Five major talking points at COP29 climate summit

United Nations climate talks are starting in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Monday.

The meeting will come just days after the election victory of Donald Trump, who has dismissed global warming as a hoax, and at the end of what will probably be the hottest year in recorded history. Extreme weather, much of it made more intense by climate change, is wreaking havoc around the globe.

Against that backdrop, diplomats and heads of state from nearly 200 countries are gathering to try to chart a path forward. Here’s a concise guide to the meeting.

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African Group of Negotiators

African countries will push at COP29 for more climate finance and for the entry into force of the Paris Agreement’s Article 6 on carbon market rules by early next year.

They remain concerned about the idling of the loss and damage fund following this year’s flooding in East Africa and fatal heatwaves in the Sahel.

African countries plan to challenge a decision, to place the fund’s technical assistance body in Geneva, objecting to the high-cost city being chosen over recommendations for Nairobi.

The fund’s headquarters will be in the Philippines, but the technical assistance body that provides support to countries faced with damages from climate-fuelled natural disasters will be in Switzerland.

China

China produces the most energy from climate-warming fossil fuels and also from renewable energy sources. It accounts for about 30 percent of the world’s annual carbon emissions, making China the biggest greenhouse gas polluter.

However, the country’s emissions may have peaked following recent expansions in renewable energy, according to the Helsinki-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.

Although the world’s second-largest economy after the United States, China retains the developing country designation in U.N. climate negotiations that began in the 1990s.

As such, it says the United States and other industrialised countries should move first and fastest with climate action. Beijing also rejects calls for it to contribute to climate finance for developing countries.

China will send to COP29 a new diplomat for climate change as Liu Zhenmin, a former vice foreign minister has replaced long-time climate envoy Xie Zhenhua who retired.

United States

The world’s second-largest emitter, and largest historic emitter, comes to COP29 following an election that will put Donald Trump back in power in 2025.

U.S. negotiators from the outgoing Biden Administration, led by White House senior adviser John Podesta, will represent the country at COP29.

But Trump’s victory has reduced the chance of a strong deal on a new global finance target, or an agreement to increase the pool of countries that should contribute.

President-Elect Trump has promised to again pull out of the 2015 Paris Agreement and has labelled efforts to boost green energy a “scam”.

Although the Biden Administration has provided hundreds of billions of dollars for climate change mitigation and adaptation through the Inflation Reduction Act, the U.S. has continued to break records as the world’s biggest oil and gas producer during his presidency.

Read also: COP29: HOMEF calls for bold climate action and reforms

European Union

The 27-country EU has not yet offered its position on some of the most divisive issues for COP29.

It has yet to say how big the new climate finance target should be, or how much should come directly from national budgets as opposed to multilateral lending institutions or private investment. It has demanded, however, that China and other fast-developing economies contribute.

The EU and its member states have contributed the most global climate finance to date, having more than doubled their offer over the last decade. In 2023, the EU and its member states contributed 28.6 billion euros ($30.8 billion) in climate finance from public sources.

United Kingdom

Britain’s Labour Party government, elected in July, plans to emphasise its climate commitment at COP29, after Energy Minister Ed Miliband described Britain as being “back in the business of climate leadership”.

The country, which hosted the COP26 summit in Glasgow in 2021, has promised to submit its next set of emissions-cutting pledges for 2035 at the Baku summit, three months before it is due in February.

Britain also has called for an ambitious finance goal, but it is unclear how much it could contribute from its debt-strained budget.