Highlights and images for 18 November 2024

The second week of the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 29) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) started on a high note, with parties adopting a number of decisions. Some of these were negotiated at the UNFCCC’s Subsidiary Bodies' June 2024 session, including several decisions on capacity building and the extension of the mandate of the working group facilitating the implementation of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples’ Platform. Parties also adopted decisions agreed to during the first week of COP 29, including on matters relating to least developed countries and technology.

Want to dig deeper into today's talks? Read the full Earth Negotiations Bulletin daily report.

In a plenary session, the Presidency outlined the proposed mode of work for the continued negotiations during the second week, with: ministerial consultations focusing on outstanding political issues; continued technical work on a limited set of issues, into which emerging political agreements can be incorporated; and complementary presidency consultations.

With regard to the new finance goal, Yasmine Fouad (Egypt) and Chris Bowen (Australia) will conduct consultations on the structure, contributors, and overall “quantum” of the goal (the goal’s quantitative level, to be set from a floor of USD 100 billion per year). President Mukhtar Babayev also assured that “COP 29 will not be silent on mitigation.” He said the matter will be addressed “from all sides,” with Tore Onshuus Sandvik (Norway) and Dion Travers George (South Africa) to consult on what a mitigation outcome could look like.

In continued technical-level negotiations, parties made progress on various finance items. They also began to chart out their expectations for the yet-to-be-operationalized technology implementation programme, which was established in the first Global Stocktake. Developing countries’ expectations are high for this issue, with many emphasizing the need for support to address their technology needs. Discussions on gender continued in a more productive way than in the first week, with the Presidency undertaking consultations on “terminology.”