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Our focus is on the

Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan

This year’s climate conference in Baku focussed primarily on international climate financing. The key points of the final declaration are

• an increase in public climate financing for developing countries from the current USD 100 billion per year to at least USD 300 billion per year by 2035,
• an increase in funding from all sources, public and private, to at least USD 1.3 trillion per year by 2035,
• Standards and rules for international carbon markets (Article 6.4) that enable new financial flows to the Global South.

These are steps in the right direction to fulfil the justified expectations of the global South AND to create the conditions for successful climate protection. The conference certainly contributes to greater realism with regard to the need for international co-operation and financing. Even if many questions remain unanswered and the developing countries would have liked to see larger sums, there is hope that the coming weeks and months will bring further steps towards a viable overall concept for a solution to the climate issue. The GES book ALL IN! provides a proposal of what this could look like.

The report on COP29 by Estelle Herlyn (GES), who was in Baku herself:

Last year in Dubai (United Arab Emirates), this year in Baku (Azerbaijan) – the most recent climate conferences have taken place in regions whose economies are heavily dependent on oil and gas. Around 80 per cent of global primary energy still comes from fossil fuels. The climate debate must face up to this fact. In the international debate, carbon capture – i.e. the capture of CO2 in order to dispose of it or utilise it further – has long been accepted. From GES’s perspective, carbon capture is an important instrument in climate protection – one of several. That is why our approach is ALL IN!

Carbon capture is also the subject of the work of Tobias Orthen, a member of GES. He was in Baku on behalf of the Council of the Engineers for the Energy Transition (CEET), an expert committee of the UN. In this interview, he gives an insight into his work and categorises the German debate from an international perspective.

Tobias Orthen also comments on an important outcome of COP29 in Baku, namely the agreement on the organisation of international carbon markets. This allows industrialised countries to initiate projects in the Global South and have the CO₂ savings credited to themselves. This applies not only to technical projects, but also to projects in the area of nature-based solutions, such as reforestation.

Interview: Estelle Herlyn with Newsmax

In the interview with the Serbian broadcaster, Estelle Herlyn (GES) comments on the German energy transition. The German government’s all-electric approach focuses primarily on solar and wind – not only for the electricity system, but ultimately for the entire energy demand. In addition to electricity, green hydrogen, also produced from renewables, is also accepted under this concept. The realisation of All Electric goes hand in hand with a great deal of morality and sacrifice, because energy is scarce. The result is a decline in prosperity in rich countries. Germany is a striking example of this. A business model for steel production with green hydrogen cannot work – despite billions in subsidies. As can currently be seen at thyssenkrupp. Click here for the interview with Estelle Herlyn:

New structure of the GES Newsletter

In future, we will be placing selected key topics at the centre of the newsletter. Every two months. The next newsletter will be published at the beginning of February 2025 – with our assessment of the need for change in energy policy in Germany and Europe. The occasion: the Bundestag elections at the end of February.