Hope has sprung anew amid the thick haze hovering over COP-29

The climate summit has seen rules being ratified for a carbon market, progress on finance and high corporate participation

- RAJRISHI SINGHAL

Hope continues to burn bright, despite a renewed sense of foreboding, that there may be a sliver of light at the end of the climate change tunnel. There is anxiety due to two shadows hanging over Baku, Azerbaijan's capital, which is hosting the latest edition of multilateral climate change talks, COP-29.

The first cause for worry is the relentless rise in emissions in both advanced and emerging economies, projected to be higher in 2024 than 2023, despite nations promising at Abu Dhabi COP-28 to reduce their burning of fossil fuels.

The second spectre hanging over the climate talks is the visage of US president-elect Donald Trump, who pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement during his first term. He is expected to repeat that withdrawal this time as well.

When all seemed lost, a ray of hope appeared. The opening day of COP-29—or Conference of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)—saw nations ratifying ground rules for a global carbon trading mechanism, as well as quality and audit standards for carbon credits that can be traded.

This is crucial for an efficient carbon market and eventually for reducing emissions. The operationalization of carbon markets has been hanging fire for many years, but the Baku presidency made it a key negotiating priority.

Carbon credits are generated from projects which either reduce carbon in the atmosphere (such as the creation of carbon sinks) or use technologies that emit reduced carbon (such as solar energy). They are usually measured in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) and can be traded.