COP29 has concluded in Baku, Azerbaijan. The two-week climate conference overran two days as negotiations worked towards a new global finance goal.
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00:00The UN Environmental Programme shows that current policies are leading us to three degrees of warming.
00:09These temperatures would be catastrophic for billions.
00:13They would threaten the existence of communities' representatives in this room.
00:20Colleges were on the road to ruin.
00:24But these are not the future problems.
00:27Climate change is already here.
00:33Distinguished delegates, it gives me great pleasure to declare open the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties
00:41to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
00:48Sultan al-Jaber handing over to President-designate Muqtad Babaev and opening COP29 in Baku in Azerbaijan.
00:55The conference began amidst stark warnings and calls to enhance ambition and enable climate action.
01:02It got off to a promising start on day one with the approval of international standards in relation to the global carbon market
01:09under Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement, the international treaty on climate change.
01:15The best thing that we have reached on the first day was agreeing on a decision on Article 6.4 endorsing the SPM standards that have been agreed in early October in Baku.
01:31That was a long-awaited decision to be made at the COP, ten years of hard negotiation process, and in the last three COP several attempts to get it adopted, but finally we got it done.
01:43And having it on the first day really set the mood in the negotiating rooms.
01:48Over 40,000 attendees and 100 heads of state attended this actionable COP, and the unwavering consensus was that the time for action is now.
01:58Floods in Valencia and Hurricane Milton are examples of how extreme weather is impacting the world.
02:03A report by the International Chamber of Commerce has revealed that it's cost the global economy almost 2 trillion euro over the last 10 years.
02:12What we've done in pulling together this report is to show the actual damage from climate-related events has actually now reached the same level as what occurred at the same time as the global financial crisis,
02:25and the world leadership decided they'd do something about it.
02:28Well, we're saying that's where we are. You can't keep kicking it down the road.
02:32We've announced it now as we go into COP29. It's time to actually do things.
02:36COP29 was dubbed the finance COP, and the scaling up of climate finance through global financial interoperability, as well as the impact on developing economies was high on the agenda.
02:49The European Investment Bank is bringing concrete solutions to the table through climate resilience clauses, through climate debt swaps and conversions.
03:00All those countries that are at the forefront of climate change and are extremely vulnerable because of high indebtedness, we are providing solutions.
03:09Just recently, this week, we're going to be signing agreements that will also foster the green bond market worldwide,
03:15so that we can mobilize and scale up the necessary finance to make this green transition a global success.
03:22Despite best efforts and appeals for compromise and solidarity, a global finance deal could not be agreed upon before COP29 was due to finish, and it overran by two days.
03:34Finally, a breakthrough agreement was reached to triple finance to developing countries from the previous goal of US$100 billion to US$300 billion annually by 2035.
03:46It has been a difficult journey, but we've delivered a deal.
03:51This new finance goal is an insurance policy for humanity, amid worsening climate impacts hitting every country, after almost a decade of hard work, where several previous cops were not able to get this done.
04:11No country got everything they wanted, and we leave Baku with a mountain of work to do.
04:22The many other issues we need to progress may not be headlines, but they are lifelines for billions of people.
04:32So this is no time for victory laps.
04:35We need to set our sights and redouble our efforts on the road to Belém.
04:41While some were disappointed it wasn't near the US$1.3 trillion developing countries were asking for,
04:47some delegations acknowledged that the Baku breakthrough was a step in the right direction to safeguard the future and ensure more money flows.