After the last hours of tense discussions, an agreement was reached in Baku within the framework of the 29thmy Conference of the Parties (COP29), Saturday, November 23. Developed countries and Southern countries have finally reached a financial agreement“at least 300 billion dollars” per year (around 288 billion euros) to help the most vulnerable countries face the consequences of global warming.
This agreement comes after anger expressed on Saturday by delegates from the 45 most vulnerable countries and about forty small island states, who opposed financial commitments from developed countries, which they considered too weak. The latter then left a meeting with the COP presidency to protest against a draft final text not officially published by the COP29 organizers but presented behind closed doors to countries on Saturday and consulted by Agence France-Presse (AFP). .
In this project, Western countries (Europe, United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, New Zealand) would commit to increasing their funding commitments for developing countries; which is very far from the demands of these countries, which require at least double the amount. “This agreement is an affront”had particularly criticized Marshall Islands envoy Tina Stege. This triggered an emergency summit meeting with the main negotiators of the European Union (EU), the United States, the United Kingdom and the summit presidency, where new proposals were made to them.
Then, in an extraordinary scenario of multilateral diplomacy, the delegates began to negotiate, standing in small groups in the middle of the plenary room, the final formulations, with copies of the text in their hands or leaning over their computers, a journalist from the AFP. Hours later, this agreement was formalized on Saturday afternoon.
No reference to the exit from fossil fuels
Furthermore, the call for ” transition “ towards the exit from fossil fuels, the main achievement of the COP28 in Dubai with the opposition of Saudi Arabia, does not appear explicitly in the main final texts presented in Baku on Sunday. the call to “carry out a fair, orderly and equitable transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems” had been torn from pain in 2023.
A year later, this phrase does not appear explicitly in the main texts presented to COP29 in Azerbaijan, which derives its wealth from the export of hydrocarbons. It is only mentioned by a mention of paragraph 28 of the document adopted last year, which contained the formula word for word.
On the contrary, in a victory for the oil and gas countries, one of the documents published by the Azerbaijani presidency on Sunday, just before a final plenary session, reaffirms that “Transition fuels can play a role in facilitating the energy transition while ensuring energy security”. A direct allusion to fossil natural gas.
Europeans, who expected greater ambition in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, will also not find in the text the creation of an annual monitoring system of transition efforts towards fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas) that they expected.
“The Arab group will not accept any text that targets specific sectors, including fossil fuels”declared this week Albara Tawfiq, a Saudi official who spoke on behalf of the Arab group at the UN on Climate. “There was an extraordinary effort on the part of the Saudis so that we got nothing”a European negotiator said this week.
