Baku, Azerbaijan – World leaders at the UN climate change conference COP29 in Baku must respond boldly to another year of record temperatures and rising emissions by agreeing a robust new finance goal to support desperately needed climate action in developing countries.

Jasper Inventor, Head of Delegation for Greenpeace International, said: “As the climate records keep crashing – from skyrocketing emissions to rising temperatures and worsening impacts – we’ve reached a reckoning point. For too long, demands for rapid and bold action have been met with meek responses from too many global leaders. This must change!

“People are dying as cities are being smashed by storms and floods, but the lifeblood of hope is in climate action. But action relies on climate finance and on holding polluters accountable. Fossil fuel companies and big polluters must finally pay for the loss and damage they’ve caused. Leaders have the power to enforce this justice and they must act now.

“The rescue plan is the COP28 decision to transition away from fossil fuels – a pathway that must yield ambitious 2035 climate action plans to phase out coal, oil and gas. Our climate is on life support and political leaders need to step up and take the urgent action needed.”

At COP29, Greenpeace is calling for:

• An ambitious finance goal, the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), that commits to significantly scaled-up public finance to developing countries for adaptation, mitigation and loss and damage and makes the fossil fuel industry and other major polluters pay.
• Implementation of the COP28 agreement to transition away from fossil fuels, including how countries will align their 2030 and 2035 climate action plans with the 1.5°C goal. 
• Prevention of a poor outcome on offsets and carbon markets to protect and restore high integrity carbon-dense ecosystems.  

Tracy Carty, Climate Politics Expert at Greenpeace International, said: “The NCQG is expected to set the terms determining who pays for the burgeoning costs of climate action over the next decade and beyond and whether countries and communities least responsible for causing the climate crisis get the support they urgently need and are entitled to.

“As the human costs of inaction mount, the trillions in subsidies the fossil fuel industry receives and the profits it makes overshadows climate finance to developing countries. The NCQG must rectify this injustice and make polluters pay for the harm and damage they’ve caused. 

“Trillions of dollars are needed for the climate action plans of developing countries. The headline outcome of the NCQG needs to be an unambiguous commitment from rich developed countries to significantly increase public finance to support developing countries to respond to escalating climate impacts and transition to renewables.”

ENDS

Greenpeace COP29 media briefing 

Contacts:

Aaron Gray-Block, Greenpeace International, Climate Politics Communications Specialist, aaron.gray-block@greenpeace.org

Gaby Flores, Communications Coordinator, Greenpeace International, +1 214 454 3871, cflores@greenpeace.org

Greenpeace International Press Desk, +31 (0)20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), pressdesk.int@greenpeace.org

Follow @greenpeacepress on X/Twitter for our latest international press releases

Photographer Christian Åslund, often commissioned by Greenpeace, has been working on a project since 2002: focusing on visual research of glaciers in Svalbard in the Arctic and documenting their retreat over time. This work contrasts current images with archival photos from the Norwegian Polar Institute dating back to the early 1900s.

Earlier this year, Christian boarded Greenpeace ship The Witness, to return to revisit some of the glaciers he first captured in 2002, while also documenting new ones for his ongoing project. 

In Christian’s own words, 

“At so many of the glaciers I photographed for this series, we saw the same story – ice walls completely gone and glaciers retreating back into nothing. They illustrate just how quickly our planet is changing as the climate crisis worsens. The Arctic is our climate sentinel – it’s where the climate and ocean crises converge, and where the impacts of these crises are seen first and felt most keenly.”

In 2002 the documentation of the iconic Blomstrandbreen glacier showed that the glacier had retreated nearly 2 km since 1928, with an accelerated rate of 35 metres lost per year since 1960 and even higher in the past decade. The shocking images since, only illustrate the terrifying extent to which Arctic glaciers have retreated in the last century.

