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UAE agenda at COP29: Climate financing, follow up on last year's pledges

Kicking off on November 11 at the Azerbaijan capital, Baku, COP29 will receive participants from 200 countries

Published: Mon 4 Nov 2024, 8:39 PM

Updated: Mon 4 Nov 2024, 9:05 PM

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At the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, December 13, 2023. Photo: Reuters file

At the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, December 13, 2023. Photo: Reuters file

Climate financing and backing deals that protect individuals against the dire results of climate change are on top of the UAE agenda at COP29. Kicking off on November 11 at the Azerbaijan capital, Baku, COP29 will receive participants from 200 countries.

At a press briefing on Monday, the COP UAE team explained how they plan to have ‘an influential presence’ at the 29th edition of the annual climate change conference. Building on UAE agreements that reached $100 million during COP28 that was held in Dubai last year, the country aims to follow up on negotiations and pledges that were made.

“The UAE signed 64 new pledges after COP28 was over, which proves that we followed up on everything, and our efforts towards climate change did not end there,” said Omar al Braiki, Deputy Chief Negotiator at the UAE Special Envoy for Climate Change Office.

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During the upcoming COP, the UAE pavilion will host over 60 programmes under 10 themes, including safeguarding lives and livelihood, youth inclusion, water resilience, energy transmission, and preserving biodiversity.

Through its top theme, climate financing, the UAE aims to take further commitments made last year towards countries that suffer the implications of climate change.

COP28-led participating states and organisations had pledged $85bn towards climate action. “In Baku, we will discuss how to activate this amount and how to ensure that the various states’ financial commitments will be directed towards those who will benefit the most from it,” said Abdulla Balalaa, Assistant Minister for Energy and Sustainable Affairs, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).

“We came out with many fruitful results from the UAE-held COP, so we want to ensure that all the pledges, agreements and deals made, are on track.

“Climate action is an urgent global procedure, and we hope to play an influential role in it,” added the assistant minister.

The UAE team will be holding talks and supporting deals that serve individuals and communities in combating the damaging effects of climate change. Talks to be held at the UAE pavilion on climate financing include Mobilising Climate Finance for the Global South, the Global Climate Finance Framework (GCFF) which was launched in COP28 to accelerate investments in climate action and enhance their role in economic growth and global resilience.

Furthermore, the pavilion will host an exclusive Climate Changemaker Majlis. Hosted by WiSER, the open dialogue and problem solving majlis explores how to make innovative climate finance solutions. It would also shed light on Emirati long-standing values and approach towards problem solving and identifying actionable solutions.

“Our goal is to highlight the UAE as a massive global climate action player,” concluded Balalaa.

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