Highlights and images for 22 November 2024

The last official day of the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 29) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) started slowly. Delegates were awaiting the release of new texts on the various outstanding issues, which the Presidency had announced for mid-day. The suspense was high.

At 3:00 pm the venue suddenly erupted into frantic chatter as delegates examined the new drafts. The disappointment was palpable, with various groups lamenting, among others:

• a reference to USD 250 billion per year by 2035, from public and private sources, with developed countries “taking the lead” and an invitation to developing countries to make additional contributions “to or supplementing” the new finance goal;
• no mention of minimum allocation floors for small island developing states and least developed countries within the new finance goal;
• no reference to the Global Stocktake (GST) outcomes or energy transition in the draft decision on the mitigation work programme;
• “no text” alternatives to various references to progress toward implementing the calls for contributing to global efforts on energy transition formulated in the GST decision;  
• a “no text” alternative to an encouragement for work programmes and constituted bodies to report on their efforts to integrate the GST outcomes; and
• only a soft recognition that whole-of-economy approaches to just transitions include significant socio-economic opportunities associated with transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems.

Frustration with the Presidency grew louder, with the specter of potential “walk-outs” by entire groups of countries haunting the halls of the Baku Olympic Stadium. All the movers and shakers, especially UN Secretary-General António Guterres, tried to move groups closer to an outcome agreeable to all. A closing plenary appeared on the schedule only to disappear again.

At 9:30 pm the Presidency eventually announced it will conduct further consultations before issuing “final” texts. Plenary will not reconvene before 10:00 am on Saturday, 23 November.