Climate change continues to have escalating impacts on the world, making the Conference of the Parties (COP) an essential global climate action platform. Climate-related disasters are increasing worldwide, affecting mostly developing countries that contribute very little to global emissions. In Africa, climate change costs countries between 2% and 5% of their GDP. Some nations even allocate up to 9% of their budgets for disaster relief. Climate change has a particularly adverse impact on women due to inequalities in resources, roles, and decision-making.
In the run-up to COP30 in Brazil, the global climate community looks to the summit as a key moment to turn promises and actions into tangible climate action, particularly for vulnerable regions like Africa. At COP29, held in Baku, Azerbaijan, the Paris Agreement rules were finalized and a controversial $300 billion climate finance goal was set by 2035. Even so, it was short of the U.S.$1.3 trillion needed by developing nations to meet their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), including Africa.
Expectations are high.
COP30 will mark ten years since the Paris Agreement was adopted on December 12, 2015. This landmark global pact aimed to limit global warming and speed up climate action. World leaders pledged to try to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 1.5°C above late 19th-century levels, known as “pre-industrial” levels. However, in 2024, temperatures exceeded 1.5°C higher than pre-industrial times. In addition, COP30 will be the first COP since climate negotiations began where the U.S. – the country with the largest historical responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions – will not participate.
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However, many questions arise: will COP30 bring the climate agenda back on track a decade after the Paris Agreement was signed? The urgency of the situation goes beyond marking anniversaries. Around the globe, we see headlines about floods, droughts, and wildfires, many of which are linked to human-caused climate change, showing the immediate and increasing consequences for lives, economies, and ecosystems.
Loss and damage will remain crucial topics. For decades, Africa has been seen mainly as a victim of climate change, suffering from rising temperatures, unpredictable rainfall, and extreme weather, despite contributing less than 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. However, at COP30, Africa aims to move beyond this vulnerability and position itself as a strong negotiating force with a clear agenda: climate finance, technology transfer, and a fair energy transition. The African Group of Negotiators (AGN) hopes for a major increase in adaptation funding, specifically a tripling of funding by 2030 as requested by developing countries in Bonn, surpassing the previous goal of doubling adaptation funding by 2025 from 2019 levels.
To ensure a successful summit, every country must be committed to developing and implementing ambitious national goals and creating international conditions that accelerate inclusive climate action.
In a conversation with allAfrica’s Melody Chironda, HE Mukhtar Babayev, COP29 President, reflects on the achievements and lessons from Baku, outlines the strategies needed for COP30 in Belém to become a turning point for implementation, and discusses how the global community can keep up momentum amid political and economic challenges.
COPs are often criticised for strong pledges but weak follow-through. In your view, what structural changes are essential to make COP30 a turning point for implementation?
We know that success is measured in outcomes, not promises. People are looking to the multilateral system to deliver tangible improvements to their lives. At COP29, we finally finished negotiating the rules of how the Paris Agreement will work to limit global warming.
Now that we have agreed on the rules, it’s time to deliver. We have the opportunity for a new era of COPs, focused on implementing the promises we have made. These efforts should start with all actors enacting the pacts they made in Baku, including donors setting out how they will deliver their share of the $300bn climate finance goal by 2035. That is why Azerbaijan is working this year to hold everyone to account for the promises they have made.
COP29 set a $300 billion climate finance goal, but African leaders called it insufficient. As COP President, how do you assess this outcome’s alignment with Africa’s needs, and what specific gaps must COP30 address – particularly on adaptation, loss & damage, and direct access to funding?
As COP29 host, Azerbaijan took every opportunity to push for the highest possible ambition. When developed countries proposed a goal of $250 billion, we were clear that they needed to go further, and we are proud of our work to increase that to $300 billion.
In our negotiations, we also pushed for progress on both the quantity and quality of climate finance, and a balance between finance for reducing emissions and finance for adapting to the impacts of climate change.
