan, Russia, Germany, USA, Turkey, Canada, Belgium, Austria, Israel, as well as Serbia. By signing, countries committed to set sectoral targets for reducing these emissions in future nationally determined contributions (NDCs). As organic waste is the third largest source of anthropogenic methane emissions, after agriculture and fossil fuels, this decision is crucial to achieving the goals of the 2021 Global Methane Reduction Pledge, launched at COP26, which aims to reduce by 2030 by at least 30 percent below the 2020 level.
On the same day, in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), the Presidency launched the Harmoniya climate initiative for farmers in Baku, with the aim of recognizing how important a role farmers play in climate action. The initiative set as a plan the development of an online portal and guidelines for farmers and agricultural organizations, in order to make support more accessible to them. The Ministry of Agriculture of Azerbaijan, in cooperation with the Coalition for Climate and Clean Air, which was established within the framework of UNEP, announced new cooperation on the development of a roadmap for reducing methane emissions in the country’s agricultural sector.
Within the thematic day of urbanization, transport and tourism, two initiatives were launched. The COP29 MAP Declaration on Multisectoral Actions for Resilient and Healthy Cities set the goal of improving urban infrastructure, including climate action in city planning, as well as strengthening cooperation from the local to the global level. It calls for sustainable urban transport, green construction, as well as natural solutions. Another initiative is the COP29 Declaration on Enhanced Climate Action in Tourism, which aims to initiate climate action within the global tourism sector. The declaration calls for a creative collective thinking about how to transform tourism into a climate-resilient sector with low carbon dioxide emissions.
On the penultimate day of the Conference, the Presidency launched the COP29 Declaration on Water for Climate Action, which was supported by almost 50 countries. It commits the signatories to apply integrated approaches to combat the causes and to work together to create scientific evidence on the causes and consequences of climate change on water resources and water basins. In this way, the way is opened for stronger international cooperation, as well as between regions. On the same day, the Baku Dialogue on Water for Climate Action was launched, in which high representatives from the EU, Finland, Gambia, Germany, Moldova, the Netherlands, Slovenia, the UAE, the UK and the USA participated. This platform aims to strengthen cooperation between COP conferences on the topic of water, as well as its impact on climate change, biodiversity, pollution and desertification, thus ensuring that the topic remains on the climate agenda.
At COP29, key progress was made, marked by a decade-long wait for the completion of negotiations on carbon markets under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. The mentioned article allows countries to cooperate with each other in reducing these emissions through the market of emission credits. It is estimated that in this way the costs of implementing national climate plans (NDC) will be reduced by up to 250 billion dollars annually.
Another very significant moment is the setting of the Baku Financing Goal (BFG), which envisages directing 1.3 trillion dollars of climate finance to developing countries by 2035. The goal includes the commitment of developed countries to mobilize at least 300 billion dollars per year, especially for least developed countries and small island states. However, the countries to which the funds are intended believe that this amount is not sufficient to achieve the necessary results of climate action.
Katarina Vuinac
Source: energetskiportal.rs
