The possibility of an agreement between rich countries and developing countries around an amount to encourage the development of low-carbon energies is fading during the climate conference. “We cannot work” on the agreement proposed by Azerbaijan, “which takes us back several months,” regrets Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
France wants to put pressure on Azerbaijan in the middle of COP 29 in Baku this Thursday, November 21. The publication of the project, which should serve as a basis for negotiation around the financial aid figure at COP29, aroused the anger of Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
“The draft text that was released last night by the presidency of COP29 on the climate finance objective is unacceptable. We cannot work on this basis, which takes us back several months,” writes the Minister of Finance. Ecological transition.
The EU, the world's leading contributor to climate finance
The draft published Thursday morning by the Azerbaijani presidency of the UN conference must expose divisions and satisfy no one, particularly European countries.
The EU is at the center of the game at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29), as the world's largest contributor to climate finance, and thanks to the lines of communication it maintains with both China and vulnerable countries, particularly small island states.
A 10-page provisional text was published by the presidency in the early hours, attempting to summarize positions on the new financial aid target that the conference is supposed to set. And it is clear that they are still very far away, at least on paper. For example, it is impossible to find any precise amount.
“An insult to millions of people on the climate change front”
The absence of figures for rich countries “is an insult to the millions of people on the climate change front,” responded Jasper Inventor, head of the Greenpeace International delegation in Baku.
Kenyan Ali Mohamed, who represents African countries, insists on this absence of figures: “We need developed countries to urgently commit to this point.”
Developed countries today provide around a hundred billion dollars in financial aid to developing countries so that they can adapt to climate change and invest in low-carbon energy. COP29 must set a new aid objective until 2030 or 2035.
Pannier-Runacher calls for “realistic figures”
The first option of the text published Thursday reflects the demands of developing countries. Without giving a precise figure, she asks that “X” thousand billion dollars per year be provided by the public money of the rich countries currently obliged to contribute according to UN texts – mainly Europe, the United States and Japan – and by associated private funds, “over the period 2025-2035”.
That is much more than the 100 billion that rich countries had committed to providing over the period 2020-2025. An unrealistic option for rich countries, especially in times of budgetary tightening.
“France and the European Union want a text that allocates funding to the most vulnerable countries, recognizes the potential of innovative financing and proposes ambitious but realistic figures,” criticizes Agnès Pannier-Runacher on X.
Going home 'with an equal level of discontent'
Especially since this option does not provide for any expansion of the list of contributors to countries like China, Singapore or Qatar.
The second option summarizes the point of view of rich countries: the financial objective would be “an increase in global finance for climate action” to “X” trillion dollars per year “by 2035”, without specifying the share of developed countries.
The initiative now falls to the Azerbaijani presidency of the conference.
It will have to find the right balance to submit to the nearly 200 countries of the COP an acceptable text, and which allows everyone to return home “with an equal level of discontent”, in the words of AFP of the Azerbaijani chief negotiator, Yalchin Rafiev.
