Baku: A complex, international two-week-long game of climate change negotiations is underway. The stakes? The fate of an ever-warming world.
Curbing and coping with climate change’s worsening heat, floods, droughts, and storms will cost trillions of dollars, and many poor nations simply don’t have the resources, according to numerous reports and experts. As United Nations climate negotiations began Monday in Baku, Azerbaijan, the primary issue is determining who should contribute to help these nations, and, more specifically, how much.
The numbers involved are enormous. The baseline for negotiations is the $100 billion a year that poor nations are supposed to receive, as agreed upon in a 2009 pact that has been barely met. However, several experts and poorer nations argue that the need is closer to $1 trillion a year or more. Climate Analytics CEO Bill Hare, a physicist, said, “It’s a game with high stakes. Right now, the fate of the planet depends very much on what we’re able to pull off in the next five or 10 years.”
This year’s talks, known as COP29, are expected to be less high-profile than last year’s, with 48 fewer heads of state scheduled to attend. The leaders of the top two carbon-polluting countries — China and the United States — will be absent. However, experts warn that if the financial negotiations fail in Baku, it will hinder the critical 2025 climate discussions. The main issue is climate finance. Without adequate funding, experts warn, the world won’t be able to combat warming effectively or meet the carbon pollution-cutting goals set by many nations. As former Colombian Deputy Climate Minister Pablo Vieira stated, “If we don’t solve the finance problem, then definitely we will not solve the climate problem.”
