- Simon Stiell: Entering the second week of this COP, it is a mixed picture
- Stiell: The bottom line is we are a long way from halving global emissions this decade
Haifa AlShammari
BAKU: The COP29 Presidency team gathered on Monday to discuss negotiations and some of the highlighted plans for the second week of the 29th session of the UN climate change conference.
Present at the discussions were Mukhtar Babayev, president of COP29; Yalchin Rafiyev, lead negotiator; Leyla Hasanovahe, youth climate champion for COP29; and Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Concerns were expressed regarding the state of negotiations and whether the participating parties were moving forward at the desired speed to deliver results efficiently.
“Politicians are the power to reach a fair and ambitious dream,” Babayev said. “They must deliver on responsibilities. They must engage immediately and constructively.”
Stiell also gave his thoughts on the progress thus far.
“Entering the second week of this COP, it is a mixed picture. It has been encouraging to see the significant strides forward notably on carbon markets, making progress that previous COPs could not achieve. There is more work to do, of course, and I am certainly not complacent. There are still challenges ahead there.
“The bottom line is we are a long way from halving global emissions this decade.”
While Babayev and Stiell agreed on the amount of work still needed in order for the world to reduce the impact of climate change, Stiell said he believes collaborative efforts are necessary so that all participating countries can deliver.
“We must help countries to pick up this pace over this high week,” he said.