BAKU (Reuters) – Marathon COP29 climate talks enter their final phase on Wednesday when Azerbaijani officials will publish an update on talks so far as the conference seeks to agree a new goal on issues including climate finance.
The talks, which began on November 11, will end on Friday at 1400 GMT, but COP conferences have a history of taking a long time.
Below is a breakdown of known sticking points and what happens next:
FAILED TEXTS
Officials spent the first week trying to agree deals on a range of issues including finance, carbon markets, the future of fossil fuels and efforts to slow global warming.
Now, the remaining items have been handed over to ministers so they can use their political power to try to get deals across the line.
The next steps are about trying to reduce the draft documents containing a large range of wording options into a final text that can be adopted by consensus at the end of the conference.
Draft documents will be published from time to time by the president of Azerbaijan as they enter into an acceptable agreement.
CLIMATE FINANCE POLICY
The main objective of COP29 is to agree new targets on how much money should be given to developing countries to help them deal with climate-related disasters and to transition to clean energy systems.
The previous goal of providing $100 billion a year expires in 2025. The new goal needs to be $1 trillion annually by the end of the decade, according to experts.
The focus of the discussion rooms has been on defining the structure of the new targets, including what is important such as climate finance and who should pay. Only when that is agreed upon are parties expected to start talking about the size of the target.
Among the issues to be resolved are whether countries like China should be counted among wealthy donors, and the extent to which countries should provide financing through grants or loans.
The document is scheduled to be published on Wednesday evening.
FOOT FEET
So far countries have struggled to agree on the right way to follow through on the agreement at last year’s conference to transition away from fossil fuels.
European states want to see that commitment referenced throughout the agreement in Baku to reinforce the importance of strong follow-up. Others, including the Arab Group of states, say it doesn’t have to be.
If the COPs are anything to go by, when any text of the agreement is published, delegates will be searching for the phrase “fossil fuels” to see if there is any sign of backtracking.
Carbon markets
Talks in Baku began with an early agreement on some quality standards that will govern the global market for carbon credits, but much remains to be agreed, including how to track trade and disclose regulations.
If fully agreed, market watchers expect the UN-backed global market could fund billions of dollars in greenhouse gas-reducing projects such as reforestation.
Scrutiny has intensified amid concerns that without water regulation carbon credits may not deliver the benefits they seek.
LAST HOURS
COPs rarely finish on time. COP28 in Dubai was closed almost a full day after the original deadline; COP27 in Egypt has passed for about 36 hours.
In the final hours, delegates are negotiating deeply in private with the presidency about the proposed deal, often through the night, looking for something that can be adopted by consensus.
Once completed, each country is called to the main hall to begin the hours-long formalization process.
