Warning: Limiting global warming requires mountains of money

Global warming consumes a lot of resources, including financial ones. "The political momentum could fade" and "the spirit of COP28 must be kept alive", said its president, Sultan al Jaber, calling for the mobilization of not billions, but "trillions" of dollars to finance the promises made in Dubai for to limit global warming. Financing was the "guest of honor" at a round table organized in Paris by the International Energy Agency (IEA) on the topic "After COP28", to move from promises to action. "Funding is the key factor," said Sultan al Jaber. "The next COP was mandated to achieve a new collective goal. And now that the 100 billion (annual) goal has finally been reached, the world must raise the bar (...): we must think in trillions of dollars, not in billions". Yalchin Rafiyev, Azerbaijan's chief negotiator for COP29, which will be held in the country this year, has pledged to "maintain the momentum" from COP28, saying his country is "ideally positioned" to act as a bridge. between North and South. IEA Director Fatih Birol welcomed the "Emirates Consensus", the name of the final agreement of the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference, which envisages a transition away from fossil fuels and a tripling of renewable energy capacity, but stressed that there is still "a lot of work for its implementation". Birol, whose institution has become a key actor in promoting the energy transition, announced four concrete actions of the IEA: the introduction, from March 1, of a mechanism for monitoring commitments in the field of climate to measure the gap between "the established objectives and what is being done", as well as a mechanism to support countries that request this in establishing the objectives of reducing greenhouse gas emissions (Nationally Determined Contributions, NDCs). "We trust that governments will keep their promises, but we believe in numbers," he declared. The IEA will also continue to organize high-level dialogues with the host countries of future COPs (Azerbaijan in 2024, Brazil in 2030), and will make available its expertise regarding financial mechanisms that could make possible a better balancing of financing the transition between North and South.