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Climate action will continue despite Trump’s return, US envoy tells COP29

John Podesta seeks to reassure, countries agree to carbon market rules, and the Taliban is in attendance on first day of climate summit.

US climate envoy John Podesta has called on governments to believe in the United States’ clean energy economy, saying President-elect Donald Trump can slow but not stop its climate change pledges.

On Monday, during the first day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan, Podesta told the summit that Trump’s electoral victory last week was “obviously bitterly disappointing

he UN annual climate summit is now under way in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, with thousands of representatives from the world converging in the South Caucasus nation for two weeks of negotiations over how to tackle the climate crisis.

But the global summit has been overshadowed by the re-election of Donald Trump as United States president, who has expressed his intention to walk out of the landmark Paris Agreement for the second time. He is also likely to reduce the US’s carbon-cutting commitments critical in the transition to net zero

Countries have also failed to agree on how to fund the transition towards green energy and climate change mitigation programmes around the world

The decision to host the summit in a country whose economy is based on fossil fuels has been criticised by climate activists, including Greta Thunberg, who labelled the event a “greenwash conference” during a recent lecture

What does COP stand for?

COP is an abbreviation for the Conference of the Parties to the Convention, which refers to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – a multilateral treaty adopted in 1992.

The UNFCCC, which entered into force in 1994, has become a basis for landmark agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol (1997) and the Paris Climate Agreement (2015), which aims to limit global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2100.

It will also mark the first time the Taliban will attend a UN climate conference since their takeover of Afghanistan in 2021.

Diplomats, journalists, climate scientists, NGOs, activists, and Indigenous leaders will also attend.

The Biden administration will send a delegation with officials from more than 20 US departments, agencies, and organisations led by senior adviser to the president for international climate policy, John Podesta

What’s on the agenda this year?

COP29 has been labelled the “finance COP” because it seeks to increase funding to support lower-income countries in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

A UN-backed report has stated that emerging countries, excluding China, need investments well beyond $2 trillion annually by 2030 if the world is to halt global warming

An analysis commissioned by the UK and Egypt found that a trillion dollars should come from rich countries, investors, and multilateral development banks.

The report added the remainder – about $1.4 trillion – must originate domestically from private and public sources.

In 2009, richer nations pledged to provide $100bn annually in climate financing for developing countries by 2020, which they achieved two years late