ALMOST NOTHING TO DO WITH ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ANY MORE
24th November 2024 – The UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) closed today with a new finance goal to help countries to protect their people and economies against climate disasters, and share in the vast benefits of the clean energy boom. With a central focus on climate finance, COP29 brought together nearly 200 countries in Baku, Azerbaijan, and reached a breakthrough agreement that will: Triple finance to developing countries, from the previous goal of USD 100 billion annually, to USD 300 billion annually by 2035 and secure efforts of all actors to work together to scale up finance to developing countries, from public and private sources, to the amount of USD 1.3 trillion per year by 2035.
There are many countries who don’t believe that man is responsible for climate change who will accept grants but will more likely direct UN funds towards vital infrastructure etc rather than measures to keep the temperature below 15.23 degrees Celsius (13.73 C plus 1.50 C). Especially since China and India whose emissions continue to exceed the rest of the world. China accounted for 35% of global CO2 emissions, which was 15% higher than the combined emissions of advanced economies. China’s primary source of CO2 emissions is fossil fuels, particularly coal.
Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG), it was agreed after two weeks of intensive negotiations and several years of preparatory work, in a process that requires all nations to unanimously agree on every word of the agreement. “This new finance goal is an insurance policy for humanity, amid worsening climate impacts hitting every country,” said Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change. “But like any insurance policy – it only works – if premiums are paid in full, and on time. Promises must be kept, to protect billions of lives.”
“It will keep the clean energy boom growing, helping all countries to share in its huge benefits: more jobs, stronger growth, cheaper and cleaner energy for all.” The International Energy Agency expects global clean energy investment to exceed USD 2 trillion for the first time in 2024.
The new finance goal at COP29 builds on significant strides forward on global climate action at COP27, which agreed an historic Loss and Damage Fund, and COP28, which delivered a global agreement to transition away from all fossil fuels in energy systems swiftly and fairly, triple renewable energy and boost climate resilience.
COP29 also reached agreement on carbon markets – which several previous COPs had not been able to achieve. These agreements will help countries deliver their climate plans more quickly and cheaply, and make faster progress in halving global emissions this decade, as required by science. Important agreements were also reached on transparent climate reporting and adaptation as summarized below.
Stiell also acknowledged that the agreement reached in Baku did not meet all Parties’ expectations, and substantially more work is still needed next year on several crucial issues. “No country got everything they wanted, and we leave Baku with a mountain of work to do,” said Stiell. “The many other issues we need to progress may not be headlines but they are lifelines for billions of people. So this is no time for victory laps, we need to set our sights and redouble our efforts on the road to Belem.”
The finance agreement at COP29 comes as stronger national climate plans (Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs) become due from all countries next year. These new climate plans must cover all greenhouse gases and all sectors, to keep the 1.5°C warming limit within reach. COP29 saw two G20 countries – the UK and Brazil – signal clearly that they plan to ramp up climate action in their NDCs 3.0, because they are entirely in the interests of their economies and peoples.
“We still have a very long road ahead, but here in Baku we took another important step forward,” said Stiell. “The UN Paris Agreement is humanity’s life-raft; there is nothing else. So here in Baku and all of the countries represented in this room we’re taking that journey forward together.”
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Most of the money never seems to reach where it is intended due to poor management and corruption in some of these countries. Venezuela, once the richest country in South America, now one of the poorest, is an example of that.
Global demand for coal is forecast to reach record levels next year, driven by huge growth in China and India, defying global efforts to tackle climate change.The International Energy Agency is predicting at least three years of surging demand for coal, just weeks after world leaders ¬failed to agree on a phase-out of the fossil fuel source at climate change talks in Glasgow. “All evidence indicates a widening gap between political ambitions and targets on one side and the realities of the current ¬energy system on the other.
There was only a 14 ppm increase in carbon dioxide emissions in the thirty year period between 1940 and 1970, (1940 at 311 ppm-1970 at 325 ppm), despite the post war boom, armaments for world war 2, atomic bomb explosions etc during this period.