The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the decision-making body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The UNFCCC aims to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations, and COP annually brings together the 198 parties to the Convention to assess the current international state of climate change, including analyzing financial assistance to countries that face difficulties in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Past conferences have laid the groundwork for how we understand and enforce climate change regulations today. COP 21 established the Paris Agreement in 2015, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, assess the programs that work toward this goal, and provide financing to developing countries combating climate change. COP 26 created the Glasgow Climate Pact 2021, which builds upon the Paris Agreement and calls for countries to analyze their Nationally Determined Contributions to emission levels. It also calls on developed states to provide $10 billion to developing states to provide the necessary financing for them to mitigate climate change risks.
However, COP 29 – the most recent conference – left questions unanswered for the future of climate change mitigation. The conference was held in Baku, Azerbaijan—a decision protested by the international community for both Azerbaijan’s human rights violations in the Artsakh region of Armenia and significant contributions to greenhouse gas emissions.
Under a false pretext of environmental concerns, Azerbaijan illegally blocked the Lachin Corridor checkpoint—a pathway connecting Artsakh to Armenia—and stopped the transportation of humanitarian aid to civilian populations. This followed the largest attack on Armenia by Azerbaijan since the beginning of the Artsakh conflict in September 2022. This attack resulted in the militarization of Armenia’s borders and increased forced emigration and aimed to ethnically cleanse Armenians from Artsakh and its surroundings.
Azerbaijani officials told the International Crisis Group that the checkpoint was set up to “observe, control and influence” over Artsakh and its surroundings. Azerbaijan’s illegal blockade of the Lachin corridor under the pretense of eco-activism presents an irony in Azerbaijan hosting COP 29.
Fridays for Future, an international movement founded by climate activist Greta Thunberg, previously condemned COP 29 being held in Azerbaijan. The organization called for the release of all prisoners of war—coining the hashtag #FreeArmenianHostages—and advocated for the rights of indigenous Armenians to remain in Artsakh.
Amnesty International also called on EU leaders to raise awareness of human rights violations through a joint letter in November 2024, highlighting Azerbaijan’s violations against independent journalists and civil society representatives. It also stated that leaders attending the conference should aim to secure the release of independent journalists and representatives and“stress in interactions with the Azerbaijani government that robust civil society participation is essential for effective climate action.”
Azerbaijan also was an unfit host for the conference due to its contributions to climate change. Prior to COP 29, reports indicated that Azerbaijan is anticipating an expansion of fossil gas production. The State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) has appointed 97% of its capital expenditure to ventures in oil and gas projects. A report from the Climate Action Tracker deemed Azerbaijan’s climate action as “critically insufficient,” and cited that Azerbaijan has “actually weakened its climate target in contradiction of the requirement of the Paris Agreement’s Article.”
The key goals of the November conference were “securing a new goal on climate finance, ensuring every country has the means to take much stronger climate action, slashing greenhouse gas emissions and building resilient communities.” The conference also aimed to analyze national climate plans, which Climate Action tracked, saying the host country is “weakening its updated NDC, removing its 2030 target altogether, and with its pledge to markedly increase fossil fuel production and consequently increase methane emissions.”
The Group of 77 (G77), the largest intergovernmental organization of developing states in the UN, promotes collective economic interests. At COP 29, negotiations on the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance stretched into the final hours of the conference. The G77 demanded $1.3 trillion from historic emitters to rebuild from the effects of those states, such as the U.S. and EU countries. The final deal only states that those states should receive $300 billion annual, and $1.3 trillion should just be a target. According to the Guardian, hours before COP 29 concluded, delegates from the U.S., Colombia, and multiple African states huddled over documents and struck a last-minute deal to keep the $1.3 trillion as a target.
“Without access to high-quality, stable financing, developing countries are unable to take measures to address the climate crisis—a crisis they are not responsible for,” said Environmental Investigation Agency Climate Campaigner Jack Corscadden.
According to a press release from Kick Big Polluters Out, there were at least 1,773 fossil fuel lobbyists who were granted access to COP 29. The press release stated that fossil fuel lobbyists received more passes to COP 29 than all the delegates combined from the 10 most climate-vulnerable nations. COP 29 failed to reach an agreement on fossil fuel production—something that is vital to Azerbaijan’s economy and represented at the conference. The last agreed-upon language regarding fossil fuels at a COP was the decision to “transition away” from fossil fuels, according to the Council of Foreign Affairs.
COP 30 will be held in Brazil, and must address the open-ended questions regarding fossil fuel mitigation. In a letter to the parties, President-designate André Aranha Corrêa do Lago called for working with the COP 29 Presidency to “scale climate finance for developing countries to USD 1.3 trillion annually,” and said the two Presidencies will “produce a report on these efforts by COP 30.”
By undercutting developing countries affected by historical emitters and failing to reach a new agreement on fossil fuel mitigation, it is evident that the economy and intentions of a host state of COP directly correlate to the effectiveness of the conference. The work is cut out for future COPs, but to ensure a fruitful conference, the UN must consider the politics of host countries.
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
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