The presidency of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) announced a final declaration that reflects an annual financial commitment from developed countries of 300 billion dollars (290 billion euros) by 2035 in favor of their partners developing countries after a long night of negotiations.
Funding is intended to help developing countries improve climate protection and adapt to the devastating effects of global warming, such as more frequent droughts, storms and floods.
Currently, industrialized countries have long mobilize more than 100,000 million dollars per year in climate aid. However, according to an independent group of UN experts, the need for external assistance now stands at around $1 trillion per year until 2030, and even 1.3 trillion dollars by 2035.
In the preceding days, environmental organizations had criticized the progress of the negotiations and notably believed that the countries would need between $5 and $6.9 trillion by 2030 be able to meet their climate commitments, or “around a billion per year”, as explained by groups such as Ecodes, Ecologistas en Acción, Greenpeace, Juventud por el Clima, Observatori del Deute en la Globalització, SEO/BirdLife and UGT.
Furthermore, the organizations criticized the fact that the prospects for the negotiations did not offer “no kind of guarantee for poor countries”stressing that 130 countries in the South are in a “minimum critical” situation due to the effects of debt, NGOs deplored this Saturday.
Intense diplomacy
According to COP29 itself, this agreement represents “an important step forward” compared to the previous climate finance target of $100 billion, in addition to “will unlock a new wave of global investment.”
The agreement, which will mobilize at least $300 billion annually for developing countries by 2035, represents an increase of $50 billion from the previous draft and is “the result of 48 hours of intense diplomacy on the part of the COP29 presidency.”
“When the world came to Baku, people doubted that Azerbaijan could fulfill its commitments. They doubted that everyone could agree. They were wrong on both counts. With this progress, Baku’s financial goal will turn billions into trillions over the next decade,” COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev said in a statement.
Babayev stressed that this agreement is “the best possible.” “We have forever changed the global financial architecture and we have taken an important step in providing the means necessary to achieve a 1.5°C reduction target (i.e. global warming does not exceed 1.5°C). The years to come will not be easy,” the president said.
The Conference also explained the success of the Loss and Damage Fund, which is operational and ready to distribute money in 2025. “This decision was long awaited by developing countries, including small island statesleast developed countries and African nations,” they stressed.
against
The representative of India and Minister of Finance of the country, Chandni Rainawas one of the most critical voices of the agreement, to which opposed it, calling it “unfair” and exclude nations.
“I regret to say that this document is nothing more than an optical illusion. In our view, this will not address the enormity of the challenge we all face,” he said, lamenting that it “indicates a erosion of trust and collaboration on an issue that is a global challenge facing all.
In this line, the Nigerian representative defined the text as a “joke” and an “insult”even if the critics cannot change what is stipulated in the agreement.
The representative of Boliviafor his part, was concerned about the lack of support for developing countries in the face of the climate crisis, regretting that leaving these nations alone in his difficult situation.
Likewise, he warned that we are entering an era in which “each country will focus only on its own well-being”. He stressed that climate aid should not be seen as an act of charity, but rather a “legal obligation”.
Rejection of NGOs
Greenpeace rejected the agreement, deeming it “insufficient”. “Our future and that of our childhood are at stake!” declared Greenpeace manager for COP29, Jasper Inventor.
In a statement, the representative of Greenpeace Spain at COP29, Pedro Zorrilla Mirasinfluenced this “1 billion dollars was requested per year of public funding, and only 300 billion has been approved, which represents a huge and dramatic difference.
“The approved funding target is clearly insufficient given the desperation, the severity of the climate crisis and the comparison with the financing needed for climate action around the world,” he stressed.
Also executive director of Greenpeace Spain, Eva Saldanadefined COP29 as “an absolute disgrace.”
“People are fed up and disillusioned. He is desperate to see what the greed and corruption of a few are leading us to. In recent weeks we have suffered a DANA in Spain that has shown us the worst face of the climate crisis in the form of extreme weather events that are literally devastating fields, cities, homes and human lives,” he said. -he denounced.
Other NGOs, such as The WWF also criticized the agreement. “The COP29 financing agreement is disappointing, inadequate and a step backwards,” published the WWF on the social network X account.
“A big blow for climate actionbut this must not paralyze the solutions the world desperately needs. We must invest in our collective future,” they reiterated.
Praise in the West
However, the President of the United States, Joe Bidenapplauded the “historic result” of COP29 and encouraged “all countries” to “take a step forward” to achieve “the ambitious international climate finance target for 2035”.
“Today, at COP29, thanks in part to the tireless efforts of a strong American delegationthe world has reached agreement on another historic outcome. “In Baku, the United States challenged countries to make an urgent decision: either condemn vulnerable communities to increasingly catastrophic climate disasters, or act and put us all on the path to a better future.” , he said in a press release. statement shared by the White House.
Other nations, like Germany also celebrated the text and appealed to their responsibility towards developing countries: “We know that our decisions today they will not be enough on their own to satisfy all needs”, declared the German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock.
Baerbock said the agreement’s figures can only be a starting point and assured participants that Germany would “comply with it.” “Because we have learned from our past mistakes “We cannot sign a check without funds – it is also a question of trust,” he added.
In the same way, the Wopke Hoekstra, European Commissioner for Climate Actionwelcomed the agreement: “And those who believe in a better world have won,” he said, promising that “A new era is dawning in financing the fight against climate change” in which the European Union will continue to play a leading role.
The Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterresfor his part, applauded the agreement reached and presented it as a “basis” on which to continue moving forwardalthough he acknowledged that his expectations were more ambitious.
These statements come after the presidency of COP19 announced a final statement which reflects an annual financial commitment from developed countries of $300 billion (290 billion euros) by 2035 to their developing partners after a long night of negotiations.
Previously, the participants in this COP29, which is being held in Baku (Azerbaijan), had closed this Saturday a agreement on the rules of a global market for the purchase and sale of carbon credits reduce greenhouse gas emissions after nine years of negotiations. A question on which no consensus had been found since the approval of the Paris Agreement in 2015, against a backdrop of immense doubts about the reliability of this system.
