at the opening of the debates, the Paris Agreement was the subject of all concerns

INTERNATIONAL – Point of no return. The 29th UN climate conference opened this Monday, November 11 in Azerbaijan, in an international climate marked by the return of Donald Trump to the White House, irremediably casting a veil of pessimism on the maintenance of the United States in the flagship climate agreement, signed in Paris in 2015. The country soon to be led by the American billionaire being the leading world power and the second greenhouse gas emitting country on the planet.

Reason why the first words of the Azerbaijani president of COP29 dramatized the stakes of the negotiations which begin this Monday to preserve the commitments signed in 2015. As you can see in the video at the top of the article, the contested Mukhtar Babaev declared during his opening speech in Baku that COP29 constitutes a “moment of truth” for the Paris Agreement.

“We are on the path to ruin. And it's not about future problems. Climate change is already here »he stressed, before adding that “We must now demonstrate that we are ready to achieve the objectives we have set for ourselves. It’s not an easy thing”.

The Paris Agreement « a great danger »

“The ambitions of the Paris Agreement are in great danger”for its part alerted the UN this Monday, November 11, while the year 2024 is almost guaranteed to become the hottest year ever recorded on Earth. “From January to September 2024, the average global surface air temperature was 1.54°C higher than the pre-industrial average”notes the new bulletin from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which underlines that long-term warming measured over several decades remains below the limit of 1.5°C.

The Paris Agreement, adopted by countries around the world almost a decade ago, aims to contain global warming to 2°C, and to continue efforts to contain it to 1.5°C. “The record rainfall and floods, rapid intensification of tropical cyclones, deadly heat, relentless drought and catastrophic fires that we have seen in different parts of the world this year are unfortunately our new reality and a taste of the future »underlined WMO Secretary General Celeste Saulo in a press release. But according to her, “It is important to emphasize that this does NOT mean that we have failed to achieve the goal of the Paris Agreement”.

Arm wrestling in perspective

During this COP29, the main challenge will therefore be to find a compromise on the amount of financial aid from developed countries to developing countries so that they develop without fossil fuels and adapt to the effects of an ever-increasing climate. extreme.

Currently worth 116 billion dollars per year (as of 2022), the new commitment must be negotiated in thousands of billions annually, according to the demands of poor countries. What Westerners consider unrealistic for their public finances. But with the very real threat of the United States withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, the chances of achieving consensus in Baku, by the end of the conference on November 22, now appear even more difficult.

Enough to provoke a first vocal reaction from the head of the UN for Climate, Simon Stiell. The latter estimated that the financing of climate aid by rich countries is not a “charitable work” and is “in the interest of all”. He therefore called on countries to “show that global cooperation is not at a standstill”, in the midst of already gloomy international news.

Despite this call, the difficulties in negotiating did not take long to appear this Monday. The program having already fallen several hours late, due to lack of agreement to adopt the official agenda, essential for starting dozens of specific negotiations. In question? The blocking of several countries, including China and India, willing to discuss the application of the COP28 agreement only from the angle of the development of climate finance. While COP 28 had set objectives on phasing out fossil fuels. Another point of contention: China demands, on behalf of Brazil, India and South Africa, to add the subject of unilateral climate-related trade barriers, mainly targeting the EU.

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