Credit: NOAA, Unsplash
The Science Based Targets Initiative are present at the COP29 summit, and held a panel discussion yesterday entitled ‘Upgrading the Architecture of Corporate Climate Standards’. Delegates from attending nations were invited to join, and the discussion explored topics such as the future evolution of standards guiding non-state climate action. In particular, how rising stakeholder expectations will necessitate ambitious climate action and increased accountability.
A talk hosted by the University of Cambridge’s Aviation Impact Accelerator and Reviate discussed ‘one of the simplest’ and cheapest climate solutions being examined at the COP29 summit – aircraft contrails. With simple changes to aviation practice, at an average cost of less than £4 per flight, contrail warming could be halved or more by 2040. Some researchers have argued that contrail warming doubles the amount of heating caused by fossil fuels used in aviation, and this discussion has promising implications for the future.
The representative of the Vatican, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, specified today that climate finance must not lead to further debt amongst poorer nations vulnerable to climate change. This standpoint was strongly supported by leaders such as Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, and Prime Minister of Pakistan Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif. The call for grants instead of loans is a prominent theme at COP29. Browne further declared that ‘We can’t wait any longer for empty pledges…justice demands promises are enforced’.
The only G7 leader present other than Keir Starmer, Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni, cited nuclear fusion as a potential ‘gamechanger’ and pointed out that the global rise in population will only increase demand for energy.
Edi Rama, furious at the previous day where some leaders did not listen to delegates of other nations in favour of informal conversations, bemoaned what the point of COP was ‘if there is no common political will on the horizon to go beyond words and unite for meaningful action?’.
25 countries, amongst them Spain, Antigua and Barbuda, Germany, and the Marshall Islands, announced a joint commitment to swift and ambitious climate action, further stipulating that the rights of women and girls were essential.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres showed his support for small island states vulnerable to climate change, stating that ‘you are on the sharp end of a colossal injustice…that sees the very future of your islands threatened’. The strong possibility of the US departing from the Paris Agreement constitutes an ‘existential threat’ to small island nations, said Tongan Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni, and Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Edward Davis clarified that ‘the climate crisis does not pause for elections…it demands continuity, commitment and most of all, solidarity’.
Climate advisor to Joe Biden Ali Zaidi subsequently claimed that US plans to triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050 was a bipartisan project that may survive the re-election of Donald Trump.
In response to Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan, who commented that oil and gas were a ‘gift from God’, nearly 60 faith-based organisations have signed a Call to Action stating that every country ‘must prioritise the urgent phase-out of fossil fuels’.
Muhammad Yunus, interim leader of Bangladesh, declared that similarly to colonialism, climate change is the fault of the global north and that the global north should therefore provide the funds needed to combat the crisis.
Argentinian negotiators, representing the climate sceptic Javier Milei, were ordered towards the end of today to cease participation and withdraw from the summit.
Brazil formalised its new NDC today, and although setting an (arguably) ambitious target, it ignores the fact that Brazil plans to increase oil and gas production by 36% by 2035.
Following the pledge to triple global nuclear capacity by 2050 made at COP28, 6 new signatories have joined today, including Kenya, Nigeria and Türkiye. None of the new signatories currently use nuclear power, but it is being hailed by many leaders as a promising route to explore.
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