ASIATODAY.ID, BAKU – A new draft finance deal delivered to harried negotiators in Baku on Friday – the final scheduled day for the UN climate talks that have been under way for the past two weeks – proposes rich countries commit $250 billion a year to help vulnerable nations cope with our warming planet and to accelerate the global switch to renewable energy.
The new draft outcome text, which will surely push this round of talks into the weekend, called for the overall climate financing goal to reach “at least $1.3 trillion by 2035”, but left out specifics – grants, loans, or from the private sector – on how these funds will be raised.
Delegations in Baku are expected to keep negotiating on several key issues: (1) Specifics about the role of developed countries in providing this new finance. (2) A global goal on a just transition. (3) Clear way forward on both adaptation and mitigation.
The conference plenary is expected to reconvene on Saturday to work towards a final agreement.
‘A slap in the face’
Civil society climate and environment advocates were quick to react to this latest draft.
Some expressed their anger and disappointment at the draft by taping pieces of paper on their faces or foreheads with “Pay up!” written on them.
Kelly Stone from ActionAid International Foundation explained to UN News, “I am wearing this because we are calling on Global North countries to pay up for climate finance and the debt they owe to the Global South.”
Namrata Chowdhary from the 350.org, an international environmental organization, stated: “I can say it is disappointing [at] the very least.”
“It is a slap. It is an insult. It is shocking that we are at this state now. The rich countries are basically gambling with the lives of people in the developing nations and small islands,” she said.
Lidy Nacpil from Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development also expressed her disappointment. She also pointed out that “climate finance should not come in the form of loans because this will add to the debt burden”.
“One of the issues that is preventing the Global South from undertaking urgent climate actions and also from providing our people with the essential services we need is the debt burden,” she told UN News.
Jacobo Ocharan of Climate Action Network International said: “We urge all developing countries to have the courage in the negotiations to keep pushing, because this deal is terrible. We keep pushing on the idea that no deal is better than a bad deal.”
What’s at stake
COP29, formally the 29th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), has been dubbed, the ‘climate finance COP’ because parties are expected to establish a new global climate finance target.
This target, or new collective quantified goal (NCQG), is seen as one of the summit’s main deliverables. It will replace the existing $100 billion goal that is due to expire in 2025.
Climate experts have pegged the new annual funding goal at between $1 trillion and $1.3 trillion, which would assist vulnerable nations to deal with loss and damage from climate change and to adapt to that change, including building out their own clean-energy systems.
Last week, in a move to support a new funding target, the World Bank Group and other multilateral development banks announced a significant boost in climate finance for low- and middle- income countries. This would reach $120 billion a year by 2030 with another $65 billion mobilised from the private sector, and a natural projection that would increase these values for 2035. (UN News)
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