The real value and message of COP29 for SA agriculture

While the 2024 Conference of the Parties may have disappointed those who hoped for real progress, it's more important for South African agriculture to highlight its role in carbon mitigation

- Dr Koos Coetzee

Concern about the state of the global environment has been growing since the late 1970s. In 1979, the first world climate conference took place. In 1988, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was set up by the UN. The panel consists of scientists in various working groups, and it published its first report in 1990.

The second IPCC report (1995) provided the scientific background for the Kyoto Protocol that was adapted by the UN in 1996 but was only implemented in 2005. Countries committed themselves to limit and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to individual levels set out in the protocol. South Africa ratified the Kyoto Protocol in 2002.

The UN established the Conference of the Parties (COP) as the main decision-making body for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The first conference (COP1) was held in Berlin, Germany, in 1995, and the 29th meeting (COP29) was recently held in Baku, Azerbaijan. Developing and poorer countries had high hopes that the rich countries would give finance to them to finance their climate change-mitigation actions.

COP29 DECISIONS