COP29 Digest, Vol 1: Everything You Need to Know in Food and Climate News Today

Welcome to #COP29 – watch the opening ceremony here. In our Green Queen COP29 Digest, our editorial team curates the must-reads, the must-bookmarks and the must-knows from around the interwebs to help you ‘skim the overwhelm’.

It’s fair to say that hopes for this year are low, with fewer big climate wins expected. The event, which started on Monday and is taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan, is far smaller in scope than Dubai’s 2023 ‘mega COP’ with lots of companies, brands and COP regulars skipping this edition, including a host of world leaders.

The fight for a better climate has taken a geopolitical hit, with fewer investors, politicians and pundits paying as much attention as they arguably should be​, the mainstream media is distracted by wars and elections elsewhere. ​So unlike last year, this won’t be a daily roundup, as this year’s summit isn’t dominating headlines quite the same way.

Headlines You Need To Know

The COP-related news you cannot miss.

COP29 CHIEF PROMOTES FOSSIL FUEL INVESTMENT DEALS: In a repeat of last year, a senior official behind the UN climate summit is promoting fossil fuels. According to the BBC, Elnur Soltanov – who is COP29’s chief executive and Azerbaijan’s deputy energy minister – was filmed agreeing to facilitate oil and gas deals during the conference. Given the host nation’s rhetoric about fossil fuels, this is unfortunately not surprising at all.

CLIMATE FINANCE TOP AGENDA AT COP29: This year’s COP is all about the money. Climate finance is at the heart of the summit, with leaders hoping to strike a new deal to secure the trillions needed from affluent nations to fund a transition away from fossil fuels in developing countries.

COP29 PRESIDENT URGES NATIONS TO FOLLOW SUIT FROM UAE CONSENSUS: In his handover speech to COP29 president Mukhtar Babayev, his counterpart from last year – Sultan Al Jaber – called on participants to drive progress as they did with the UAE Consensus at COP28, which contains a series of climate policy firsts. Al Jaber said negotiators had “proved that multilateralism can move the dial and make a difference”.

EU, GERMANY & FRANCE HEADS TO SKIP COP29: Some of the major skips of the year are EU president Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (whose decision was reportedly forced by the coalition government’s collapse last week). The heads of only two G7 states – the UK and Italy – are expected to head to Baku for the conference, a blow to activists’ hope for elevated leadership from the EU following Donald Trump’s imminent return to the White House.

200 NATIONS APPROVE NEW STANDARDS FOR CARBON MARKET: On day one, over 200 countries agreed on a number of rules for the international carbon market, which has been criticised as an ineffective mitigation policy and greenwashing tool for businesses. The carbon market would allow wealthy countries to purchase high-integrity credits from nations that have cut more emissions than they promised.

Key #COP29 Reports

The food and climate reports you need to know about.

• UN report advocates for meat taxes: The 2024 edition of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) annual State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) report – released days before COP29 – analyses the hidden climate costs of the agrifood system. It recommends taxes on meat and high-emitting foods, and increased subsidies for fruits and vegetables, echoing a call from the World Bank earlier this year.
• 74% of corporations have upped sustainability staff: Nearly three-quarters (74%) of large corporations have increased their sustainability teams in the last two years (two points below 2022’s figures), according to research by Trellis. Salaries for green employees have also been on the rise.
• Green jobs need to be doubled by 2050: A Global Green Skills report by LinkedIn suggests that the global workforce is not on track to meet sustainability targets. It highlights the need to double the size of the green talent pool, noting that roughly half of jobs in the 2050 green economy would lack qualified candidates if we don’t focus on strategic upskilling.
• The top 10 countries using green energy: As smart cities become more commonplace, a new report looks at the 10 countries with the highest per capita renewable energy use. The Netherlands tops the list, and EU nations make up the first six on the list.

Awesome Resources From Media Friends

A curation of our favourite reads from COP29 – excellent guides, explainers and op-eds from around the web.

Who’s who at #COP29: The Guardian has pulled together a list of all the major figures you need to know for this year’s conference, from Azerbaijan’s president and Brazil’s environment minister to Al Jaber and the president of the World Bank.

Who isn’t who: Building on the fact that so many leaders aren’t turning up this year – it’s not just the aforementioned, but also heads of state like Narendra Modi, Xi Jinping, and Justin Trudeau – the Australian Financial Review’s Hans van Leeuwen explores why.

Why Baku?: Just why a petrostate is hosting the world’s prominent climate change conference for the second year in a row? The New York Times asks the same question.

Climate jargon to know: Need to brush up on your climate change jargon for COP29? Reuters has a handy guide.

Will Trump ruin climate efforts yet again?: As the world prepares for a second Trump presidency, Elizabeth Kolbert at The New Yorker suggests that its implications for climate policy are all but bleak.

Lighter Green Fun

Funny stuff, weird stuff, random stuff related to COP you may enjoy.

An AI award: Trinidad and Tobago researcher Dr Letetia Addison has won the UN-backed 2024 AI Innovation Grand Challenge for her climate resilience platform for the Small Island Developing States.

A whale metaphor: Belgium art collective Captain Boomer has installed a life-sized hyper-real model of a dead sperm whale as a metaphor “for the disruption of our ecological system”.

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