Glacier comparison images –   Blomstrandbreen, Svalbard

Glacier comparison images – Ny Alesund, Svalbard

The rapid warming of the Arctic has significant global consequences. Melting glaciers and ice sheets contribute to rising sea levels, while the loss of sea ice exposes a darker ocean that absorbs heat rather than reflecting it, leading to widespread changes in weather patterns. The climate and ocean crises are deeply intertwined; as the climate crisis intensifies, the ocean’s capacity to mitigate its most severe effects, support coastal communities, and sustain marine ecosystems is being undermined at an unprecedented scale.

Glacier comparison images –   Kongsbreen

Glacier comparison images-  Nordenskioldbreen

Glacier comparison images – Tempelfjorden

Glacier comparison images – Kongsfjorden, Svalbard

Glacier comparison images –  Lovénbreen

Protecting the oceans is essential. Safeguarding 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030 through a network of ocean sanctuaries. Greenpeace is urging governments to ratify the UN Ocean Treaty by June 2025 to initiate the establishment of sanctuaries in the high seas across at least 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030.

Protect the Oceans

Add your name to call on leaders to create new ocean sanctuaries and protect our blue planet.

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As the world experiences month after month of record temperatures, and we move closer and closer to the global heating limit set out in the Paris Agreement, world leaders will gather from Monday, 11 November to Friday, 22 November 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan – yet another country with fossil fuel interests – at the 29th annual climate negotiations. 

What is COP29?

The annual United Nations Conference on Climate Change, referred to as ‘COP’ (an acronym for Conference of the Parties), has taken place in a different city every year since 1995. Ministers and Heads of States from governments all around the world attend along with civil society representatives from NGOs, businesses, faith groups, scientists, and other stakeholder groups such as Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Greenpeace will be present in a small group including campaigners along with policy and scientific experts, observing negotiations and making sure delegates are listening. 

While the ultimate goal is global collaboration to fight climate change, each COP focuses on different issues and implementation tasks, with the host country setting the tone and direction. COP29 will be the “finance COP”, where agreement needs to be reached on securing a new climate finance goal, known as the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG). 

COP28, the most recent climate COP, was held last year in Dubai and holds the title for the largest attended, convening nearly 100,000 delegates and more than 150 Heads of State. After a flurry of negotiations over two weeks, despite lacking the words ‘phase out’, the final agreement did acknowledge the growing call for a transition away from fossil fuels.

But there still remains a lot to do to end the age of coal, oil and gas.

Why is COP29 important?

In the past year, the planet has experienced worsening climate impacts from hurricanes to heatwaves, droughts and floods. Extreme weather patterns are devastating communities, homes and livelihoods; global action has never been more necessary. 

Adding to the urgency, the first-ever Global Stocktake – a climate progress report delivered at COP28 – found global greenhouse gas emissions must be cut by around 43 percent by 2030 and 60 percent by 2035 to put us on track to a safer climate.

A recent UNEP Emissions Gap report and figures from the International Energy Agency also stressed we’ve fallen far behind in efforts to achieve the Paris Agreement’s goal to limit global heating to 1.5°C. Clearly, we need real, firm action at COP29.

At COP29, Greenpeace will be calling for:

1. A new Climate Finance Goal, the NCQG, that significantly increases public finance to developing countries and embeds the “Make Polluters Pay” principle.
2. Implementation of the COP28 agreement to transition away from fossil fuels, by outlining how countries’ upcoming 2030 and 2035 climate action plans, or their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), will include fossil fuel phase out plans and policies in alignment with 1.5°C.
3. Ensuring that offset and carbon market policies protect and restore carbon-dense ecosystems 

Trillions of dollars will be needed over the coming years for climate finance. At COP29, critical decisions will be made to address the soaring costs of not acting fast enough on climate.

And who should pay? Those with the most responsibility for causing the climate crisis – starting with the fossil fuel industry. It’s time that they were made to pay for the damage and destruction they cause.

There’s a lot of work to do as the climate crisis intensifies but the people power that has grown stronger every year and made their presence integral, will return even louder, stronger and more determined at COP29.