What the Baku Summit Holds for Our Planet
By Anand Madhukar and Vasudha Barthwal, New Delhi
COP29, scheduled in Baku, Azerbaijan, aims to build on the following commitments and chart a future course. The sessions, running from November 11 over 12 days, will focus on several key discussions:
(1) the World Leaders Climate Action Summit, a leading forum for public-private partnership, facilitating exchange in technology and innovation in multiple sectors such as energy, transport, finance, and industry.
(2) Roundtable discussions on developing holistic and balanced non-market approaches mentioned in Article 6 of the Paris Agreement that include mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology transfer, and capacity-building.
(3) High-level ministerial dialogue on climate finance.
(4) Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform (LCIPP) annual gathering to incorporate traditional knowledge of indigenous knowledge holders on local climate systems.
(5) Youth-led climate forum dialogue, and others. The summit also aims to give voice to the UNFCCC constituencies by allowing them to nominate two representatives to the Friends of the COP29 Presidency forum who will have a direct say when needs and priorities are discussed. This ensures that the climate negotiations are just, transparent, and inclusive.
The developments in the upcoming COP29 would pave the way for building a future roadmap for investment in climate action.
As precursors of the COP29 Summit, a high-level dialogue on climate transparency was held in September 2024 in Baku to strengthen global cooperation and help member countries develop biennial transparency reports that will be presented at COP29.
On the same lines, the Baku Climate Global Transparency Platform has been launched in the presence of the COP Troika (UAE, Azerbaijan, Brazil) to reiterate that climate transparency is crucial. Particular emphasis has been given to global collaboration in the fight against climate change.
India is emerging as a global leader in climate action. Our global carbon emissions, which are lower than 4%, are evidence of the balance that we have struck between collaborative usage of renewable and non-renewable energy sources via the mix-energy strategies, even though we account for 17% of the world’s population.
India has set up an aspiring goal to become carbon neutral by 2070. The Global Green Credit Initiative, co-hosted by PM Modi with the UAE at the COP28, was one such step towards becoming the driver for change and a beacon to developing countries. India has also proposed to host the COP33 in 2028.
UNFCCC COP is a forum that must uphold the concept of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC). Climate change is all countries’ shared responsibility according to their contributions and potential. If a nation is responsible for causing climate change in history, the responsibility for climate actions must also lie with that nation. This is also enshrined in the ‘Polluter Pays Principle’ that sets a liability on developed countries to be the manoeuvres of change towards a sustainable future.
Thus, COP29 will be expected spearhead future climate policies and actions against climate change. The climate transparency reports expected to be tabled at the COP forum will facilitate framing of international climate laws.
(Anand Madhukar is Assistant Professor and Programme Coordinator (Climate Science & Policy), and Vasudha Barthwal is a postgraduate student at TERI School of Advanced Studies, New Delhi)