The road to Baku leads via the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, where the focus is on preparing COP29 in Azerbaijan’s capital. Hosted by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and COP President-Designate Mukhtar Babayev, it is an important milestone in the international climate calendar. At the conference, discussions will be held at political level about the key challenges of international climate policy.

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At COP28 in Dubai last year, concrete decisions were reached that must now be implemented with ambition and all due resolve. This includes, in particular, the expansion of renewable energies – it was agreed that these sources of energy would be stepped up threefold globally by 2030 – as well as doubling energy efficiency. This is the only way to achieve the phase-out of fossil fuels, which was agreed by the international community at COP28.

Specifically, all countries will draw up clear and unambiguous new climate targets and climate plans this year, thus paving the way for a climate-neutral economy. Only when each and every country develops concrete plans regarding how it intends to reach its interim targets will it be possible to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. The onus here is on the major economies in particular – the G20, including the EU and the US, but also China, India and countries such as Saudi Arabia. Eighty percent of emissions are caused by the biggest emitters, namely the G20. Their emissions reduction will determine whether the 1.5 degree target remains in reach.

To achieve this, the business community must also be involved to ensure that future investments are geared towards these climate targets. The global energy transition will only be successful with sufficient private investments in environmentally friendly energies and technologies. Financing the global climate transition will therefore also be a focus of the discussions this year.

This year’s Petersberg Climate Dialogue will once again feature high-level discussions. In addition to Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev as the host of COP29, Economics Minister Robert Habeck and Development Minister Svenja Schulze (Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development) will also speak to representatives from around 40 countries. At the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, decision-makers from industrialised, emerging and developing countries will also go to the drawing board together to lay the groundwork for the upcoming decisions.

Climate policy is a focus of Germany’s foreign policy. When Foreign Minister Baerbock took office, the Federal Foreign Office assumed responsibility for steering and coordinating international climate policy – including international climate negotiations.