The 29th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP29) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was held in Azerbaijan, a petrostate with a detrimental human rights record, and framed as a “Finance COP.” When COP29 came to an end a day after planned, the outcomes were an overall lack of progress and several steps backward when it comes to ambition, human rights, fossil fuel phaseout, and finance. COP29’s inability to bring finance at the scale of needs to spark ambition – at a critical moment in time when countries are expected to prepare their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) – is yet another example of the continued failure of developed countries and of the UNFCCC process to deliver outcomes that uphold State obligations in the context of the climate crisis.
“Promoting Human Rights in Climate Action: Report from the Baku Climate Conference COP29” summarizes and analyzes key developments at COP29 related to the integration of human rights in climate policies. Through this narrow but important lens, the report focuses on the overarching developments, the new climate finance goal, carbon markets, loss and damage, and civic space, while also discussing other important developments regarding gender, just transition, and adaptation.
Published on December 19, 2024.