The 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, from the 11^th to the 22^nd of November 2024.

COP29 represents a key milestone on the path from COP28 in Dubai in 2023, where the historic agreement on transitioning away from fossil fuels before the end of this decade was reached, to COP30 in Belém, Brazil, where countries’ new national emission reduction targets and plans to 2035, the so-called NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions) will be judged.

COP29 will be a crucial moment to follow up on the achievements reached by the international community last year in Dubai, particularly on the implementation of a just transition to fossil fuel phase out with a tripling of the installation of renewables and doubling of energy efficiency by 2030.

Climate finance will be a central theme in the technical negotiations this year. The 198 Parties will discuss the new climate finance goal to help developing countries tackle climate change, known as New Collective Quantified Goal, or NCQG. 2024 represents the deadline to agree on the new target, which will apply from 2025, replacing the previous goal of USD$100 billion a year. Parties negotiating at COP29 will have to deliver a new climate finance target that recognises the need for investment (the famous trillions). The new target will also have to identify which countries will contribute to it, particularly the specific contribution of the most developed countries. The negotiations offer an opportunity for Parties to target the wider financial architecture reforms and actions needed to mobilise finance for development, through multilateral development banks and private finance.

From a geopolitical point of view, COP29 will take place in a highly fragmented context, characterized by the beginning of the new European Commission’s term, led by Ursula von der Leyen, the uncertainty around the U.S. elections, the G20 Summit that will be held in Rio de Janeiro in the middle of COP29, and the various conflicts that plague both the global North and South. The Conference of the Parties may thus become one of the last international contexts in which multilateralism not only survives but also shows that effective cooperation is still possible through dialogue, listening and compromise.