The recent 29th Conference of the Parties to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 29), with its central focus on climate finance, reached a breakthrough agreement.

This includes gaining commitment to triple finance to developing countries, from the previous goal of USD 100 billion annually, to USD 300 billion annually by 2035; as well as to secure efforts of all actors to work together to scale up finance to developing countries, from public and private sources, to the amount of USD 1.3 trillion per year by 2035.

Countries also reached agreement on carbon markets (Article 6) which several previous COPs had not been able to achieve. As co-chair of the global negotiations on Article 6 - Ms Grace Fu, Singapore’s Minister for Sustainability and the Environment and Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations - was instrumental in resolving one of the most sophisticated and technical challenges in climate diplomacy.

Minister Fu said, “The decisions on Article 6 at COP29 will provide the necessary confidence in carbon markets to facilitate the trading of high quality carbon credits. This will be critical to mobilise private capital toward global mitigation efforts, and to ensure we keep global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees.”

On the other hand, the absence of an explicit reference and call to transition away from fossil fuels in the recent COP meant that negotiations would need to be revisited at COP 30.

Amid these developments, join us for a dialogue with Minister Grace Fu, Ambassador for Climate Action Ravi Menon, and other business leaders on COP29, themed Navigating Climate and Businesses in 2025.