Tag: COP 29

  • COP29 President blames rich countries for ‘Imperfect’ deal

    COP29 President blames rich countries for ‘Imperfect’ deal

    The tough-fought finance deal at UN climate negotiations was “imperfect”, the Azerbaijan COP29 leadership has admitted, seeking to blame richer countries for an outcome slammed by poorer nations as insulting.

    The contentious deal agreed on Sunday saw wealthy polluters agree to a $300 billion a year pledge to help developing countries reduce emissions and prepare for the increasingly dangerous impacts of a warming world.

    COP29 president Mukhtar Babayev conceded that the deal was insufficient to meet escalating needs and suggested that China would have agreed to stump up more cash had others agreed to budge.

    Writing in Britain’s Guardian newspaper on Monday he said wealthy historical emitters had been “immovable” until very late in the negotiating process.

    “This deal may be imperfect. It does not keep everyone happy. But it is a major step forward from the $100 billion pledged in Paris back in 2015,” he said.

    “It is also the deal that almost didn’t happen.”

    Azerbaijan, an authoritarian oil and gas exporter, came under heavy criticism for its handling of COP29, notably France and Germany.

    Babayev banged the deal through in the early hours of Sunday after nearly two weeks of fractious negotiations that at one point appeared on the verge of collapse.

    As soon as the deal was approved, India, Bolivia, Nigeria and Malawi, speaking on behalf of the 45-strong Least Developed Countries group, took to the floor to denounce it.

    Finance was always going to be a thorny issue for the nearly 200 nations that gathered in a sports stadium in Baku to hammer out a new target by 2035.

    Wealthy countries failed to meet the previous goal on time, causing cratering trust in the UN climate process.

    COP29 did set out a wider target of $1.3 trillion per year by 2035 to help developing nations pay for the energy transition and brace themselves for worsening climate impacts.

    The deal envisages that $300 billion mobilised by wealthy nations will be combined with funds from the private sector and financial institutions like the World Bank to reach this larger sum.

    But Babayev said he agreed with developing nations that “the industrialised world’s contribution was too low and that the private sector contribution was too theoretical”.

    Contrasting China’s involvement in the negotiations with that of wealthy historical emitters like the European Union and United States, he said Beijing was “willing to offer more if others did so too (but the others didn’t)”.

    China, the world’s second-biggest economy and top emitter of greenhouse gases, is considered a developing country in the UN process and is therefore not obliged to pay up, although it does already provide climate funding on its own terms.

    The new text states that developed nations would be “taking the lead” but implies that others could join.

    Babayev said the deal was “not enough”, but would provide a foundation to build on in the lead up to next year’s climate talks in Brazil.

  • Climate finance: what you need to know ahead of COP29

    Climate finance: what you need to know ahead of COP29

    Developing countries will need trillions of dollars in the years ahead to deal with climate change- but exactly how much is needed, and who is going to pay for it?

    These difficult questions will be wrestled at this year’s United Nations climate conference, known as COP29, being hosted in Azerbaijan in November.

    What is climate finance?

    It is the buzzword in this year’s negotiations, but there isn’t one agreed definition of “climate finance”.

    In general terms, it’s money spent in a manner “consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development”, as per phrasing used in the Paris Agreement.

    That includes government or private money channelled into low-carbon investments in clean energy like wind and solar, technology like electric vehicles, or adaptation measures like dikes to hold back rising seas.

    But could a subsidy for a new water-efficient hotel, for example, be included in climate finance?

    The COPs — the annual UN-sponsored climate summits — have never defined it.

    How much is needed?

    The Climate Policy Initiative, a nonprofit research group, estimates that $10 trillion per year in climate finance will be needed between 2030 and 2050.

    This compares to around $1.3 trillion spent in 2021-2022.

    But in the parlance of UN negotiations, climate finance has come to refer to something more specific — the difficulties that developing nations face getting the money they need to adapt to global warming.

    The line between climate finance and conventional development aid is sometimes blurred.

    But experts commissioned by the UN estimate that developing countries, excluding China, will need an estimated $2.4 trillion per year by 2030.

    Who will pay?

    Under a UN accord adopted in 1992, a handful of countries deemed wealthy, industrialised, and the most responsible for global warming were obligated to provide compensation to the rest of the world.

    In 2009, these countries — the United States, the European Union, Japan, the United Kingdom, Canada, Switzerland, Turkey, Norway, Iceland, New Zealand and Australia — committed to paying $100 billion per year by 2020.

    They only achieved this for the first time in 2022. The delay eroded trust and fuelled accusations that rich countries were shirking their responsibility.

    At COP29, nearly 200 nations are expected to agree on a new finance goal beyond 2025 — but deep divisions remain over how much should be paid, and who should pay it.

    India has called for $1 trillion annually, a ten-fold increase in the existing pledge, but countries on the hook to pay it want other major economies to chip in.

    They argue times have changed since 1992. Economies have grown, new powers have emerged, and today the big industrialised nations of the early 1990s represent just 30 percent of historic greenhouse gas emissions.

    In particular, there is a push for China — the world’s largest polluter today — and the Gulf countries to pay, a proposal they do not accept.

    Where will they find the money?

    Today, most climate finance aid goes through development banks or funds co-managed with the countries concerned, such as the Green Climate Fund and the Global Environment Facility.

    Campaigners are very critical of the $100 billion pledge because two-thirds of the money was distributed as loans, often at preferential rates, but seen as compounding debt woes for poorer nations.

    Even revised upwards, it is likely any future commitment will fall well short of what is needed.

    But it is viewed as highly symbolic nonetheless, and crucial to unlocking other sources of money, namely private capital.

    Financial diplomacy also plays out at the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the G20, where hosts Brazil want to craft a global tax on billionaires.

    The idea of new global taxes, for example on aviation or maritime transport, is also supported by France, Kenya and Barbados, with the backing of UN chief Antonio Guterres.

    Redirecting fossil fuel subsidies towards clean energy or wiping the debt of poor countries in exchange for climate investments are also among the options.

    Another proposal, from COP29 host Azerbaijan, has floated asking fossil fuel producers to contribute to a new fund that would channel money to developing countries.

    As for the “loss and damage” fund created at COP28 to support vulnerable nations cope with extreme weather events, it is still far from up and running, with just $661 million pledged so far.