BAKU, Azerbaijan – After two weeks of vague statements about thorny geopolitics and no explanation for why the developed world spends trillions of dollars a year on fossil fuel subsidies, developed countries at COP29 finally announced an increase in climate spending to save developing countries from the current climate crisis. It pledges $100 billion to $300 billion a year by 2035.
This funding will help developing countries build renewable energy capacity and adapt to the increasingly severe impacts of a climate on a hotter planet. But it is far from what they asked for, and far from what is needed.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s landmark 2021 report calls for a total of at least $5.8 trillion by 2030 to address the effects of global warming, which developing countries are largely responsible for. It was shown that
The climate finance agreement was finalized in Baku at 3am on Sunday, long after the scheduled end of the meeting at 6pm on Friday and after some participants had already finished negotiating at the Olympic Stadium. Ta. Other participants arrived on the final day of the discussion with suitcases, freshening up in public restrooms and searching for food as supplies ran low. This is the third year in a row that negotiations have gone into extra time, raising renewed questions about whether the current format is appropriate.
At last year’s COP in Dubai, talks were extended after countries quarreled over the precise wording of the transition away from fossil fuels in the energy system. It was the first time in 30 years that fossil fuels were directly mentioned in an official UNFCCC document. The previous year, at COP27 in Egypt, it took extra time to reach agreement on a loss and damage fund aimed at compensating developing countries for economic, cultural and environmental damage that had already been caused. However, this is separate from this year’s funds to prepare for the future. .
In a statement after the meeting in Baku, UNFCCC Secretary-General Simon Stiel described the new financial goal as “an insurance policy for humanity as climate change worsens for countries.”
“But like any insurance, it only works if premiums are paid in full and on time. Promises must be kept to protect billions of lives.”
Steele also said the final agreement shows that the UNFCCC continues to make progress towards the global climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement, which include reducing climate damage caused by greenhouse gases. It said it included a clause specifying expectations about what kind of impact it would have on rich countries, which are responsible for most of the problems. Reducing emissions will help developing countries meet growing challenges.
Some outside experts said the end result was just averting complete failure. Developing countries were demanding more money, and faster, to the tune of $1.3 trillion a year by 2030.
Ottmar Edenhofer, a climate economist and co-director of Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said: “The climate summit in Baku could not be called a success, but at best it could have avoided a diplomatic disaster.” said. He said the tense COP29 negotiations showed that additional negotiating formats were needed to tackle the climate crisis.
Johan Rockström, an Earth system scientist and another co-director of the Potsdam Institute, added that the $300 billion goal is “too little, too late.” Global emissions are still rising, and the costs of climate change are about to rise further, he noted.
“We cannot wait another 10 years for public climate funding; by then the costs of loss and damage will be through the roof,” he said. Avoiding some of the worst-case scenarios of climate change and social collapse requires a full focus on climate finance and emissions reductions, and a reorientation of “the entire global economy away from fossil fuel-based growth.” .
a drop in the bucket
The reaction from developing country leaders and their civil society allies was even more critical, with some saying they felt forced to accept the outcome of COP29. The promised funding is “woefully insufficient to address the severity of the global climate crisis,” said Harjeet Singh, global director of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. We need to phase out fossil fuels.
Victor Menotti, who has closely tracked U.S. involvement in the negotiations as an observer of the Global Campaign for Climate Justice, said the outcome reflects the “my way or highway” model of climate diplomacy practiced by the United States. He said it reflects the continuity of the Rand.
“U.S. State Department officials have called for further mitigation from developing countries, but they have refused to deliver what those countries say they need to reduce emissions.” He also said the United States continues to reduce its legal obligations under the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement, and that “President Biden has left behind a shameful legacy of global climate injustice.”
A prepared statement attributed to a senior U.S. official who attended the meeting said existing funding targets were difficult enough to meet and that new targets included “more bilateral financial transactions and more funding from multilateral development banks.” “This will require even more ambitious and extraordinary expansion, including additional funding.” and further efforts to mobilize private finance. ”
But the US won’t have anything to do with it for at least the next four years. President-elect Donald Trump has said he will withdraw from the Paris Agreement again following his first term.
Tina Stege, Marshall Islands Climate Envoy, said small island states are participating in COP29 in good faith, with the security of their communities and the well-being of the world at stake.
“But at this COP, we witnessed political opportunism at its worst, with the lives of the world’s most vulnerable people at stake,” she said, adding that fossil fuel interests are trying to block progress. I accused him of being there.
“We are leaving with a small fraction of the funding that countries most vulnerable to climate change urgently need,” she said. “While not enough, this is a start and we have made clear that there must be fewer obstacles to getting these funds to those who need them most. … Countries seem to have forgotten why we are all here: to save lives.”
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The urgency to accelerate climate change aid was underscored by the unprecedented sixth consecutive tropical storm that hit the Philippines during the Baku talks, killing at least 171 people.
Mary Lyons, an Ojibwa elder and spiritual advisor from Minnesota who participated in COP29, said the world will only progress if people rethink their fundamental concepts of their relationship to nature and each other. He said it would be difficult.
“As a spiritual leader, I have to say that the four elements have no prejudice against anyone or anything on Earth,” she said.
“We all have one address. It’s called Mother Earth. We all went into water when we were born. We breathed air for the first time. We felt the warmth of the fire. We are planted in the earth and nourished by the earth.
“So one of the things that we have to start thinking about seriously is racism, segregation, and this play of people with people, property with property, economy with economy,” she said. “I’ll never accept that. You have to be the one standing in the middle, keeping your balance, and saying, ‘This is not good.'”
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bob berwin
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Bob Barwin is an Austria-based reporter who has covered climate science and international climate policy for more than a decade. Previously, he reported on the environment, endangered species, and public lands for several Colorado newspapers, and also worked as editor and associate editor for a community newspaper in the Colorado Rockies.
