HQ Team
November 25, 2024: Global representatives at a climate conference signed a $300 billion-a-year deal to finance emissions reductions — a move developing nations say falls way short of their expectations.
The conference, which focused on the contentious issue of financing, relegated the main goal of limiting global emissions to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) to the background even as temperatures soar.
The deal was signed in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, a central Asian country between Russia and Iran, during the world’s most important meeting on climate change, COP29.
COP stands for “Conference of the Parties” – the parties refer to countries that ratified a treaty called the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change). Climate finance refers to all financial flows addressing the causes and consequences of climate change.
The deal agreed to triple finance to developing countries, from a previous goal of $100 billion yearly to $300 billion annually by 2035.
‘Insurance policy’
The 198 nations that signed the UNFCCC treaty will “secure efforts of all actors to work together to scale up finance to developing countries, from public and private sources to $1.3 trillion per year by 2035.”
After two weeks of hard negotiations and several years of preparatory work, the deal formally known as the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG) was the most contentious one.
“This new finance goal is an insurance policy for humanity, amid worsening climate impacts hitting every country,” said Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change.
“But like any insurance policy – it only works – if premiums are paid in full, and on time. Promises must be kept, to protect billions of lives.”
On November 22, developing nations dismissed as “a joke” an offer by rich nations in the EU, the US and Japan of an offer of $250 billion a year from 2035.
G77+China
Two days later, the ‘least developed countries’ group declared the new funds promised were unacceptable, and the Alliance of Small Island States joined the LDC group in walking out of the conference talks.
Nations that comprise Latin America, Africa and Asia, called G77+China, negotiated for a $500 billion deal to replace the $100 billion a year amount.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: “I had hoped for a more ambitious outcome – on both finance and mitigation – to meet the scale of the great challenge we face, but the agreement reached provides a base on which to build.”
Others slammed the $300 billion deal.
“This new text is absolutely heartless,” said Teresa Anderson, the Global Lead on Climate Justice at ActionAid International. “The developed countries most responsible for causing climate destruction have turned their backs on climate-hit nations.”
‘You are on your own’
“The document offers no guarantees of real grant-based finance to those on the front lines. Instead of holding the developed countries that caused the climate crisis accountable, it shifts the burden onto developing countries and the private sector.
“Essentially, this draft text says ‘sorry, you’re on your own,’ to those on the frontlines.”
Kirtana Chandrasekaran, Friends of the Earth International, said ‘COP of climate finance’ turned into a ‘COP of false solutions.’
“The terrible deal on finance destroys the notion of the historical responsibility of the rich big polluting countries and pushes private debt creating finance.
“Global North countries are no longer obligated to provide finance to the Global South as enshrined in the Paris Agreement. COP29 also put a final nail in the coffin, opening the door to the global carbon market and the disastrous impacts on communities and ecosystems.”
India, Nigeria
Indian and Nigerian representatives came down heavily on the COP finance deal. Chandni Raina, India’s representative, told the conference that the South Asian nation could not accept the deal as the funds were inadequate.
“We cannot accept it … the proposed goal will not solve anything for us. [It is] not conducive to climate action that is necessary to the survival of our country,” she said.
Nigeria’s envoy, Nkiruka Maduekwe, described the deal as an “insult”.
The finance agreement at COP29 comes as stronger national climate plans (Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs) become due from all countries next year. These new climate plans must cover all greenhouse gases and all sectors to keep the 1.5°C warming limit within reach.
“No country got everything they wanted, and we leave Baku with a mountain of work to do,” said UN climate official Stiell.
“The many other issues we need to progress may not be headlines, but they are lifelines for billions of people. So this is no time for victory laps, we need to set our sights and redouble our efforts on the road to Belem,” in Brazil.
