Trump's victory and heat records A difficult UN climate summit begins in Azerbaijan
Message from climate activists from London to Baku: COP29 must not fail.
Image: Keystone
Almost 200 countries are meeting in Baku for two weeks to discuss how to curb global warming.
Image: Keystone/AP/Peter Dejong
One of the biggest political summits begins: the annual World Climate Conference.
Image: Keystone
Tens of thousands of participants are expected to attend COP29 in Baku.
Image: Keystone/AP/Rafiq Maqbool
Message from climate activists from London to Baku: COP29 must not fail.
Image: Keystone
Almost 200 countries are meeting in Baku for two weeks to discuss how to curb global warming.
Image: Keystone/AP/Peter Dejong
One of the biggest political summits begins: the annual World Climate Conference.
Image: Keystone
Tens of thousands of participants are expected to attend COP29 in Baku.
Image: Keystone/AP/Rafiq Maqbool
The traffic light government has collapsed, oil fan Donald Trump will be the next US president - and 2024 will probably be the hottest year ever recorded. Can the UN climate summit still achieve success?
11.11.2024, 05:40
11.11.2024, 05:56
dpa
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Overshadowed by Donald Trump's election victory and new heat records, the UN Climate Change Conference begins on Monday in Azerbaijan.
- Almost 200 countries will spend two weeks in Baku discussing how to curb global warming and mitigate its fatal consequences - i.e. more frequent and more severe floods like the recent ones in Spain, heatwaves and forest fires or devastating storms like those on the US coast.
- he discussions will focus on renewed financial commitments to poor countries.
Overshadowed by Donald Trump's election victory and new heat records, the UN Climate Change Conference begins on Monday in Azerbaijan. Almost 200 countries will spend two weeks in Baku discussing how to curb global warming and mitigate its fatal consequences - i.e. more frequent and more severe floods like the recent ones in Spain, heatwaves and forest fires or devastating storms like those on the US coast. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock sees the climate crisis as the greatest security challenge of our time, as the Green politician explained in advance. "Every tenth of a degree of global warming prevented means fewer crises, less suffering and less displacement."
The consultations will focus on renewed financial commitments to poor countries: developing countries and environmental organizations expect the rich industrialized nations to mobilize at least one trillion dollars annually - ten times more than the 100 billion per year currently pledged. Climate activists propose wealth taxes for the rich or levies on the extraction of coal, oil and gas to finance this.
Overshadowed by Trump's election victory
Several tens of thousands of government representatives, journalists, activists and political lobbyists are expected to attend in the authoritarian former Soviet republic, where freedom of the press and freedom of expression are severely restricted. The first plenary session on Monday on the grounds around the Olympic Stadium in Baku will be followed by speeches by dozens of heads of state and government on Tuesday and Wednesday. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has canceled his trip to the climate conference following the end of his "traffic light" government.
Non-governmental organizations fear that the COP29 climate conference will be overshadowed by Donald Trump's election as US president. After his first election victory in 2016, Trump had already ordered the USA to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement - which his successor Joe Biden reversed.
The Climate Action Network, which comprises hundreds of environmental organizations, demanded that industrialized countries should not block the necessary drastic increase in climate financing with reference to tight national budgets. Industrialized countries could easily raise trillions for climate protection: by cutting military spending or climate-damaging subsidies for fossil fuels as well as tax breaks for highly profitable but environmentally harmful companies and billionaires.
The warmest year since records began
The pressure to act is great: this year, the planet has heated up by more than 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial times for the first time - according to calculations by the EU climate service, it will probably be the warmest year since weather records began. However, the target agreed at the Paris Climate Conference in 2015 of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees is not yet considered to have been missed, as longer-term average values are decisive for this.
Shortly before COP29, UN climate chief Simon Stiell stated: The commitment of the global community remains inadequate. All of the climate plans that countries have submitted to the UN would only reduce emissions of climate-damaging gases such as carbon dioxide by 2.6 percent by 2030, compared to 2019. However, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 43 percent would be needed to avert the worst consequences of the climate crisis. Even if all climate protection plans are actually implemented, the planet is heading for a warming of 2.6 to 3.1 degrees by the turn of the century.
A ray of hope in the expansion of renewables
But there are also rays of hope. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global electricity generation from renewable energies rose faster in 2023 than at any time in the last three decades. This means there is a real chance of achieving the target set at the previous climate conference in Dubai of tripling global renewable capacity by 2030.