Forget summer: it’s not much more than 100 days until Christmas, and it’s little more than two months until the world’s largest event aimed at tackling climate change.

Being hosted in Azerbaijani capital Baku, expectations are high for this year’s COP29, after what have broadly been seen as a couple of lower-key COPs following the 2021 event in Glasgow. And, the mood music is already being turned up, with the focus being on ensuring adequate action on carbon reduction to match the ambition.

But this is against a backdrop of many nations seemingly softening their stances on bold climate change measures, the increased politicisation of current policies to transition to new forms of energy, transportation and overall consumption, and the optics of the host being a major fossil fuel exporter.

Money talks

COP29 is being billed as the ‘finance COP’, the conference that will finally see major multilateral agreements on funding areas like carbon capture and storage, and reparations to impacted countries. Yet according to reports this week, many nations are still far apart on how they achieve United Nations-backed finance goals.

This World Economic forum piece outlines the likely main talking points in Baku, underlining the importance of finally reaching consensus on Article 6 of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which covers carbon markets and holds the key to the dramatic and lasting reductions that long-term ambitions will require.

It concludes that this COP needs not only to achieve those agreements, but to send a clear signal that the world is serious about net zero targets, and the changes and investments needed to meet them. “The next few months will be decisive in shaping that future,” it said.

What does it mean for me?

With the UK Government’s actions to deal with the challenges on home shores in the media spotlight this past week, COP29 may also see it make further pledges to reduce carbon emissions, both through a domestic clean energy transition and meeting overseas finance commitments, The Guardian reported. Some of that detail may even be published next month, ahead of the Budget.

But with all of the high hopes that will be pinned around the conference’s agenda, questions are already being raised about what attention large companies will pay to it, and whether many will even attend. As well as concerns over the venue, the prospect of a Donald Trump victory at the US election the week before looms large over that question, according to this article in Politico.

It may feel like COP29 has the potential to underwhelm, but the focal point it creates is likely to bring forward more political wrangling, particularly as matching ambition with action will require long-term financial commitments that bring goals and governmental pledges under greater public scrutiny.