UN Climate Summit: Political Direction Essential for Future Financial Goals

The president of this year's UN climate summit emphasized the need for political guidance to resolve financial disagreements for supporting developing countries' post-2025 climate actions. Climate finance is a key topic at the UN conference in Azerbaijan, with an urgent need for consensus on new financial targets amidst slow progress and trust issues.

The president of this year's UN climate summit has highlighted the urgent need for political leadership to overcome disagreements on a new financial target supporting developing countries' climate actions beyond 2025.

Climate finance will be a central theme at the upcoming UN climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, where negotiations will focus on the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG)—a financial commitment by developed nations to aid developing countries starting in 2025.

''There are disagreements on key elements that will require political direction and we must focus high-level discussions on these points,'' COP29 President-Designate Mukhtar Babayev said, noting the complexity of these issues beyond mere negotiations. Previous failures to meet climate finance goals, such as the USD 100 billion annual pledge made at the 2009 Copenhagen conference, have strained trust between developed and developing nations.

Babayev called for an ambitious NCQG agreement, prioritized by the Azeri presidency, to rebuild trust and meet the urgent needs of developing nations.

On the same day, Simon Steill, head of the UN climate change body, urged all countries to prioritize climate action, citing the devastating impacts of climate-related disasters and an estimate of USD 38 trillion in annual global economic costs by 2050. He emphasized the critical leadership role of G20 countries in mitigating global climate risks.

(With inputs from agencies.)