What was agreed at COP29?

The 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (also known as the 29th Conference of the Parties, or COP29) was held from 11 to 22 November 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Negotiations overran and concluded on 24 November 2024.

A new climate finance goal

The key outcome of the conference was the agreement of a new climate finance goal, the ‘new collective quantified goal’ (NCQG). This was finalised on the last day following prolonged negotiations.

Climate finance is provided by developed countries to support developing countries to respond and adapt to the impacts of climate change. At COP29, countries agreed to work towards an overall aspirational goal of $1.3 trillion per year. This comprised an agreed target of “at least £300 billion” a year in international climate finance from ‘developed’ countries from 2035 (with the remainder of funding made up from wider sources of finance, such as private investment). The $300 billion target is significantly less than the estimated need for developing countries, and resulted in walkouts during negotiations.

More widely, COP29 also finalised technical rules for international carbon markets under the Paris Agreement. It also provided a forum for countries to discuss increasing national ambitions on emissions reductions ahead of the submission of new ‘nationally determined contributions’ (NDCs) in 2025. The UK announced its new NDC at COP29: to cut emissions 81% by 2035.

Reaction to COP29 outcomes

COP29 was a ‘technical COP’, and most stakeholders expected it to focus on the financing decision. However, many criticised the size of the finance target as too small, as well as the lack of progress on COP28’s decision to “transition away from fossil fuels”.

The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) walked out of negotiations on the NCQG, and told the BBC that “the size of the damage to our economies [from climate change] outweighs any sort of per capita calculation of how much money we’re getting”. Brazil, hosts of next year’s COP30, said that rich countries had “clearly arrived to ditch their obligations” and criticised the slow progress.

UN Secretary General António Guterres said he had “hoped for a more ambitious outcome—on both finance and mitigation—to meet the great challenge we face” but that the agreement “provides a base on which to build.”

There was criticism of the COP process itself, as well as the selection process for host countries. Concerns were expressed about transparency, negotiating procedure and the carbon emissions of people travelling to attend. During the conference, a group of senior ‘climate leaders’ wrote to the UN stating that the current system was not fit for purpose.

What happens next?

The official host nation for COP30 is Brazil, with the 2025 conference to be held in Belém from 10 to 21 November 2025. COP30 will be held close to the Amazon rainforest, and it has been billed as the ‘nature COP’.