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COP29 Kick off by Anupoma Niloya Troyee, Climate Activist & Researcher: COP29 kicks off with an 8-hour agenda fightWhile we're at it, let's discuss COP29, which is scheduled to begin today at Baku, Azerbaijan and is popularly dubbed the “Finance COP." This year's COP29 takes place against the backdrop of nearly a decade since the Paris agreement and our commitment to 1.5°C. Setting in a timeline when Spain is experiencing a catastrophic flash flood, and the United States has just elected a new president who, coincidentally, has also withdrawn the country from the Paris Agreement during his last term. We anticipate that these topics will be discussed frequently in COP29, in addition to finance. Major political leaders from the United States, China, and Germany will not be present at this COP, and as a surprise, a Taliban representative is attending their first COP this year. In many areas corporate presence will surge, which is right on money, fitting this COP's emphasis on details and finance. With that reality, we hope that the UK and EU are stepping up from the global north to strike a deal on helping developing countries with the green transition, which is the only way to make this COP a success.Today, 11 November, though you might have seen the speeches by the head of COP along with some photos of your development field worker friends flying to Baku, shockingly, it took over 8 hours to agree an agenda for the meeting as of now. Unfortunately, Azerbaijan could not declare a flashy agreement on day one like the last year’s UAE COP, which was supposed to be on carbon trading. Delays are a part and parcel of COPs, but having it on day one seems to say a lot about the coming days, as we all may have heard how morning shows the day. The agenda fight of 8 hours had left the world 8 hours less to take action, and in COP every hour should count as our existence as a species will depend on these decisions.On a brighter side, the opening ceremony as usual started with handing over the presidency from the COP president of the UAE. The last COP president Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber has echoed a part of his previous speech where he talked about and advised to the new COP head, saying, “History will judge us by the results and not by goals” and “we are not what we say but what we do." COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev said that this COP and the plan are based on 2 pillars: enhancing ambition and enabling action. Like many COPs in the past, this COP has been flagged for another reason; it is for the choice of location, Azarbaijan. Azerbaijan has signed a deal worth $8 billion worth of oil and gas just a few days prior to COP, and this made some speculate that for Azarbaijan, COP is a way of greenwashing while expanding fossil fuels.Climate finance is the primary focus of this COP. #COP29 #COP#Climatechange #Azerbaijan#ClimateAction #ClimateFinance #Bangladesh #USA #ICCCAD ... See MoreSee Less

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