This year, we must focus on early delivery of our finance pledges – we need to reach the early milestones that will show we are on track to reach the overall $300 billion goal. In particular, we must follow through on our promise to double adaptation finance by the end of 2025. We must also deliver on the commitment made at COP29 to triple the outflows from official UN climate funds by 2030. These funds, like the Special Climate Change Fund and the Adaptation Fund, are so important because have a particular focus on providing high-quality, accessible funding that acknowledges the debt burden challenge that developing countries face.
The $300 billion was a breakthrough, but it was never meant to solve the entire climate crisis by itself – that is why the climate finance deal agreed at COP29 also contained a target for all actors to scale up climate finance to developing countries to $1.3 trillion per year by 2035. If countries, multilateral development banks and the private sector can come together to implement the entire goal and reach the $1.3 trillion target, then it will be a historic contribution towards meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement.
We are working with the COP30 Presidency of Brazil to deliver the Baku to Belém Roadmap, which will lay out credible and actionable options for how everyone can contribute to scaling climate finance to $1.3 trillion by 2035.
African nations face a $2.8 trillion NDC financing gap by 2030, yet climate finance remains inadequate. What negotiation strategies should African leaders employ at COP30 to secure not just pledges, but binding commitments?
Climate finance is not flowing equally around the world and we know the current approach is squandering Africa’s rich potential. The cost of capital for new energy projects in Africa is over three times higher in Africa than it is in regions like Europe and the US. This is an unacceptable brake on Africa’s clean development.
So far, as the COP process tries to solve these issues, we have been effective at rallying climate and environment ministers to make decisions. However, the process of implementing these choices will require action from all stakeholders. As a climate community, we need to do more to reach out to the other decisionmakers on whom progress relies. That means bringing in finance ministers, banks and businesses to the decision-making process, to make sure the promises we make are delivered on.
The Baku to Belém Roadmap is an important part of these discussions and our message to environment ministers is clear. It is all of our responsibility to reach outside of the traditional climate community. Talk to your colleagues, bring them with you to COP30, and make sure the whole of society is brought into the process of delivering on our goals.
The “Global Ethical Stocktake” and the inclusion of Indigenous perspectives are central to COP30’s vision. How will the summit ensure that these voices don’t just inform dialogue but also influence concrete decisions, especially around fossil fuel phaseout and climate finance?
As hosts of the last COP, we know the importance of running an inclusive process to deliver inclusive outcomes. We all have different perspectives and different solutions to offer, and we need to incorporate all of them to effectively combat the climate crisis.
Looking back at COP29, even before the summit, we launched initiatives such as the Friends of the COP29 Presidency to give different groups, such as civil society, Indigenous Peoples and the private sector, the opportunity to directly provide input on our key negotiating topics. This approach of direct engagement on key mandates is a critical way to ensure Indigenous voices can have the meaningful impact they deserve.
We are also proud to have laid the groundwork for more engagement with these communities in future COP processes. At COP29, we adopted the Baku Workplan of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform. This will help to ensure that
Indigenous voices remain central by better incorporating different knowledge systems into climate policies and boosting capacity to engage Indigenous Peoples.
2025 is expected to be a difficult year for climate diplomacy. How can the foundations laid at COP29 help the COP30 Presidency navigate potential headwinds like changing global leadership or economic volatility?
2025 is not the first year to throw up challenges to the climate agenda. Last year, COP29 had its own complex backdrop, with wars, elections and economic crises creating uncertainty and disruption that threatened to distract us from the climate crisis. People thought that the multilateral process would fail, and that Azerbaijan couldn’t deliver. They were wrong on both counts.
The agreements we reached at COP29, from climate finance to carbon markets, have shown that the multilateral system is stronger than people think, and that it can still deliver real progress, even in trying circumstances.
As we look towards this year’s challenges, we are confident that the international community will show the same resilience and determination it did at COP29. We have also been encouraged by many of the initiatives we have seen outside of the COP process. The COP29 Presidency travelled to Dar es Salaam in January this year to attend the Mission 300 Africa Energy Summit in support of its goal to connect 300 million people in Africa to electricity by 2030. This is just one of the promising programmes that is delivering both development and decarbonisation around the world.
