This week, COP28 launched a partnership with Azerbaijan (COP29 host) and Brazil (COP30 host) with the aim of improving cooperation and continuity between current and future COP Presidencies.
Dubbed the COP Presidencies Troika (meaning group of three), it marks the first time that a current COP Presidency has been formally mandated to unite with two future presidencies to foster international cooperation.
The Troika, which means group of three, aims to ensure the delivery of the Presidencies’ collective responsibilities and support of global priorities to turn “agreement” into “action” by government and non-government stakeholders.
Speaking at the launch of the Troika, held in Expo City Dubai, COP28 President Dr. Sultan Al Jaber said: “COP28 delivered a different, groundbreaking COP, that culminated in The UAE Consensus. At COP28, Parties mobilized behind historic climate action through both the negotiations and their commitments to the Presidential Action Agenda. The Troika helps ensure we have the collaboration and continuity required to keep the North Star of 1.5°C in sight—from Baku to Belém and beyond. The breakthroughs we all achieved at COP28 must carry forward to COP29 and 30—in ambitious nationally determined contributions, climate finance follow through, and accelerated implementation.”
The agreement states that the partnership will “significantly enhance international cooperation and the international enabling environment to stimulate ambition in the next round of nationally determined contributions, with a view to enhancing action and implementation over this critical decade and keeping 1.5°C within reach.”
Dr. Al Jaber said: “The UAE Consensus included a clear mandate for the three Presidencies— the UAE, Azerbaijan and Brazil—to cooperate on the ‘Roadmap to Mission 1.5°C’. We will be working together through the COP Presidencies Troika, with our friends in Baku and Brazil, to ensure that promises made in Dubai are fulfilled through closer, focused partnerships and credible support to enable delivery. Together we ensure that new agreements forged at the next COP set us on the path we need to achieve our mission.”
Looking ahead, later this year in Baku, Azerbaijan, at COP29, an agreement on a New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance is expected.
The adoption of the NCQG, COP28 said, will constitute the most significant climate finance milestone since the 2009 commitment by developed countries to a goal of jointly mobilising USD $100 billion a year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries.
COP29 President-Designate Mukhtar Babayev, Azerbaijan’s Minister for Ecology and Natural Resources, commented: “We are committed to leveraging our strength as a bridge builder between the developed and developing world as host of COP29, to accelerate efforts to keep 1.5 in reach. Key to that will be establishing a new climate finance goal that reflects the scale and urgency of the climate challenge. And equally important, unlocking those funds and getting them to the nations that need them most.”
Minister Marina Silva, Brazil’s Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, added: “As I said in Dubai, we need to make the most of the opportunity that this Troika of COP Presidencies presents: to ensure that in these coming two years we will be able to do what science tells us we have to, in the last window of opportunity to achieve the 1.5°C ambition.”