What is the annual UN climate conference, COP?

With much enthusiasm and expectations, tens of thousands of people including global leaders and experts from nearly 200 countries have started thronging Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku for COP29, the annual UN climate summit, which starts on Monday, (November 11, 2024).

With as each year’s summit generating its own set of promises, plans and paperwork to chase, the rationale for these discussions can be hard to follow.

Bangladesh has been an imperative part of COP, the short for Conference of the Parties, for the last few years, with abnormal natural events unfolding on a regular basis in the South Asian nation, whose coastal people are one of the worst affected groups globally.

A key focus of the event will be on finance, as trillions of dollars are required for countries to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect lives and livelihoods from the worsening impacts of climate change. Environment activists in Bangladesh are also concerned about the funding issue.

Generally, COPs are where the governments assess global efforts to advance the key Paris Agreement aim of limiting global warming to as close as possible to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. Parties take decisions on ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions and on adapting to the impacts of climate change, on Loss and Damage (which refers to funding for vulnerable countries hit hard by floods, droughts and other climate disasters), and on the means to help countries green their economies and build resilience to climate change (finance, technology and capacity-building).

Let’s have a glimpse on what you need to know about why the global summit is so crucial.

Why this yearly event

Because climate change will affect every country, regardless of whether it contributed to the problem, it demands global solutions that can address the diversity of needs across countries, according to Reuters.

In signing the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that launched the global negotiations, the parties that agreed to it took pains to differentiate between the wealthy nations that caused the bulk of warming and poorer countries that suffer disproportionately from it.

Put another way, the talks are framed around the idea that the countries that benefited the most from industrialising should take the most responsibility for dealing with the warming that resulted.

Addressing that imbalance has become more difficult as developing countries’ economies have grown and rich nations juggle competing costs including war.

What can a COP achieve?

The summit provides a place for countries to discuss solutions, including energy policies, financing schemes or funding needs.

Nearly every summit is also attended by world leaders, giving an important signal that their countries are committed to the UNFCCC goals. The leaders’ presence also helps countries hold one another accountable for past promises.

Importantly, the exercise has seen countries counting and reporting their emissions, and has helped move hundreds of billions of dollars in climate aid to developing nations.

By requiring decisions by consensus, the process also ensures strong global support for agreed actions, improving the chances these actions will be implemented.

But the pace of progress has been too slow to contain the rise in global temperatures. Since COP summits began in 1995, both emissions and temperatures have continued to rise, meaning the world is on track for extreme climate change.

Proponents of the UNFCCC process say there is no alternative for negotiating major socioeconomic changes to try to limit global warming.

Things expected from COP

This year’s summit is hoping for a few headline agreements: a new annual climate finance target, a deal to get multilateral carbon credit markets working, and more aid money pledged for countries already hit by costly climate disasters.

Beyond that, negotiators will continue to work on technical agreements that build on work done at previous summits.

Outside the formal COP framework, groups of countries could launch their own initiatives or pledge funding for specific projects. Companies will likely announce commercial deals related to climate action, while financiers try to raise cash for climate investments.

What is the host doing?

Azerbaijan holds the presidency of COP29 this year, when the rotating COP presidency fell to Central and Eastern Europe.

Next year Brazil will serve as Latin America’s host for COP30.

As summit host, a country works the entire year to steer pre-summit negotiations and lobby other governments for ambitious action. This gives the presidency an important part in defining the summit’s priorities.

What else occurs at the summit?

Beyond the country negotiations, the COP summit offers a chance for anyone to try to draw attention – or funding – to their cause.

Hundreds of side events see activists and scientists rubbing shoulders with industry lobbyists and banking heavyweights.

Public-facing conference stages host panel discussions on topics from ocean acidification to designing carbon offset projects.

An exhibition hall, dubbed the “Green Zone,” features discussions led by national delegations, non-profit organisations and corporations.

While some summits have seen big organized protests, such as the rally of thousands outside of COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, the last two conferences in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have allowed for protests only in designated, roped-off areas.

Azerbaijan, which also has banned public protests, will likely see little civic action outside of the high-security conference site.