Executive Secretary of UNFCCC, Simon Stiell (L) speaks with  COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber (R) during the opening ceremony 



The COP29 climate conference kicked off Monday in Baku, in Azerbaijan, with a call to the world to raise the climate finance goal in order to mitigate the impacts of climate change.


“Colleagues, we are on a road to ruin. But these are not future problems. Climate change is already here. We need much more from all of you,” Azerbaijan's Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources and COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev  said in his opening remarks.


Rep Sam Onuigbo at Baku, Azerbaijan, for the COP) 28 Summit

The opening of the summit, the world’s largest gathering to discuss climate change, was also addressed by the president of the previous summit in Dubai (COP28), Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Executive Secretary Simon Stiell, among others


The conference will be held in the capital of Azerbaijan until Nov. 22, and will be attended by the top political leaders from across the world to try and increase the climate finance goal, among its main objectives.


Rep Sam Onuigbo at the Climate Finance Dialogue in Istanbul,  Turkey,  on establishing Green Zones: Economic opportunities in a warming world, Nov 8-10, 2024

The three leaders insisted on the need for global cooperation to make a greener world and mitigate global warming.


They also stressed on the need to increase funding and provide countries with greater tools to improve emission mitigation and adaptation to increasingly catastrophic climate shocks.


“COP29 is a moment of truth for the Paris Agreement. It will test our commitment to the multilateral climate system. We must now demonstrate that we are prepared to meet the goals we have set ourselves,” said the COP29 president.


Al-Jaber, on his part, spoke of the need to make financing easily accessible to developing countries, and called for unity especially in the current world scenario with conflicts in different parts..


“I urge you all to prove once again that we can unite, act and deliver.  Let positivity prevail and let it power the process. Let actions speak louder than words,” he underlined.


Finally, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Stiell called for a consensus on a new global funding target for the fight against climate change because “no country is immune” to global warming.


“Here in Baku, we must agree on a new global climate finance goal. If at least two thirds of the world’s nations cannot afford to cut emissions quickly, then every nation pays a brutal price,” he warned.


“So, let’s dispense with the idea that climate finance is charity. An ambitious new climate finance goal is entirely in the self-interest of every nation, including the largest and wealthiest,” he said.


“We must work harder to reform the global financial system. Giving countries the fiscal space they so desperately need,” Stiell further said.


He underlined that if the necessary changes were not brought about, the entire global economy would be brought to its knees, and that they “cannot leave Baku without a substantial outcome.”