Cop29

India plans final refinery expansion as electric vehicle era looms

This comes even as New Delhi is struggling to strike a balance between rapidly adopting EV and bolstering energy security by taking recourse to affordable and more reliable transport fuels

Govt official slams COP29 as missed opportunity for climate finance goals

Describing COP29 as one steeped in "semantics and not solutions", a senior Indian official has called the proceedings a missed opportunity to mobilize meaningful climate finance for adaptation and mitigation efforts in developing nations. Leena Nandan, Secretary of the Environment, Forest, and Climate Change Ministry, highlighted India's strong stance during negotiations and its leadership role in articulating concerns of the developing world. Speaking about the outcomes of COP29 at a session, she said the conference, which was anticipated to focus on implementation, fell short of expectations. "This was to be an enabling COP, a COP which was going to be focused on the means of implementation and what is means of implementation other than funds and resources. And here it was that we found semantics and not solutions. We found rhetoric and not results. And that has been the biggest disappointment," she said, adding that the sentiment was echoed across the Global South. Nandan ...

Negotiators disagree on plastic pollution pact; talks to resume next yr

Negotiators working on a treaty to address the global crisis of plastic pollution for a week in South Korea won't reach an agreement and plan to resume the talks next year. They are at an impasse over whether the treaty should reduce the total plastic on Earth and put global, legally binding controls on toxic chemicals used to make plastics. The negotiations in Busan, South Korea, were supposed to be the fifth and final round, to produce the first legally binding treaty on plastics pollution, including in the oceans, by the end of 2024. But with time running out early Monday, negotiators plan to resume the talks next year. More than 100 countries want the treaty to limit production as well as tackle cleanup and recycling, and many have said that is essential to address chemicals of concern. But for some plastic-producing and oil and gas countries, that crosses a red line. For any proposal to make it into the treaty, every nation must agree to it. Some countries sought to change the

UN climate summit in Baku leaves the developing world with crumbs

Unusually for a UN climate summit, COP29 was mainly about climate finance, and yet the finance mandarins were missing

Rich nations fail to meet climate goals, study reveals worsening outlook

Investors largely agree that climate risks aren't fully priced into markets, and academics are now studying what they're calling the climate-sovereign debt doom loop to calculate the potential costs

Suboptimal outcome: The Baku deal falls way short of requirements

India has gained traction from its negotiator's astringent rejection of the deal and advocacy for the Global South

COP29: Innovation, not funding, holds the key to tackling climate change

Policymakers are missing a key point - there are few new and scaled-up technology solutions to mitigate climate change

COP29 gets UN carbon mkts going but concerns persist on climate integrity

UN Climate Change chief Simon Stiell lauded the passage and said that carbon markets would enable flow of $250 billion in annual financing

India's transport sector boom to push fuel use, emissions higher: Study

The transport sector is the second-highest emitter of carbon dioxide (CO2) globally, after the electricity and heat production sector

COP29 finance, carbon deals could unlock billions in global investment

Two weeks of acrimonious negotiations in Azerbaijan's capital Baku resulted in a deal for $300 billion in annual climate finance by 2035

India aiming to finalise carbon deals with Japan, Singapore, and S Korea

Talks over prospective future deals also are taking place with Germany and Sweden

Too little, too distant: India rejects $300 bn climate finance at COP29

India on Sunday rejected the new climate finance package of a meagre USD 300 billion annually by 2035 for the Global South at the UN climate conference here, calling it "too little and too distant". The USD 300 billion figure is a far cry from the USD 1.3 trillion the Global South has been demanding over the past three years of talks to tackle climate change. Making a statement on behalf of India, Chandni Raina, Adviser, Department of Economic Affairs, said they were not allowed to speak before the adoption of the deal, undermining their trust in the process. "In continuation of several such incidents of not following inclusivity, not respecting country positions... We had informed the presidency, we had informed the secretariat that we wanted to make a statement prior to any decision. However, this is for everyone to see, this has been stage-managed. We are extremely disappointed," she said. "The goal is too little, too distant," Raina said, asserting that it is set for 2035, whic

