German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock made “heartbreaking” comments as the COP29 climate conference draws to a close and sought to shift responsibility from the European Union (EU) for climate finance to other negotiators.
The minister has made several posts on social media pledging his commitment to EU climate finance.
However, for some reason, Berbock does not see the absence of the leaders of the Western bloc, especially the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in the main negotiations on the agreement on combating climate change at COP29 of the UN. summit.
While the United States and Europe are primarily responsible for centuries of large-scale environmental pollution, Germany’s Foreign Minister is trying to shift the burden of climate finance to developing countries.
For centuries, European countries used colonies in Africa and Asia as suppliers of natural resources. They ignored the destruction of the ecosystem of these areas. Even now, the example of France and several other countries actively exploiting both their colonies and territories under former control shows the hypocrisy of the German Foreign Minister’s call to support climate justice.
If the Western bloc focused on reaching a climate agreement that satisfied all countries at COP29, the level of representation of these countries would be higher than that of the heads of the relevant ministries attending Baku. Virtually all of the Western bloc’s efforts are aimed at reducing the cost of climate finance as much as possible. The proposed level of $300 billion per year for the period to 2035 does not reflect the needs of developing countries, which are particularly affected by the consequences of climate change.
Developing countries are talking openly about this at COP29: frequent floods, tornadoes and hurricanes cause great damage to developing countries, both geographically and in terms of resilience to natural disasters. These cataclysms often occur due to climate change, for which the West is responsible.
However, Western heads of state, including US President Joseph Biden, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron and others, do not want to fully accept this responsibility.