The Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) has released a preview of COP29 policy asks, which outlines how the private sector can help push the international climate agenda forward. The institute chose to focus on four key areas of the negotiations: the new collective quantified goal on climate finance to developing countries, which will replace a previous goal of US$100 billion per annum set in 2009 and met in 2023; new nationally determined contributions (NDCs) encouraging countries to commit to more ambitious and extensive 2035 climate change targets and plans, due to be submitted by February 2025; developing more specifics on how countries will deliver on the Global Goal on Adaptation; and Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which covers climate action cooperation both between countries and with and between non-state actors, like business. The latter also includes discussions on a potential carbon market structure. Scheduled to be held in Azerbaijan in November, COP29 seeks to build on the commitment to treble renewable energy capacity made at COP28 last December. However, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said only “modest steps forward” were taken at the recent preparatory Bonn Climate Change Conference. “We must keep up the pressure and ambition this year – this is now a critical COP in the run-up to 2030,” a CISL spokesperson told ESG Investor.
