By Valérie Volcovici

(Reuters) – This month’s U.N. climate summit – COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan – has been dubbed the “climate finance COP” because of its main objective: reaching agreement on how much money should be spent each year helping developing countries deal with climate-related costs. .

That discussion could be difficult after Tuesday’s re-election of former U.S. President Donald Trump, a climate denier whose campaign pledged to remove the historic top greenhouse gas emitter and top oil producer for a second and gas of the historic 2015 Paris agreement to fight climate change. time.

COP29 delegates will also seek to advance other agreements reached at previous summits.

Here are some of the main agenda items for the November 11-22 summit.

CLIMATE FINANCE

The acronym dominating this year’s summit is NCQG, which stands for New Collective Quantified Goal.

This refers to the new annual climate finance target, which is expected to come into effect when the current $100 billion commitment expires at the end of this year.

Rich countries have only occasionally met this annual target since 2020, sparking growing distrust among climate-vulnerable countries.

As COP29 aims to set a much higher target for the coming years, rich countries insist the money cannot come entirely from their budgets.

Instead, they are discussing a much more complex effort that would involve reforming the global multilateral lending system in ways that would mitigate climate-related financial risks and encourage more private capital.

It is unclear how much of the total annual target would be offered by rich countries. It also remains unclear whether fast-developing countries like China or the oil-rich Gulf countries in the Middle East should also contribute, a position championed by the United States and the European Union.

By reforming the global banking system, countries hope to increase the annual amount of climate finance. UN agencies estimate trillions of dollars are needed each year, but officials in COP29 host country Azerbaijan said a figure in the “hundreds of billions” has a more realistic chance of being approved by consensus.

FOSSIL FUEL TRANSITION

Last year’s COP28 summit in Dubai ended with countries agreeing for the first time on a “transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems”.

Since then, however, fossil fuel use and export sales have continued to increase globally, while new areas have been approved for oil and gas production in countries like the Azerbaijan, the United States, Namibia and Guyana.

While countries and companies are not clearly committed to abandoning coal, oil and gas, negotiators said COP29 was unlikely to result in deadlines or tougher language on fossil fuels , although some countries could push to stop the authorization of new coal plants.

Countries will also discuss progress on their commitment to tripling renewable energy capacity and doubling energy efficiency, as a way to reduce demand for fossil fuels.

RULES FOR THE CARBON MARKET

Governments are eager to find rules for trading carbon credits earned through the preservation of forests and other natural carbon sinks.

Although these credits are intended to be given to countries as optional compensation for their country’s emissions, they can also be traded on open markets. Business leaders expect COP29 to set rules to ensure transparency and environmental integrity of projects included in the Paris Agreement Credit Mechanism (PACM).

There are still key questions to be decided, including how the PACM watchdog will set standards, whether credits must be assessed before being redeemed, and if and when credits can be revoked.

ENHANCE TRANSPARENCY

Azerbaijan hopes that countries will submit their first reports on progress on climate action to the summit before the Dec. 31 deadline, but it is unclear whether countries will do so.

These so-called Biennial Transparency Reports (BTRs) are intended to outline a country’s progress in meeting its climate goals – and how far it needs to go to set new targets by February. As things stand, national commitments to reduce emissions still fall short of meeting needs, the UN said last week.

The BTRs will also offer insight into the amount of financing currently needed in developing countries, both to transition away from fossil fuel economies and to adapt to the conditions of a warmer world.

ADAPTATION TO THE POINT OF VIEW

Last year, countries committed to adopting a framework of guidelines for national plans to help people adapt to climate disruptions such as warmer days, rising sea levels or dried out agricultural land.

But the adaptation framework lacks details, such as quantifiable targets to measure progress or strategies for linking projects to climate finance.

Countries hope to set more specific adaptation targets at COP29.

MONEY FOR LOSSES AND DAMAGE

Two years after the Egyptian COP27 summit agreed to help poor countries cope with the costs of climate disasters such as extreme floods, storms or drought, around $660 million has been mobilized through the Newly established fund to respond to loss and damage, headquartered in the Philippines.

Climate-vulnerable countries will call on rich countries to offer more for the fund.

(Reporting by Valérie Volcovici; editing by Katy Daigle and Marguerita Choy)