At COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, over 65,000 participants gathered to address pressing climate challenges, reaffirming the critical importance of international collaboration. While hurdles remain—such as climate finance, emissions reductions, and equitable responsibility—calls for reforms and heightened ambition aim to propel climate action forward with renewed urgency.

World leaders, United Nations (UN), climate activists, fossil fuel corporations and their lobbyists, and other interested observers gathered in Baku, Azerbaijan, for two weeks in November for COP29, the 29^th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).  More than 65,000 people attended, the second-highest total but somewhat less than the record-breaking 85,000 who attended COP 28 in Dubai in 2023. Climate change is one of the world’s most pressing challenges but we are a long way from workable solutions despite years of discussions and climate conferences.

Developing countries argue that developed nations have a historical responsibility as they have contributed the most to climate change and should therefore bear a greater responsibility for addressing its impacts.

At the top of the COP29 agenda were critical topics that had been under discussion for some time–often for years. But while there has been some progress, it has been limited by inaction due to the lack of political will in some countries, and the influence of lobbyists for interests in the fossil fuel industry and others with a vested interest in delaying change. Many influential voices are now asking, ‘Is COP still fit for purpose’?
Critical issues under discussion (again) included:
• One of the biggest hurdles is agreement on the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) for climate finance. Developed countries are expected to contribute significantly, but there's a lot of debate over how much, who pays, and how the funds should be distributed. 
• Countries have differing views on how ambitious their emissions reduction targets should be. There's also a need to balance economic growth with environmental sustainability. 
• Operationalizing and funding the Loss and Damage Fund is contentious, with disagreements over who should contribute and how the funds should be used.
• Developing countries argue that developed nations have a historical responsibility as they have contributed the most to climate change and should therefore bear a greater responsibility for addressing its impacts.
• The political landscape can be unpredictable, as seen with the return of Donald Trump, a climate change denier, as the next President of the United States. Lack of political will is problematic in many countries and now further exacerbated by uncertainty about the U.S.' role in international climate agreements.
• Establishing international carbon market standards and ensuring transparency in carbon trading are complex issues that require consensus.
Each of these challenges highlights the need for cooperation, compromise, and a shared commitment to addressing climate change but genuine and workable outcomes never seem to be achieved. 
UNFCCC was adopted in 1992 with the ultimate aim of preventing dangerous human interference with the climate system. The 1997 Kyoto Protocol and 2015 Paris Agreement was build on the Convention. The Paris Agreement was a considerable achievement for the international community. For the first time, a climate change agreement brought all countries into an ambitious undertaking to combat climate change by limiting global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius and to strive for 1.5 degrees Celsius. Every year, Parties to the Convention meet in the Conference of the Parties (COPs), as well as in technical meetings throughout the year, to advance the aims and ambitions of the Paris Agreement and achieve progress in its implementation. Attendance by world leaders at events such as COP29 is seen as an imperative to participate in the tough negotiations.

UNFCCC was adopted in 1992 with the ultimate aim of preventing dangerous human interference with the climate system. 

Unfortunately, several influential world leaders did not attend COP29. Notably, the leaders of the world's top carbon dioxide-emitting countries were absent including Chinese President Xi Jinping, former U.S. President Joe Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Their participation is crucial for making substantial progress but climate change does not seem to be the most pressing issue on their agendas at the moment. Pressing domestic issues, the economy, conflicts and other crises are also knocking at the door for many countries.
There is a mix of perspectives including a growing cynicism about the effectiveness of COP events and are calling for streamlining and speeding up the move from negotiation to implementation. While some participants and observers express strong determination and optimism, others feel that the absence of major world leaders and the slow progress on critical issues like climate finance and emissions reductions indicate a lack of urgency and political will.
COP29 was also overshadowed by the re-election of Donald Trump as U.S. President, who has expressed his intention to walk out of the landmark Paris Agreement for the second time. During the U.S. presidential campaign, Trump said he would pull America from the Paris Agreement, roll back parts of the Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that included USD 375 billion in climate spending, and increase drilling and oil production. ‘Drill baby drill’ was a popular slogan at Trump campaign rallies. He has called emissions regulations part of a “green new scam”.

