Publication Date: December 2024
Developed by SLOCAT, this analysis forms part of ongoing advocacy to elevate sustainable, low-carbon transport within international climate policy, focusing specifically on the outcomes of the 29th UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), held in Baku, Azerbaijan, in November 2024, was widely dubbed the “Finance COP” for its pivotal role in mobilising financial resources from developed countries to aid developing nations in their transition towards net-zero pathways. This effort largely centred on establishing the “New Collective Quantified Goal” (NCQG) on climate finance.Nonetheless, the climate talks failed to deliver substantive outcomes on critical fronts such as scaling up climate finance, advancing a global goal on adaptation, operationalising the Loss and Damage Fund, and enhancing directives for countries to set ambitious emissions reductions in their NDCs 3.0.
Key messages:
- The new climate finance goal of USD 300 billion annually by 2035, although tripling previous commitments, falls short of addressing the multi-trillion-dollar investment gap required for sustainable transport, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
- Insufficient qualitative criteria in the finance agreements risk enabling continued investment in fossil fuel infrastructures and undermine the urgent transition to sustainable transport.
- Implementation of critical Global Stocktake outcomes, specifically transport sector emission reductions and fossil fuel transitions, remains unresolved and must urgently be revisited at COP30.
- The operationalisation of Article 6 offers substantial opportunities to leverage market-based mechanisms for financing sustainable transport, though robust monitoring by civil society will be crucial to ensure environmental integrity.
- The launch of the “Baku Adaptation Roadmap” highlights increased recognition of the need for transport resilience; however, the absence of detailed sector-specific targets limits actionable outcomes.
The TDI project is part of the High Volume Transport (HVT) research programme funded by UK Aid from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). The project is implemented by the HVT consortium partners: SLOCAT, Urban Electric Mobility Initiative (UEMI) and experts Lewis Fulton, Pierpaolo Cazzola and Jacob Teter.
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