Our Head of ESG, Hashem Abdi reports back on his time at COP29.

The UN’s annual climate summit, 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, brought together country representatives to strategize on ambitious plans to reduce emissions, address the impacts of the climate crisis, measure progress and increase funding to tackle climate change. 

The first COP took place in 1995 in Berlin as an opportunity for nations to agree on terms for how to protect the planet. Over the years, world leaders have signed on key climate agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol, which places legally binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions on certain countries, and the Paris Agreement, which calls for “keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius”. 

This year’s focus was on climate finance. Before COP29 started, the New Climate Finance Goal (NCQG) was centre stage. The emphasis on finance was great enough that the tagline “Finance COP” was an understood title for this year’s summit. But even with all the work done behind the scenes leading up to this year’s COP, the negotiations were off to a slow start.

The NCQG would have replaced the previously agreed-upon amount of US$100 billion annually that was intended to help developing nations combat climate change. However, even in the last couple of hours of the summit, neither the developed countries nor developing countries agreed on a final revised number that would carry them forward. The COP29 presidency in Baku, serving as the final facilitator, presented the last text regarding the landmark climate finance agreement with the total of US$300 billion annually being the new revised target. Although most developing countries considered this a failure, aiming for a target of US$1.3 trillion annually, the parties reluctantly accepted the text. 

The other key area that was of significance was the agreement on carbon trading under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Carbon markets and creditors have long been waiting for further guidance on the next step in creating a globally recognised standard of carbon trading. With the launch of the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (PACM), there is now the shift towards a potentially viable, UN-backed mechanism that could link carbon markets across the world, as well as providing much needed assurances of both quality and methodology. Low-quality and even fraudulent offsets have plagued the carbon market in its brief history. This agreement at COP29, even though there are still complaints about transparency and process, is a step in the right direction to providing the key framework towards credible carbon credits between countries.

COP29 started off with mixed signals and was plagued by myriad challenges. However, there was still progress made on several fronts. Now, parties are already preparing for COP30 in Brazil next year. There is a renewed sense of optimism as Brazil prepares for a conference that many hopes will produce the biggest climate win since the Paris Agreement.

As the firm’s presence at COP29, I focused on participating in engaging conversation with both public- and private-sector stakeholders on what law firms can do to better prepare for the incoming legislation and support the just transition to effective climate governance. The elements that were emphasised by these stakeholders was on addressing the skills gap to effectively report as well as having the right personnel to lead these efforts both externally and internally. The road ahead will be challenging but, if this COP29 has taught us anything, it is that even in challenging circumstances, climate wins can be found if there is persistence and vision toward the future.

This article was authored by Hashem Abdi