Climate Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan

Today I read an editorial in WSJ about a global climate conference that opened this week in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Called COP29, the 29th annual edition of the conference of the parties to the United Nations climate agreement is supposed to be "an opportunity to take stock of current efforts to curtail climate change and agree to new measures."

Previous editions brought the Paris agreement at COP21 in 2015 and an attempt to mobilize trillions of dollars of capital for energy transition at COP26 in Scotland in 2021. 

This year delegates to this conference hope to create a new global emissions trading system. 

Ilhal Aliyev, president of Azerbaijan told delegates that "fossil fuels are a gift of God."

The editorial believes that global carbon emissions will not reduce until developing countries like India and China agree to sacrifice economic growth to meet these regulations. 

An emissions agreement is expected to be signed by the delegates to this conference. 

The editorial talked about net zero. 

With the new government in place in Washington DC the idea of net zero will not get lots of support since the new administration is going to be reversing regulations against fossil fuels, the editorial said. 

Germany and other European nations cannot, according to the WSJ editorial, afford a transition to net zero. 

Two questions I had after I finished reading this editorial was if developing countries like China and India adhere to global carbon emissions guidelines will it necessarily sacrifice growth? 

The editorial seemed to suggest that for economic growth there should be emissions. 

The other question was about the cost of transferring to net zero.

 What are the costs of transferring to net zero?