The goals might be broadly welcomed, but climate groups want to see progress on fossil fuel consumption, writes Georgia Gratton
The president-designate of the UN Cop 29 climate summit, Azeri ecology and natural resources minister Mukhtar Babayev, this week set out 14 initiatives and a detailed agenda for the conference, drawing little-addressed topics into the spotlight, but skating over some of last year's Cop outcomes.
Most tangibly, Babayev's letter, sent to parties to UN climate body the UNFCCC, listed a handful of pledges that echo the broadly popular declarations launched at last year's Cop 28 by that summit's UAE presidency.
Babayev set out a two-pronged declaration, which seeks to scale up global energy storage capacity to 1.5TW by 2030 and add or refurbish more than 80mn km of power grid by 2040. A separate proposed pledge aims to "commit to green energy zones and corridors", to maximise sustainable energy generation and ensure "cost-effective transmission over large distances and across borders". And the summit will aim to tackle the barriers — including regulatory, technical and financial ones — to a global "clean hydrogen" market.
The Cop 29 presidency also aims to address "the growing problem of methane from organic waste", it said. Methane — a potent greenhouse gas — is often a focus at Cop summits, although typically with an eye to the largest emitters, the agriculture and fossil fuel industries. Global methane emissions from agriculture and fossil fuels stood at 142mn t and 118mn t, respectively, in 2023, whereas waste was responsible for 71mn t, IEA data show.
Babayev wants governments to commit to targets to cut methane from organic waste and more countries to sign the Global Methane Pledge. The pledge, launched in 2021 at Cop 26, asks signatories to cut methane emissions by at least 30pc by 2030, from 2020 levels. Azerbaijan signed the pledge in March this year.
These goals are likely to be broadly welcomed, but environmental groups will also be watching for progress on fossil fuel consumption. Babayev's letter avoided mention of the key agreement reached at last year's Cop 28 — to transition away from fossil fuels — although it did make multiple references to the first global stocktake, the main outcome document from Cop 28.
Feeling the heat
Azerbaijan is a natural gas exporter, and keen to build on this. The majority of the country's income is from the energy sector, with oil and gas accounting for 90pc of exports and a third of its GDP, according to the World Bank, which lists Azerbaijan among the countries that have most to lose from the transition.
Babayev noted that Cop 29 — set for 11-22 November in Baku — will be the first Cop hosted in the Caucasus region. He flagged the "extreme heat [and] water scarcity" the region faces, but also pointed to its wind and solar power potential. And he provided more details of a planned $1bn climate fund, which will be capitalised by fossil fuel-producing countries and companies.
"We believe that countries rich in natural resources should be at the forefront of those addressing climate change," Babayev said, noting that the direction came from Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev. The fund will be a public-private partnership, with "concessional and grant-based support to rapidly address the consequences of natural disasters" in developing countries, Babayev said. It will "provide offtake agreement guarantees for small and medium-sized renewable energy producers and first-loss capital for green industrial projects", with a focus on food and agriculture, he said.
Babayev has already said climate finance will be the "centrepiece" in Baku. The planned fund, and any other advances on climate finance, are likely to prove the mark of success for Cop 29.
