Tokyo, 26 November, /AJMEDIA/
A final agreement was reached at COP29, held in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, from November 11 to 23. Despite the attempts of a number of states to prevent it with artificial obstacles, this should be highly appreciated as an important historic result. Azerbaijan has thus managed to turn COP29 into a successful page in recent history. Thus, under Azerbaijan’s presidency of COP29, the Baku Finance Goal agreement was announced, which is a new commitment to provide $1.3 trillion in climate finance to developing countries annually.
The Baku Finance Goal includes the main goal of developed countries to lead the mobilization of at least $300 billion annually for developing countries by 2035. This is of great importance as the product of intensive diplomatic activity by the COP29 presidency and represents an increase of $50 billion compared to the initial draft. Of course, this should be highly appreciated as an important historical success.
Because developed countries did not want to make large commitments at COP29. They were trying to close the issue with 250 billion, as they say. But as a result of diplomatic negotiations and intense discussions, it was possible to reach a final agreement. Of course, this success was met with great satisfaction and applause by humanitarian forces. Even in his last speech in Baku, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated with satisfaction that the agreement reached at COP29 is vital for maintaining the goal of keeping global warming to 1.5°C: “The countries have coped with the task. I was hoping for more ambitious results in financing and mitigation, but this agreement provides a solid basis for future action.”
So what were developed countries worried about? If we analyze the discussions held during COP29, we will see that the agreement mentioned at COP29 was not easily achieved. The notorious forces trying to present Azerbaijan to the world as an evil force did their best to make COP29 a failure, but they could not achieve their dreams. It should be noted in particular that the USA, France, the Netherlands and other such countries wanted to hinder Azerbaijan’s success by evading their financial obligations. However, the main culprits of global climate change are the developed countries. The facts we have mentioned below directly confirm this. Thus, China emits more than 14 billion tons of CO2 into the environment, the USA 6 billion tons, India 3.5 billion tons, the European Union 3.4 billion tons, Russia 2 billion tons, and Japan 1.170 billion tons. Despite this, some developed countries are not very interested in eliminating the bitter consequences of the problems they have created. Moreover, most developed countries did not even want to hear Azerbaijan’s calls. On the contrary, they tried to make Azerbaijan’s calls “inaudible” by conducting a hypocritical campaign.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev expressed the situation with great precision in a post on his social media account: “Despite a large-scale and planned campaign of slander and smear, Azerbaijan has managed to achieve historic results in the climate negotiations.”
The Azerbaijani President added that our country, guided by the slogan “Solidarity for a Green World,” has created all the conditions for the impartial conduct of the negotiations by acting as an impartial mediator: “Throughout the entire process, we have called for an outcome that takes into account the needs of developing countries, especially small island states and least developed countries, as they bear the brunt of climate change and face existential threats. We have also demonstrated solidarity with peoples and regions suffering from environmental problems exacerbated by colonial rule.”
Let us take into account that both the United States and some European countries have been waging a very dirty campaign against Azerbaijan over the past year. The goal of these countries was to prevent COP29 from being held in Baku. One reason for this was to prevent Azerbaijan from becoming an international actor, and the second reason was to stop some initiatives from being missed.
As is known, in recent years, the abundance of information and the processes taking place have shown the true face of great powers to civilization with their nakedness. Therefore, no one believes that the United States and other states are the heralds of truth anymore. In such a reality, the emergence of new powers was necessary. It was at such a historical moment that Azerbaijan demonstrated determination with modern challenges.
Of course, it is not at all desirable for great powers for a small country like Azerbaijan to act as the author of international initiatives and challenges. Therefore, in the past year, some of the leading states have waged a dirty campaign against Azerbaijan. In the end, the US, France and the Netherlands refused to participate in the COP29 conference with high-level delegations. Moreover, these states tried to prevent other states from coming to Baku by making calls.
But Azerbaijan’s determination and objective position overshadowed the destructive initiatives.
More than 190 countries of the world joined the discussions at the Baku summit. Most importantly, COP29 achieved the determination of the volume of annual climate finance for developed countries. This became a turning point in COP29 climate diplomacy. The whole world has already begun to discuss and appreciate the results of COP29 with satisfaction.
At the same time, the successful conclusion of COP29 showed that the West can no longer demonstrate leadership as before and that a deep geopolitical polarization process is underway in the world. In this process, Azerbaijan is attracting more attention as one of the international actors and leading states.
Vugar Aghayev
