By Aliu Akoshile, in Baku
The fate of the global climate action teeters precariously on the brink as the UN COP29 in Baku enters its last lap this Monday.
The nagging question on the lips of participants is: Can nations unite to address the climate crisis?
Heads of government from around the world will this week converge on Baku for high-level agreement after the ministerial session would have resolved some of the knotty issues.
Already, seasoned diplomats, climate experts, and negotiators have begun frantic lobbying to secure meaningful agreements on a few of the summit’s contentious agenda.
The summit, which began last week Monday, December 11, in Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital city, was expected to produce negotiated outcomes that will significantly impact global climate actions, especially in Africa.
Keen observers of the climate conference have articulated the critical agenda that will dominate negotiations during the last five days of the annual global conference.
According to analysts, Africa and its twin issues of carbon emission and climate financing will be the subject of heated negotiations among conference delegates.
The concerns being murmured across the continent were aptly articulated and deftly presented by the President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, when he addressed participants at COP29 on Wednesday.
Dr. Adesina denounced the new wave of scrambling for sales of Africa’s vast carbon rich lands at unreasonable prices, which he called “carbon grab”, saying that “it is time for Africa to be green rich and cash rich.”
Adesina, who launched a new report on “Measuring the Green Wealth of Nations”, argued that proper valuation of Africa’s green wealth will enhance the continent’s access to financial flows.
Said he: “It is time for Africa’s green environmental assets to be properly priced to allow the continent to turn its massive green assets into wealth, through their inclusion in “green’ GDP for Africa.
He added: “This will raise massive financial resources for the continent, spur greater green investments, and provide better policies for the greening of African economies for sustainable development.”
AfDB’s Vice President for power, energy, climate & green growth, Kevin Kariuki had set the ball rolling at the COP29 Africa Day event attended by President of Afreximbank, Prof. Benedict Oramah and other African leaders.
Kariuki said: “We cannot allow our sisters and mothers to suffer in silence while we have the power to change this”, adding that, “We must mobilise at least $4bn annually to achieve universal access to clean cooking by 2030.”
UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, in a message to COP29, participants warned that ‘no country is spared from the effects of climate disasters’.
He reiterated that the success of the climate conference hinges on tangible climate finance commitments by advanced industrialised nations.
However, aside from climate financing in which developed countries are expected to increase their funding for climate adaptation and mitigation projects in developing nations, analysts believe there are at least four other major bones of contention for agreement at COP29.
One is the controversial carbon market that was aimed to finalise the rules for Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, enabling international carbon trading. “We must finalise Article 6 to unlock global carbon market potential”, said COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev.
Another is the idea of loss and damage, which was a major outcome of the COP28 held in Dubai last year. COP29 may establish a dedicated fund to address climate-related loss and damage in vulnerable countries.
NatureNews gathered that many countries will enhance their nationally determined contributions by announcing ambitious emission reduction targets. Yet, observers are worried that the past NDCs have not monitored to determine level of compliance.
The fifth critical item for agreement will centre around Global Stocktake, which top official of a super power country disclosed to NatureNews that negotiators will initiate a global stocktake process to benchmark the implementation of collective progress toward Paris Agreement goals.
African delegates, however, were not overly enthusiastic about the possibility of securing tangible agreement in Baku.
A source of worry was Argentina’s surprised withdrawal from the COP29 few days into the conference last week. It was feared that the country’s sudden exit may influence other nations’ commitments to climate action. Not a few observers have expressed apprehension about the possibility of the USA pulling out again under President Donald Trump as he has done the past.
Conference analysts are also concerned about the persistent disagreements between developed and developing countries on climate responsibilities, as well as the debates over intellectual property and technology.
As the clock ticks down, the world watches anxiously for COP29’s decisive outcomes. Will delegates secure meaningful Baku agreements, or will crunch-time negotiations falter? Only time will tell.