Turning to COP, every country has a role to play in preserving the process. Success relies on what everyone does, not what everyone says we will do. We all need to show the concrete steps we are taking on delivery. That means each country producing and implementing their national climate plans and donors setting out clearly how they will deliver on their climate finance commitments, from doubling adaptation finance by the end of this year right through to the $300 billion climate finance goal by 2035.
It’s been said that “there is no reverse gear” on climate change. How do you see the global community maintaining momentum despite political shifts, such as the U.S. withdrawal from key climate agreements?
The message we have been hearing from the international community is loud and clear. Ambitious action on climate is an opportunity, not a burden. To take one example, investment in clean cooking can reduce emissions as people end the use of traditional biomass, as well as providing huge health benefits. The current health-related impacts of traditional biomass cooking in Africa are estimated to cost over $520 billion per year. That is why we worked with the IEA throughout our Presidency to secure new commitments and investment to support universal access to clean cooking.
However, amid the uncertainty and instability of this year, we are all now looking to each other for confirmation that we are still running forward to seize this opportunity.
We need to show early delivery on our obligations: national climate plans and climate finance.
The next round of national climate plans is each country’s opportunity to provide a roadmap for how they will deliver both decarbonisation and development. A strong climate plan will show a green light to green investment by laying out the bankable projects that will deliver the transition. Ambitious climate action pays, and we are confident that countries will push forward to seize the opportunity of the green transition.
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As they do so, we need donor countries to deliver on the early climate finance milestones that we have agreed, particularly by doubling adaptation finance by the end of this year. We also need all stakeholders to reaffirm their commitment to delivering the $1.3 trillion goal. That way, the climate finance goals agreed at COP29 should give all countries confidence that they will receive the support they need to make their ambitious plans a reality.
What would a successful COP30 look like for Africa?
We know that turning the $300 billion into a reality is of the utmost importance for African nations. The COP29 Presidency is proactively working with donor countries to ensure that they fulfil the pledges that they made in Baku and mobilise the promised $300 billion. We still need donors to set out clear plans ahead of COP30 on how they will contribute their fair share towards this target, and when these pledges will be realized. That starts by hitting the early finance milestones that we have agreed on, particularly by doubling adaptation finance by the end of 2025 and tripling outflows from official UN funds by 2030.
We will also discuss the Baku to Belém Roadmap at COP30. Here, we want to see all actors, including the private sector and multilateral development banks, engage constructively on which of the Roadmap’s recommendations they can take forward, in light of their capabilities.
Equally, we will continue to help ensure the Loss and Damage Fund can disperse funding and call for further pledges to protect African communities from the impact of climate change. We will also support the COP30 Presidency as it delivers across the other mandates that matter to African nations, including key issues such as adaptation. We know from our conversations with African leaders that progress on adaptation is critical, with 17 of the world’s 20 countries most at risk from climate change sitting in Africa.
Looking back at COP29, what lessons were learned about the process of international climate negotiations, and how can these inform future COPs?
Last year was undoubtedly one of the most challenging years for multilateral climate action, and as a Presidency, we did everything we could to face these headwinds and deliver a finance goal that met the needs of all Parties. We are proud of what we achieved at COP29 across our mandates.
This didn’t happen without a fight. We pushed until the last moment, and we refused to close the conference until we secured a deal.
COP29 showed that even in a divided world, we can bridge the differences between us and deliver meaningful progress. But it also showed it takes hard work and determination from all Parties to reach a deal. We must continue to show that fighting spirit going forward.
Azerbaijan will continue to take every opportunity we can to play our part in the multilateral system and rally the world around our shared challenges. That is why we are hosting the World Urban Forum in Baku in 2026 to unlock new solutions and partnerships that can deliver sustainable urban development. We invite the whole world, including African governments, businesses, and civil society, to attend.
