COP29: President of COP cautiously optimistic about reaching goals despite calls for reform

On its fifth day, COP29 hosted a high-level panel on climate and peace.

It is the debate around the need to reform the COP process, however, which has very much taken centre stage in Baku.

In an open letter published on Friday, more than 20 experts including former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, the former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres said that despite its achievements the COP process needs an overhaul.

The letter calls for seven key reforms from robust tracking of climate financing and integration of the latest scientific evidence to smaller more frequent meetings and strict eligibility criteria for host nations.

As the first week of COP draws to a close, we asked COP29 President-Designate Mukhtar Babayes how he thinks the talks are going so far.

"I think it is really a very good start for COP29," he said.

"Not only 6.4 [Article 6 of the Paris Agreement about Carbon markets] but also the agenda adopted on the first day and we start to work. 6.4 gives us additional motivation to fulfil all other obligations or discussion items."

He added that talks were focused on the new collective quantified goal (NCQG) which will replace the previous $100 billion a year climate finance target set in 2009. Under the Paris Agreement, governments agreed to set a new climate finance target by 2025.

"We have a lot of meetings here and it is really very hot temperature of discussions now," Babayes said.

Progress on the agreement for the new climate finance goal is happening, he pointed out, but it's "complicated".

"We have already positive signals from the international financial institutes to upgrade their contributions for the next two years. And I think it's a good signal."

"We