For the first time, a climate change agreement brought all countries into an ambitious undertaking to combat climate change by limiting global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius and to strive for 1.5 degrees Celsius. 

Pakistan was well represented at COP29 including by the Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, who made a strongly worded speech on the impact of climate change on Pakistan. The Pakistani Prime Minister said that without climate justice there can be no real resilience, warning that the “future will not forgive our inactions”. He said, “COP29 should make this understanding loud and clear that we will have to “fulfil those financial pledges” committed at COP27 and COP28. He also said that developing countries would need an estimated USD 6.2 trillion by 2030 to implement less than half of their current Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). 
He called on the international community “to take measures which are so important at this point in time to have a conducive environment” to combat climate change. Reiterating Pakistan’s stance, the Prime Minister said that Pakistan was fully committed to being a part of the global climate solutions. He said the government has taken concrete actions to deliver on its commitment to producing 60 percent of all energy from clean sources and “shifting 30 percent of our vehicles to electric vehicles (EVs) by the end of this decade”.
Attempts to reach an agreement at COP29 have been challenging. As expected, the key issues remain contentious.
But as is obvious in the UN Emissions Gap Report 2024: No More Hot Air, the planet is still warming and climate-induced disasters are intensifying globally. In her foreword to the report, United Nations Environment Programme Executive Director, Inger Andersen, said, “Climate crunch time is here. As wildfires, heatwaves, storms and droughts intensify globally, nations are preparing new NDCs for submission early next year ahead of COP 30 in Brazil. Nations must accelerate action now, show a massive increase in ambition in the new pledges and then deliver urgently with policies and implementation. If they do not, the Paris Agreement target of holding global warming to 1.5°C will be dead within a few years and 2°C will take its place in the intensive care unit.” 
The UNEP's emissions gap report shows how much higher nations must aim. To get on a least-cost pathway for 1.5°C, emissions must fall 42 percent by 2030, compared with 2019 levels. For a 2°C target, emissions must decrease by 28 percent by 2030. Looking ahead to 2035—the next milestone after 2030 to be included in NDC targets—emissions need to fall by 57 percent for a 1.5°C target and 37 percent for a 2°C target.
According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) which supports society by providing authoritative information about the past, present, and future climate in Europe and the rest of the world states that it is now virtually certain that the year 2024 will be the warmest in the ERA5 reanalysis dataset, going back to 1940, based on the data available through October. The month was the second-warmest October globally, after October 2023, with an average surface air temperature of 15.25°C, 0.80ºC above the 1991-2002 average for the month. October 2024 was 1.65ºC above pre-industrial level, marking the 15^th month in a 16-month period with average temperatures above the 1.5ºC threshold set by the Paris Agreement.
With the planet continuing to warm and climate catastrophes intensifying, it is fair to ask if COP summits are ‘no longer fit for purpose’ and more about talk than concrete action. The Club of Rome, an influential think tank comprising former leaders such as former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres, and prominent climate scientists like Johan Rockström, has issued an open letter on COP reform. Addressed to all Parties to the Convention, Simon Stiell (Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC Secretariat), and UN Secretary-General António Guterres, the letter acknowledges the significant diplomatic milestones achieved over 28 years of negotiations. It highlights the vital role of the UNFCCC in uniting 195 countries to establish a global policy framework for addressing climate change.
However, they said, "Its current structure simply cannot deliver the change at exponential speed and scale, which is essential to ensure a safe climate landing for humanity." “It is now clear that the COP is no longer fit for purpose. We need a shift from negotiation to implementation,” they wrote, concluding with seven specific recommended measures for reform, summarised as follows:
Improve the Selection Process for COP Presidencies. Future UN climate summits should be held only in countries that can show clear support for climate action and have stricter rules on fossil fuel lobbying. This is a delicately veiled criticism of the presidencies of COP28 and COP29 being petrostates. COP30 will be held in Brazil. While not considered a petrostate because of its diversified economy, it is Latin America’s largest oil producer.
Streamline for Speed and Scale. Meetings held more frequently, with more of a voice given to developing countries.
