Nine candles are burning on the birthday cake: On this day in 2015, the COP delegates rejoiced in the exhibition halls of Le Bourget airport in Paris after the Paris Agreement was finally adopted. What a relief and joy! Since then, climate activists have been comforting each other with the words of Humphrey Bogart and […]
Around USD 100 billion in aid for the poorest countries – at first glance, the amount of capital raised last week for the World Bank subsidiary International Development Association (IDA) for the next three years doesn’t sound bad. But anyone who knows the details of global aid payments and the debt crisis is cautious about […]
Mr. Steiner, is the Baku decision on financial aid of USD 300 billion for developing countries in 2035 a success for these countries or a “band-aid on a bullet wound,” as one NGO called it?USD 100 billion is the minimum amount. It was therefore important that there was a significant increase in financial commitments in […]
Five years ago, everyone was determined to save the climate. Fridays for Future was at its peak, no election manifesto was complete without a climate plan, cities and municipalities declared a “climate emergency.” With the snap election in Germany approaching, climate change has taken a back seat in the public perception. But what has happened […]
Last year, developing countries spent more money on their national debt than what was promised to them in climate finance for 2035 at COP29: While the UN states agreed in Baku to mobilize a total of 1.3 trillion US dollars in aid, loans and investments for climate action and adaptation in 2035, poor countries spent […]
We have happily returned from the COP and are enjoying November in Germany. The conference still lingers with us a little, for example in the reports that COP President Babayev is still playing by his own rules after the conference and gossiping about what’s been happening. Or when we look at the negotiations on a […]
In another highly unusual move, Azerbaijan’s COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev has continued his leadership. In an opinion piece in The Guardian, he accused developed countries of stalling the negotiations and risking the failure of the conference by insisting on a financial target of just 250 billion US dollars. By criticizing important negotiating partners and revealing […]
Phew, we’ve done it again. That was the general mood on Sunday morning around half past five in Baku’s football stadium, as this extra-long COP finally came to an end. Delegates, NGOs, and media folks breathed a weary sigh of relief now that, after painfully long delays, a deal was finally struck. Sometimes it almost […]
When COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev dropped the gavel for the last time at 5:31 a.m. on Sunday and declared the Baku Climate Change Conference over, the delegates applauded. There was a mixture of joy and exhaustion, but also relief that the conference had not failed. And that the Azerbaijani presidency had managed to get the […]
The decision taken at the climate conference in Baku has set an important course: a new international target for climate finance, the gradual expansion of the donor base for climate aid, and a final regulation for voluntary carbon markets. But COP29 also has other important consequences in its course and results that will shape global […]