COP29 News Recap: 2024 United Nations Climate Conference Key Takeaways and Everything to Know

COP29, the United Nations climate conference for 2024, concluded in November 2024 with a financing deal that upset some attendees.

First, some background. The event was held in Baku, Azerbaijan, which is located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and West Asia. Azerbaijan Ecology Minister Mukhtar Babayev led the COP29 event.

The previous COP28 event, held in United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2023, attracted roughly 80,000 attendees. But COP29 attendance was around 40,000 people, with a numerous companies choosing to send smaller delegations or completely skip the conference in part because of its location, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Still, numerous IT services, software, hardware and cloud companies attended the annual COP conference to build and strengthen various sustainability and green IT partnerships.

A key example: SustainableIT.org and its partners -- including such partners and members as ServiceNow, Imperial College London, Deloitte, Mastercard, BNP Paribas, Denominator, Schneider Electric, Salesforce, and ERM -- were on-hand to discuss such topics as sustainable IT practices, responsible AI and climate solutions, climate resilient digital ecosystems, and more.

The timeline below, updated regularly, tracks all news ahead and during the event. Here's the latest...

COP29 News: Closing Day Agreement, Recap

• Wins and Losses: Here are the five biggest wins and losses at COP29, which set the stage for COP30 in 2025, according to Bloomberg.
• Financing Agreement: Rich countries on November 24, 2024 pledged to provide at least $300 billion annually by 2035, but the deal had critics on both sides of the negotiating table, Bloomberg reported. The African Group of Negotiators described the final pledge as "too little, too late", while the representative from India dismissed the money as "a paltry sum," BBC reported.
  

COP29 News: November 22 Updates

• More Finance Debate: Countries are set to work through the night on an international climate finance strategy, Bloomberg reported, after an initial proposal sparked widespread anger. A draft plan proposed rich countries pay $250 billion per year to help poor countries battle climate change, Reuters noted. Related: All COP29 news.
• Financing Debate: Division and discontent spilled into the open at COP29 on November 21, Reuters reported, sparked by a proposal for a new global finance deal that offered two vastly different options and left no one happy as the closing deadline neared.
• Tourism: More than 50 governments have signed a U.N. declaration to make tourism more climate friendly worldwide, Reuters reported.

COP29 News: November 20 Updates

Multiple updates...

• G20 Climate Efforts: Leaders of the Group of 20 major economies vowed to remain united to achieve climate action goals under the Paris Agreement, Nippon reported.
• AI and Energy Efficiency: During a panel discussion, executives from Deloitte, Crusoe Energy Systems, EON, the International Energy Agency (IEA) and NVIDIA sat down for a conversation about the energy efficiency of AI.

COP29 News: November 17 Updates

Multiple updates...

• Lack of Progress?: The COP29 talks descended into a circus of boycotts, political tirades and fossil fuels celebrations, CNN reported.
• Skepticism: The climate talks are "no longer fit for purpose" and need an urgent overhaul, key experts including a former UN secretary general and former UN climate chief have said, BBC reported.
• Consulting: KPMG executives will present more than a dozen times at the conference.
• Argentina Exits Conference?: Argentine delegates at the summit have been ordered to withdraw from negotiations and return home, CNN reported.

COP29 News: November 15 Updates

Multiple updates...

• Carbon Finance: Global carbon markets gained a win on November 11, after negotiators at COP29 ratified a key framework for the trading of U.N.-backed carbon credits between countries, potentially unlocking billions of dollars of climate finance, The Wall Street Journal reported.
• Can Gold Help?: The International Monetary Fund should sell 4% of its gold to help offer debt relief to low income countries devastated by climate-related catastrophes, a study said as climate financing dominates early talks at the COP29 summit, Reuters reported.
• Russia Paris Accord Perspectives: Russia backs the Paris climate agreement, the Kremlin’s envoy said, adding he hoped President-elect Donald Trump will also keep the US in the landmark agreement, Bloomberg reported.

COP29 News: November 14 Updates

Multiple updates...

• Environment Data: CDP and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) are "deepening their collaboration to improve and streamline environmental reporting," the two organizations said.
• Funding Needs: Developing countries need at least $1 trillion per year by the end of the decade to cope with climate change, economists told U.N. talks in Baku, where early efforts to reach a finance deal risk being overshadowed by diplomatic rows, Reuters reported.
• Ivory Coast Climate Fund: The Ivory Coast will create a $500 million green finance fund to support sustainable growth initiatives, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said, according to Reuters.
• Nuclear Energy: Thirty-one countries plan to triple their nuclear energy capacity by 2050, according to the World Nuclear Association.

COP29 News: November 13 Updates

Multiple updates...

• Financial Pledges: COP29 negotiators welcomed a pledge by major development banks to lift funding to poor and middle-income countries struggling with global warming, Reuters reported. A group of lenders, including the World Bank, announced a joint goal of increasing this finance to $120 billion by 2030, a roughly 60% increase on the amount in 2023, the report said.
• United States and the Paris Agreement: President-elect Donald Trump should keep the U.S. involved in global efforts to address climate change, Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods told CNBC.
• United States - Nuclear Energy Investments: The United States will aim to deploy 200 GW of net new nuclear energy capacity by 2050, at least tripling current U.S. nuclear energy capacity, according to the Biden Administration. But ironically, President Biden is not at COP29.

COP29 News: Early November Updates

Multiple updates...

• November 11 - Carbon Credit Standards: Countries at the summit gave the go-ahead to carbon credit quality standards which are critical to launching a U.N.-backed global carbon market, Reuters reported. The market would fund projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• November 11 - Time for a Reset: In order for global climate action to succeed, world leaders at COP29 need to reimagine the path to global climate action, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair asserts.
• November 9 - UK: The United Kingdom will lead efforts at COP29 to secure a global agreement needed to stave off the worst impacts of climate breakdown, The Guardian reported.
• November 8 - Brazil:  The country announced details of its new climate change pledge on November 8 that sets a target to lower Brazil's greenhouse gas emissions by 2035, Reuters reported.
• November 8 - Which G7 Leaders Will Attend?: Only two heads from the G7, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, are expected to attend COP29, Semafor reported. The G7 -- seven major industrial countries -- is an informal forum of heads of state and government. The group includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
• November 8 - Papua New Guinea Says No: Papua New Guinea has withdrawn from high-level talks at COP29, describing the event as “a total waste of time," The Guardian reported.
• November 1 - United States Delegation: More than 20 officials from the Biden administration will attend COP29. However, President Biden will not attend the climate conference, The Hill noted.
• November 1 - Investment Guide: Azerbaijan this month plans to launch a set of standards agreed by more than 100 countries to guide sustainable investment, the country's central bank governor said and Reuters reported.
• November 1 - Climate Financing Discussions: The climate financing theme will dominate COP29 discussions at COP 29, McKinsey predicted.

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