COP29 Climate Change Conference in Baku

Conference of the Parties, COP, is an annual summit organized by the United Nations to deliberate, discuss, and create feasible solution alternatives to address climate change.  This year, COP 29 is held in Baku, Azerbaijan from the 11th to the 22nd of November 2024. 

The primary objective of this UN-led initiative is to foster global unity for the shared goal of tackling the climate crisis. In alignment with the sustainable development goals, countries will present their national climate action plans, set global strategies to limit global warming and discuss the financing of climate action. 

The primary issue on the agenda is mobilizing finance for climate action. At the 2015 COP conference, nations jointly established the New Collective Quantified Goal, committing to mobilize $100 billion per year to support developing countries in their endeavor to mitigate the impacts of climate change. This new goal is meant to be adopted at the COP 29 Summit this year. At the opening ceremony of the summit, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated, “On climate finance, the world must pay up, or humanity will pay the price”. 

So far, the United Nations has approved carbon market safeguards, the new climate finance goal has been set at $120 billion for 2025, and countries performances have been analyzed through the Climate Accountability Matrix (CAM). 

On the first day of the summit, Turkey presented its 2053 Long-Term Climate Strategy to the United Nations. This document outlines the roadmap Turkey has determined to reach the net-zero target by 2053. It is anticipated that 69.1% of the energy demand in 2053 will be met by renewable energy sources. In addition, Turkey intents to increase its nuclear energy capacity to meet 10% of the country’s total energy demand in 2053. Furthermore, Turkey has also announced its candidacy to host COP 31.