The opening session of the 29th United Nations Conference of Parties (COP29) was delayed due to an agenda disagreement between developing and developed nations.
The high-level event began on Monday in Baku, Azerbaijan, gathering policymakers, activists, and heads of state to steer discussions on climate change. The conference started energetically with Sultan Al Jaber, COP28 President, handing over the leadership to Mukhtar Babayev, the new COP29 President, who will serve over the coming year.
However, countries quickly reached a deadlock on the agenda, specifically on how to approach the UAE dialogue concerning the global stocktake outcomes.
European countries advocate for integrating the stocktake outcomes into “all relevant work programmes and constituted bodies,” while developing nations maintain that the UAE dialogue should “solely focus on finance.”
Additionally, the European Union (EU) restated that the dialogue should “keep track of implementation” across all stocktake areas, including mitigation, finance, and adaptation.
In 2023, nations agreed to phase out fossil fuels and triple renewable energy capacity by 2030, which entails countries submitting inventories of their progress through nationally determined contributions (NDCs).