• Improve Implementation and Accountability. The court process must be strengthened with mechanisms to hold countries accountable for their climate targets and commitments. The Paris framework is not working because governments are not held to account to ensure national action plans align with the latest scientific evidence. The global stocktake process is an important start, but it must be strengthened with enhanced reporting and benchmarking, rigorously peer-reviewed, independent scientific oversight and transparent tracking of pledges and action.
• Ensure Robust Tracking of Climate Financing. A growing proportion of climate financing pledges is now being disbursed as interest-bearing loans, exacerbating the debt burden on climate-vulnerable nations. Standardized definitions and criteria for what qualifies as climate finance, along with common reporting frameworks and tracking mechanisms to verify climate financing flows, are urgently needed.
• Amplify the Voice of Authoritative Science. Whilst the climate COP does rely on the IPCC and other related bodies, it does not have its own permanent scientific advisory body that is formally part of the COP structure.
Recognise the Interdependencies Between Poverty, Inequality, and Planetary Stability. For the climate COP to be more impactful, it must recognize that the current rate of nature loss—such as freshwater scarcity, land and soil degradation, pollination decline, and ocean pollution—is jeopardizing planetary stability. Furthermore, achieving planetary stability is impossible without decisive action on equality, justice, and poverty alleviation.
• Enhance Equitable Representation. Despite the climate COP’s new disclosure rules, a record 2,456 fossil fuel lobbyists were granted access at COP28, nearly four times the number at COP27. Over 1,700 gained access at COP29. The fact that there were far more fossil fuel lobbyists than official representatives from scientific institutions, Indigenous communities, and vulnerable nations reflects the systemic imbalance in COP representation. Improving the management of corporate interests within COP proceedings will require stronger transparency and disclosure rules, as well as clear guidelines mandating companies to demonstrate alignment between their climate commitments, business models, and lobbying activities.
COP29 wasn’t the only important event in November.  On November 18-19, leaders of the G20 countries met in Rio. Among the discussions on the many critical issues the world is currently plagued by including multiple conflicts, debt crises, and the global economy, they turned their attention to climate change. According to their communiqué, they sent a clear signal to negotiating teams at stalled UN climate talks in Baku on the need to rapidly and substantially ‘scale up climate finance from billions to trillions from all sources.’ However, while the statement from the world’s leading economies—and biggest emitters—unsurprisingly stopped short of explicit reference of ‘transitioning away from fossil fuels’, to which all nations agreed last year at COP28 in Dubai, the G20 leaders did ‘welcome the balanced, ambitious outcome’ of those talks.
As the G20 communiqué stated, the complex negotiations at COP29 on new and significantly scaled-up funding for loss and damage and accelerated clean energy goals were moving slowly. Some countries were entrenched in their positions and waiting for others to pull back from their own. UN climate chief Simon Stiell who earlier warned against brinkmanship and what he called ‘you-first-ism’, said that G20 leaders had sent a clear message to their negotiators at COP29: “A successful new finance goal… is in every country’s clear interests.” “Leaders of the world’s largest economies have also committed to driving forward financial reforms to put strong climate action within all countries’ reach,” said Mr. Stiell. He added: “This is an essential signal in a world plagued by debt crises and spiralling climate impacts, which are wrecking lives, disrupting supply chains, and fueling inflation in every economy.”
The United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, one of the strongest advocates for action on climate change, also attended the G20. He said, “I am asking G20 leaders to instruct their ministers negotiators to agree on a new ambitious climate finance goal at COP29. This climate conference must not fail. We must succeed, build trust and incentivise the preparation of high ambition national climate plans next year. Missing the opportunity to reach agreement on a new climate finance deal in Baku “would inevitably also make the success of COP30 in Brazil much more difficult,” the Secretary-General said, and added: “I appeal to the sense of responsibility of all the countries around this table to help ensure that COP29 will be a success.” 
COP30 will be held in Brazil in November 2025. Will we see progress by then? Will the pledges from COP29 have been fulfilled? Will the pleas of those including the Club of Rome and others who are calling for COP summits to be streamlined and made fit for purpose and to move from negotiations to implementation be heeded? Or will the planet be left to warm up rapidly due procrastination, prevarication and lack of action, leading to more climate catastrophes? Only time will tell.

The writer is an Australian Disaster Management and Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Advisor currently residing in Islamabad. She consults for the Government and United Nations agencies and has previously worked with both the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). 
E-mail: [email protected]