A day before the scheduled close of talks, the COP29 meeting in Azerbaijan’s Baku stared at a major crisis Thursday with almost every country and bloc rejecting the latest draft negotiating text, not just on finance — the main focus of this conference — but on every other negotiating track.
While differences over the finance agreement prompted most of the objections to the draft negotiating texts Thursday, particularly from the developing countries, major disagreements came to the fore on other issues as well, including mitigation and adaptation. But the biggest issue was regarding the right approach in which the decisions taken in the Global Stock Take (GST) in Dubai last year could be followed upon in this year’s agreement. This issue cropped up at the start of the conference as well, and delayed the adoption of the agenda for hours.
Several countries, including India and Saudi Arabia, objected to references being made to one particular paragraph in GST which had asked all countries to transition away from fossil fuels, triple renewable energy by 2030, reduce emissions of non-CO2 gases including methane, and phase-down coal, among other things.
Global Stock Take is a five-year exercise mandated by the 2015 Paris Agreement to take stock of the progress being made in the fight against climate change, and suggest measures to make course corrections. The first of these exercises was held in Dubai last year.
Regarding the one particular paragraph, India, for example, is opposed to making any methane emission cuts because it affects the agriculture sector. Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing countries have problems with the mention of a transition away from fossil fuels.
India said it would not agree to a follow-up on GST outcomes. “As per the Paris Agreement, GST is supposed to only inform parties to undertake climate action,” Indian negotiator Leena Nandan said.
Saudi Arabia said that the Arab Group of countries, which it leads, would not accept any text that targeted “any specific sector including fossil fuels”.
Countries also saw this as an attempt to put the focus back on mitigation, since that particular paragraph in the GST agreement deals mainly with mitigation measures.
“We feel disappointed by the fact that we continue to shift focus, when the time has come to ensure that the mitigation actions are fully supported through provisions of adequate finances as per the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, and equity considerations. COP after COP, we keep talking about mitigation ambitions — what is to be done — without talking about how it is to be done. In other words, what are the enablers for raising the mitigation ambition. This COP started with focus on enablement through NCQG (New Cumulative Quantitative Goal on climate finance) discussions. But as we move towards the end, we see shifting of the focus to mitigation. We cannot accept any attempts to deflect the focus again from finance to repeated emphasis on mitigation,” Nandan said.
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