The Azerbaijani president of COP29 wants the release of billions of dollars required to combat global warming to be a “pillar” of the annual UN climate negotiations in November, he said Thursday without yet presenting concrete ideas .
Mukhtar Babayev spoke in Berlin at the opening of the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, a key diplomatic meeting of the calendar, where he outlined the outlines of a “plan for the presidency of COP29”, ensured in 2024 by this oil and gas state. Central Asia led by authoritarian Ilham Aliev.
“We will work on two parallel pillars that reinforce each other,” declared this former executive of the national oil company Socar: “It is about establishing clear plans to keep alive the 1.5 ° C objective of warming and leaving no one behind, while putting in place the necessary financing to achieve it.
“The world must increase the global flow of financing for the fight against climate change” and “tackle the problems that prevent developing countries from fully realizing their ambitions” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Current commitments prepare for a world warmed by 2.5° to 2.9°C over the century, according to UN calculations, compared to the second half of the 19th century. And the threshold of 1.5°C – the most ambitious limit of the Paris agreement – will probably be reached between 2030 and 2035. The world is already at at least 1.2°C today.
As a result, all countries must present an ambitious review of their emissions reduction plans (NDC) within a year.
Some developing countries, however, want to condition their efforts on the release, by developed economies, of the money necessary for their energy transition and their adaptation to a hotter world, illustrated by a record year 2023 and the multiplication of droughts, fires and flooding due to climate change.
“The world has changed since 1992”
“Supporting developing countries will enable them to be more ambitious in their actions,” Babayev said, referring to the financial assistance that developed countries owe to the rest of the world under the Rio Convention. 1992.
This aid has been set at $100 billion per year over the period 2020-2025, and the future amount, at the heart of tough negotiations, must be approved at COP29.
Whatever happens, it will remain well below needs, estimated at $2,400 billion annually by 2030 for developing countries (excluding China), according to a calculation by UN experts.
India has proposed a target of 1 trillion.
“The world has changed since 1992,” stressed German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock alongside him.
At the time, around twenty countries accounted for 80% of the world economy, they now represent only 50%, she stressed: “this is why I urge all those who can to join our efforts, and in particular the biggest current polluters, particularly within the framework of the G20.”
During a press conference, Annalena Baerbock then named “China, India or the Gulf countries” among these G20 countries (80% of global emissions) which could join the list of donors.
This enlargement “risks diluting the historic responsibilities of developed countries”, required to “rectify past and present inequalities caused by their disproportionate emissions”, declared Harjeet Singh, activist for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative , joined by AFP.
Azerbaijan, criticized for the expansion of its gas production, will set an example by presenting a new decarbonization plan compatible with the 1.5°C objective, reiterated Mr. Babayev, Minister of Ecology of his country.
But “Azerbaijan will continue to export gas”, in particular to its European customers, he assumed. He is now expected at the summit of G7 Energy Ministers, in Turin (Italy), from April 28 to 30.