The COP29 climate summit in Baku brought key developments that highlight some progress in environmental accountability. From attempting to clarify and push through pledges to critical reforms, here’s how the summit contributes to the global commitment to battling climate change.
Key Cop29 Talking Points
Renewed Climate Finance Commitments
The G20 endorsed bold climate finance measures to support sustainable transitions in developing economies. This included scaling up public and private investments to facilitate cleaner energy, resilient supply chains, and climate adaptation. They launched a new global target for climate finance that will see developed countries “take the lead” in raising $300bn a year for developing countries by 2035. While the feeling is that is nowhere near enough, many feel it is a start and better than reaching no agreement at all.
Agriculture and Food Systems Initiatives
COP29 launched the Baku Harmoniya Climate Initiative, focusing on sustainable agriculture. Key goals include empowering small-scale farmers, streamlining knowledge-sharing platforms, and enhancing investments in climate-smart food systems. Over $1 billion was earmarked for initiatives like better weather forecasting and farming innovations.
Transition from Fossil Fuels
Negotiations on this subject narrowly avoided collapse, reaffirming the global push to transition away from fossil fuels. Although contentious, commitments were made to increase collaboration in renewable energy and phase out coal in several regions. The text was considered ‘weak’ and . Parties were unable to reach a substantive agreement on how to improve the second global stocktake, beginning in 2026, based on experience with the first cycle.
Instead, they reached a procedural decision to pass a heavily-bracketed “informal note” to the next round of talks in June.
Dr Jennifer Allan, senior lecturer in international relations at Cardiff University, said,
“we’re seeing countries just fundamentally disagree about what they’re supposed to be doing on this”.
Catherine Abreu, director of the International Climate Politics Hub, told the Carbon Brief publication:
“It’s good that parties rejected a low-ambition mitigation outcome in the final moments of these climate talks, but disheartening they weren’t able to capture the progress of efforts to displace fossil fuels with renewable energy and halt deforestation.”
Strengthening Methane Reduction
Over 30 countries signed a declaration to curb methane emissions from organic waste, crucial for reducing greenhouse gas emissions across food supply chains. This includes 7 out of the 10 largest methane emitters. The GMP (Global Methane Pledge – launched at Cop26) set a global target of reducing methane emissions by at least 30% below 2020 levels by 2030.
Focus on Developing Nations
Discussions emphasised the disproportionate impact of climate change on developing economies. Efforts were geared towards equitable access to climate funding and technology.
At the closing plenary, Zhao Yingmin (vice minister of the Ministry of Environment and Ecology – MEE) was quoted saying that developed countries’ NCQG commitments still “fall far short of meeting the needs of developing nations” and that developed countries’ “financial obligations must be further clarified”.
China did however say it remained open to cooperation in climate change. Chen Zhihua, deputy director of China’s National Centre for Climate Strategy and International Cooperation, expressed sentiments of full cooperation regardless of the particular agreement in question.
Implications for Global Businesses and their Supply Chains
The outcomes of COP29 underline a real need for global business to take the lead to seek real and impactful change. The main reason being those who signed pledges will be heavily reliant on the initiatives that the private sector seek to implement to mitigate issues around climate change, increases in waste to landfill, community and biodiversity impact associated with critical mineral extraction. Without them on board and their supply chains (who are increasingly impactful), the majority of the pledges agreed at COP29 will not gain traction. Integration of sustainability in global governance is of course key, but without full support is this enough?
In relation to our clients and how we operate we have to consider how this may effect supply chain strategies? Enhanced climate finance, methane reduction pledges, and agricultural resilience initiatives can impact supply chain efficiency, risk management, and compliance. Traceability of critical minerals was not pushed through as a pledge – much to campaigners dismay – but remains a crucial part of creating truly sustainable value chains.
New financial agreements highlight the need to support developing countries in achieving measurable results, and despite the uncertainty surrounding the potential changes in the US commitments, it was clear that many countries are invested in seeing real changes – but the uncertainty lies in their abilities to create o9r make these changes. What we can see from the increase in protest and the feeling that the financial commitments are not enough, is the responsibility that lies on business to make a difference. We know reducing carbon emissions should be the high on the agenda and the responsibility of all businesses no matter their size, and we can’t rely on the pledges from COPs to make these differences.
At Achilles, we remain committed to supporting businesses in navigating these shifts by fostering transparent, sustainable, and resilient supply chains. Learn more about how we can help you achieve your sustainability goals by getting in touch.
For a detailed summary of COP29 outcomes, visit the Cop29 news site or the Carbon Brief report.