Rich nations offer $300 billion annually after 10 years to Global South

Developed countries made a final offer of USD 300 billion annually by 2035 to help developing countries tackle climate change, hours after two groups of the world's most climate-vulnerable countries stormed out of the negotiating room at COP29 here. The USD 300 billion figure, however, is a far cry from the USD 1.3 trillion the Global South has been demanding in the three years of talks. The offer is part of the draft deal on a new climate finance package for developing nations, or the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), which will be put before countries for approval in a plenary session shortly. The new amount will replace the USD 100 billion figure pledged in 2009. The draft deal also introduces the Baku to Belem Roadmap, an important request for Africa and other developing country groups to lay out a meaningful process towards aligning the global finance system with achieving the USD 1.3 trillion goal by 2035. Issued after tiring, mind-numbing negotiations that continued fo

COP29 gets Article 6 of Paris Agreement operational, opens carbon markets

Article 6 provides trusted and transparent carbon markets for countries as they collaborate to reach their climate goals

Wealthy countries back raising COP29 climate deal to $300 billion

The summit had been due to finish on Friday but ran into overtime as negotiators from nearly 200 countries

COP29: Civil society protests climate finance proposal, demands 'no deal'

Civil society members staged a silent march at the UN climate summit, condemning the developed nations' proposal to increase annual climate finance to a meagre USD 250 billion by 2035. They called on the developing world to reject what they described as an "insulting" and "unjust" deal. With their arms crossed in defiance, protesters walked silently through the summit venue, where chanting is prohibited. "We urge you to stand up for the people of the Global South, and we insist: no deal in Baku is better than a bad deal, and this is a very, very bad deal because of the intransigence of developed countries," said Climate Action Network (CAN), a global coalition of more than 1,900 civil society organisations, in a letter to G77 and China, the largest bloc of developing nations. The letter urged negotiators to abandon weak agreements, saying, "If nothing sufficiently strong is forthcoming at this COP, we urge you to walk away from the table to fight another day, and we will fight the

COP29 Climate Summit: Climate finance draft sets stage for a clash

The final version not only keeps the role of public financing ambiguous but also tries to put the burden of making contributions on developing countries

COP29: 'X' factor could shape Global South's future, climate talks at Baku

After two weeks of intense negotiations at the UN climate conference here, countries are facing an 'X' sitting in a bracket instead of a clear figure for the trillions of dollars needed to help developing nations fight climate change -- a problem they did not create. Developed countries, which built their economies on fossil fuels and are responsible for most of the greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change, are still avoiding a key question: how much climate finance will they provide to developing countries each year starting in 2025? At the UN climate conference in Baku, they are required to update the climate finance goal of USD 100 billion agreed upon in 2009 to at least USD 1.3 trillion per year to meet the needs of developing countries amid the intensifying impacts of climate change. It's the final day of the conference, and countries are awaiting a new "acceptable" version of the draft text that can be refined to produce a balanced outcome. The draft text on the new ..

COP29 meet: Cannot accept attempts to shift focus from finance, says India

India said on Thursday that it will not accept any effort by developed countries to shift the focus away from climate finance for developing countries and place it on emissions reductions in the Global South. It also said that without adequate support in terms of finance, technology, and capacity building, the fight against climate change would be severely impacted. In response to the draft text on the new climate finance goal released early Thursday, India's Environment and Climate Secretary Leena Nandan said the shift in focus at a time when it is crucial to ensure full support for mitigation actions through adequate finance is disappointing. "COP after COP, we keep talking about mitigation ambitions, what is to be done without talking about how it is to be done. This COP started with a focus on enablement through a new climate finance goal (NCQG), but as we move towards the end, we see shifting of the focus to mitigation," she said. Nandan, who is leading the Indian delegation a

Failure not an option, says Stiell amid disagreement among nations at COP29

UN climate chief Simon Stiell on Thursday issued a strong call for global unity and ambition to secure a groundbreaking finance goal to support climate action in the developing world, saying, "Failure is not an option." As negotiators raced against time to resolve outstanding issues related to the critical objective of COP29, Stiell said a major push was needed to bring discussions to the finishing line. "It might jeopardise both near-term action, and ambition in the preparation of the new national climate action plans, with potential devastating impacts as irreversible tipping points are getting closer, he said. On draft climate finance text released earlier in the morning, the UN climate chief said that despite areas of convergence, significant differences remain. A surge in finance is essential: To ensure all parties can deliver new national plans aligned with 1.5 degrees as they must, he said. Stiell warned that delays at COP29 could complicate the road to COP30 in Brazil nex