In the fight against climate change, France is particularly dissatisfied with the latest progress obtained this weekend. The agreement reached on Sunday at COP29 is “disappointing” and “not up to the challenges”, regretted the French Minister of Ecological Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
Despite “several advances”, including the tripling of funding for poor countries threatened by climate change, the Baku conference was marked “by real disorganization and a lack of leadership from the presidency” of Azerbaijan, said the minister. “The text on finance was adopted in a climate of confusion and contested by several countries,” she recalled, judging the agreement “not up to the challenges”.
Poor countries denounce “not ambitious” agreement
The 29th United Nations Conference on Climate Change adopted several decisions, the main of which set the obligation for rich countries to finance at least 300 billion dollars per year by 2035 to support the energy transition and adaptation to climate change. climate change in developing countries. But the representative of the 45 poorest countries on the planet, who hoped for much more, denounced an “unambitious” agreement.
Nevertheless, recalled Agnès Pannier-Runacher, “this commitment is in addition to that on tripling renewable energies by 2030 and tripling nuclear capacities by 2050, made in Dubai last year. Added to this is an overall climate financing objective, from all sources, of 1,300 billion dollars, necessary to accelerate the transition to a world without fossil fuels.
Among the “advances” noted by the minister is also “a historic agreement, after nine years of negotiations, on a voluntary carbon market framework, with a desire to guarantee environmental integrity”, which “could allow real development of international carbon credit markets. “On the other hand, on mitigation, no text has been adopted, which sends a very negative message and marks a real failure for this COP29,” she added.
Strong tensions between Paris and Baku
Agnès Pannier-Runacher had canceled her trip to Baku against a backdrop of diplomatic tensions between France and Azerbaijan. “Our hopes are now focused on COP30 which will be chaired by Brazil,” she said.
Our file on the Environment
The minister also assured that France remained “strongly committed to solidarity with developing countries, with 7.2 billion euros in climate financing in 2023, including 2.8 billion for adaptation, or nearly 10% of global finance on adaptation.
