COP29: Towards a Sustainable Future for Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change in the 21st century, from Indigenous to Global Perspective

He said he wanted to remove ourselves from the colonial nature of the COP. “The COP is predicated on the erasure of Indigenous nationhood. It’s built around the upholding of state nationhood, and as a result, we won’t see significant change until the nationhood of Indigenous peoples is acknowledged and incorporated.”

Graeme Reed, Indigenous North American representative for the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform at COP29, says his group will focus on ensuring that there’s no additional harm to Indigenous peoples and on building global Indigenous solidarity.

Eriel Deranger, executive director of Indigenous Climate Action and an Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation member, says Indigenous peoples are still largely relegated to the sidelines.

These meetings have a small amount of power held by Indigenous people. They are able to give suggestions to the states about how to negotiate text and agreements with Indigenous peoples.

The summit set ambitious goals like increasing global energy storage six-fold. Stored energy, often with batteries, can backstop renewable energy when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing.

Yearly energy efficiency improvements were doubled last year from 2% to 4%. According to IRENA, there has been little progress in meeting that goal.

“It is still possible to achieve this goal, but each year the target falls further out of reach,” Francesco La Camera, IRENA’s director-general says. We made a commitment at the conference. Now it is time for us to deliver.”

At the end of last year, a breakthrough agreement was struck for countries to transition away from fossil fuels, the main source of heat-trapping pollution. But Trump has promised to boost U.S. fossil-fuel production. And even before Trump reclaimed the White House, the United Nations warned that efforts to curb climate pollution are far off track. The global emissions rose to a new record in 2023, and scientists say it is “virtually certain” that the year will be hottest on record.

Some countries are expected to make new pledges at the Baku summit to cut climate pollution.

At COP29, countries will attempt to agree on what the new, higher annual climate finance target of the NCQG should be, with some arguing that the figure should run into the trillions. The allocation of funds, grants, loans, and investments are all options for countries to consider when deciding what kind of finance to include. And then there are other factors to consider: Will the private sector contribute? When should the goal be reached? There are different options for the years 2030 and 2035. Not to mention the weight of inflation.

The director for energy and development at The Breakthrough Institute says success is when the money is delivered. “What we really want to see is an increase in resources to poor countries that will actually enable them to tackle climate change. Instead, what we are seeing are the statements made by these people.

The last time Trump was in the White House, beginning in 2017, he pulled the United States out of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, a pact that governments made to prevent Earth from warming more than 1.5–2 °C by curbing their emissions. The US president-elect is expected to do the same after entering office next year. This is already casting a shadow over the 29th UN climate conference of the parties (COP29) as representatives from nearly 200 countries gather to discuss financial aid for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) vulnerable to global warming. The summit is held from 11-22 November.

Donald Trump’s Climate Change Pullout: When the U.S. Starts to Take the X-ray Off of the Paris Agreement

Rich Lesser is the chair of Boston consulting Group and he is optimistic about technology. “The challenge is that the timeline to do this is not set by us.”

$1 trillion a year in climate finance—that’s the goal. Getting a commitment of this size will be the measure of success of this year’s UN Conference of the Parties on Climate Change, COP29, which is being held in Baku, Azerbaijan.

It is required of almost every country to have a plan on how much they will cut pollution. In order to reduce the risks of weather disasters, the goal is to limit global warming to between 2 degrees Celsius and 1.5 degrees Celsius, which is less than in the late 1800’s.

Donald Trump will pull out of the Paris Agreement on day one of his term in office, according to a senior associate at climate change think tank E3G.

If the U.S. withdraws, the process takes a year. The threat is changing the diplomatic landscape. At the Baku summit, countries won’t rely on U.S. leadership as they would have if Vice President Kamala Harris had won the election, Meyer says.

“With Trump’s win, I think people are going to look for other countries to take the slack,” Meyer says. Particularly the European Union and China.

What will the United States do next? Climate Finance and the Challenges of Adapting to Climate Change, with the Contribution from a Rich Country

Industrialized countries like the US built their wealth using fossil fuels, and that is behind most of the planetary warming so far. Developing nations, on the other hand, have contributed far less pollution. Their smaller economies and geographic locations mean they are sufferingdisproportionate harm.

That leaves developing nations in a bind. They need help, but whatever money is pledged will almost certainly be a fraction of what is needed. They will rely on wealthy neighbors that have been unreliable.

At these conferences, held every 12 months, everyone has a microphone—small islands with 10,000 inhabitants sit next to the giant countries of the world as they try to make decisions on how to curb climate change and its impacts.

The meeting kicks off today with a plenary, and tomorrow will hear from heads of state and their environment ministers. The people who work on the text of the conference’s decisions will make way for the negotiators.

To avoid stalemate, these final decisions are approved by consensus rather than voted on; approval is obtained in the absence of overt objections, though the decisions’ text may be repeatedly amended in order to reach an agreement. Here is what to look for.

The United States, the world’s largest economy as well as its second largest greenhouse-gas producer, will be difficult to negotiate a strong agreement with.

The main purpose of the summit is to tackle climate finance and if the US leaves it will be a problem. The United States has already failed to meet its commitment under Biden to boost international aid for developing nations to US$11.4 billion annually, to help them adapt to climate change and forgo industrialization that involves heavy pollution. The US Congress appropriated just $1 billion this year. Few people think the new administration under Trump will be any better than the old one.

For instance, Weikmans says, an LMIC might use funds from a wealthy nation to build a new school equipped with solar panels, but it’s unclear whether that wealthy country would report the whole cost of the school, or just the solar panels, as part of a climate investment. “My hope is that the new goal will be formulated in a way that makes it possible for observers to assess the extent to which it has been met or not,” Weikmans says.

Earth is expected to hit 1.5 C this year with the globe already warming 1.3 C. Scientists are telling policymakers that the climate is changing and the risks are growing much faster than a few years ago.

“This year we have seen severe weather events, droughts, extreme heat, flooding, hurricanes of a magnitude we’ve never seen before, and those impacts will not go away — even in the very best scenario,” Höhne says. As the world barrels towards an unlivable future, he adds, leaders at COP29 need to switch to “emergency mode”.