2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29)

COP29: Everything you need to know

What is COP29?

COP29 is the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP29) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The UNFCCC is an international environmental treaty addressing climate change, signed by 154 states at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

This is the 29th climate change conference. The last one was held in 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where nations agreed to transition away from fossil fuels.

This year, COP will take place from November 11 to 22 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Representatives of the nearly 200 Parties to the UNFCCC and leaders from international organisations, the private sector and civil society will be at COP29.

What is GEO doing at COP29?

The upcoming COP29 represents an extraordinary opportunity for the GEO community to promote Earth Intelligence for the UN Secretary-General’s Early Warnings for All (EW4All) initiative,, which has been the central effort in the climate adaptation discourse since its inception in 2022.

GEO has been collaborating with the UNFCCC Technology Executive Committee (TEC) to develop a joint policy brief titled “Realising Early Warnings for All: Innovation and Technology in Support of Risk-Informed Climate Resilience Policy and Action”, which was launched at COP29 on 11 November on Earth Information Day.

The policy brief highlights the essential role of climate technology policies and scalable fit-for-purpose technology solutions, many of which are based on Earth observations, in improving climate information and disaster risk knowledge, enhancing the effectiveness of the Multi-hazard Early Warning System.

The policy brief was developed based on insights from our extensive network of partners and GEO initiatives that address climate-related risks on the environment and various socio-economic sectors, including the Global Ecosystems Atlas. The resulting policy recommendations are intended to guide the negotiations, emphasising the essential role of Earth observations in advancing more timely and effective climate action.

Access the policy brief here.

What is the TEC?

The Technology Executive Committee (TEC) is a constituted policy body of UNFCCC, mandated to analyse issues and provide policy recommendations on climate technology development and transfer. Based on the joint policy brief with GEO, the TEC has formulated its recommendation for consideration at COP29 and CMA6

In its recommendation, the TEC calls on governments and international organizations and other stakeholders, including donors and funding mechanisms, to accelerate risk-informed climate resilience policies and actions by leveraging the power of innovation and technology, such as Earth observation, AI, digital and mobile technologies.

For more information, contact: secretariat@geosec.org