COP29 News: 2024 United Nations Climate Conference Preview, Everything You Need to Know

COP29, the United Nations next climate conference in 2024, is scheduled for November 11-24 in Baku, Azerbaijan, which is located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and West Asia. Azerbaijan chose Ecology Minister Mukhtar Babayev to lead the COP29 event.

The previous COP28 event, held in United Arab Emirates (UAE) in November-December 2023, attracted roughly 90,000 attendees -- including heads of state, government officials, international industry leaders, private sector representatives, academics, experts, youth, and non-state actors, the UAE said.

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

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

COP29 Preview News: July 2024 Updates

New Climate Fund: Azerbaijan will launch a new climate fund that will aim to mobilize $1 billion to support developing countries' new national climate targets, Reuters said.

Call for Compromises:  The hosts of this year's UN climate summit urged governments to start compromising to break a deadlock over how to help poorer countries tackle global warming, Barron's reported.

United Kingdom: Ed Miliband is to take personal control of the UK’s negotiations at COP29 international climate talks, in stark contrast to his Tory predecessors, The Guardian reported.

Fossil-Fuel Policy and Green Funding: Azerbaijan has scrapped plans to propose a levy on fossil-fuel producers to raise climate-change funding, Reuters reported. Instead, Azerbaijan at the summit aims to launch a new fund for green investments in poorer countries, the report said.

Human Rights: Amnesty International is calling on the United Nations and Azerbaijan to publish a Host Country Agreement that guarantees human rights safeguards for COP29 attendees.

Host Country Strategy: Azerbaijan will upgrade its national emissions-cutting target ahead of the COP29 conference, Reuters said.

COP29 Preview News: June 2024 Updates

Money for Developing Nations? Ahead of the conference, the biggest fights involve how to allocate trillions of dollars from developed nations to emerging markets — and how China fits into the equation, Bloomberg reported. Indeed, countries cannot agree on the size of a global funding bill to help the developing world fight climate change - let alone how to split the bill, Reuters added.

Renewable Energy Project: Azerbaijan and the UAE unveiled plans for three large-scale solar and wind projects in Azerbaijan, totaling 1 GW capacity, during a ceremony held at the Baku Energy Forum, Euronews reported.

Renewable Energy Target: Azerbaijan is hoping to raise the share of renewables across its energy sector to almost a third with over $2 billion in green investments, its energy minister said ahead of hosting COP29 later this year.

COP29 News: May 2024 Updates

Fossil Fuel Strategy: Azerbaijan, which will host this year’s United Nations climate summit, is working on a proposal to place a levy on oil, gas and coal production in order to fund climate action in developing countries, Bloomberg reported.

Climate Talk Challenges: Global talks ahead of this year’s COP29 climate summit must find a way to boost the share of clean energy investments in emerging economies, which has “remained flat” over the last 10 years, the International Energy Agency chief said, Bloomberg reported.

United States and China: The U.S.-China Climate Working Group intends to discuss methane and non-carbon dioxide greenhouse gasses at COP29 climate summit, Reuters reported.

COP29 News: April 2024 Updates

Funding Poor Countries?: Political leaders said this year’s COP29 talks will center on a challenge they’ve failed for years to overcome: massively increasing funds to help poorer countries fight global warming, Bloomberg reported. At the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, Germany’s foreign affairs minister Annalena Baerbock said developing nations would need $2 trillion annually, with half of that coming from foreign sources, the report noted.

Tony Blair's Offer: The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI), which was founded by the former U.K. prime minister in 2016, has approached the Azeri government with an offer of support for the COP29 climate talks in November 2024, Politico reported.

International Preparations: Conversations and preparations for the COP29 conference shifted into overdrive this week. The latest preparations and chatter involved dedicated meetings with representatives from Asian Development Bank, India, Israel, the Muslim Council of Elders.

China: Azerbaijan is eager to engage in talks with China regarding COP29 issues, said Hikmet Hajiyev, Head of the Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration, in an interview with Global Times, Azernews reports.

United Nations: The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has named Nazim Mammadov as its coordinator for COP29. Mammadov is UNDP's national coordinator for environmental projects.

COP29 News: March 2024 Updates

NATO's Perspectives: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg appeared with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on March 17. Stoltenberg praised the COP29 host nation for its role in delivering natural gas to NATO allies, and also credited Azerbaijani for investing in alternative energies, Barron's reported. Still, some critics continue to question why the event will be hosted in a country that leans heavily on fossil fuels.

Climate Finance Meeting: The United Arab Emirates will bring together country representatives and leaders from global financial institutions at a special meeting in June 2024 in a bid to scale up finance commitments at the COP29 climate talks, Bloomberg report.

More: Continue to page 2 for more COP29 preview news.