COP29 | A “humiliating” battle to obtain climate money

(Baku) The battle of developing countries to obtain money for the climate is “humiliating”, lamented the interim leader of Bangladesh on Wednesday at COP29, also marked by a resurgence of tensions between France and the host country, Azerbaijan.

“It is very humiliating for nations to come and ask for money to repair […] the problem that others have caused for them,” said Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus in Baku where the annual UN climate conference is taking place.

The search for a new financial objective to help developing countries develop renewable energies or resist natural disasters is the central issue in Baku.

Westerners appear reluctant to spend more in times of austerity, calling for the mobilization of the private sector – a “wishful wish” for NGOs.

Most developing countries are in favor of an annual commitment from rich countries of at least 1,300 billion dollars (compared to around a hundred today), and are calling for more grants rather than loans.

Negotiators released a new draft agreement on financing, with a range of options, but leaving sticking points unresolved. A new working text could be published as early as Thursday.

These usually lively but diplomatic talks are not immune to geopolitical tensions unrelated to the fight against global warming.

The French Minister for Ecological Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher announced from Paris that she would not go to COP29 in Baku after “unacceptable” attacks by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev.

He had earlier denounced the “crimes” of “President Macron’s regime” in the French overseas territories. Emmanuel Macron did not come to the summit at the start of COP29.

“Realistic”

On the climate front, Brazil presented its new climate plan, one of the countries to engage more in climate diplomacy threatened with breakdown in the face of the return of Donald Trump and austerity in Europe.

The Brazilian Minister of the Environment submitted Wednesday in Baku to the head of the UN Climate the new road map of her country for 2035, a mandatory document within the framework of the Paris agreement and which is still few of States have formally revealed.

But several Western leaders, traumatized by inflation, public deficits and the social movements of recent years, have for their part openly declared that they want to press the brake rather than the accelerator.

The head of the Italian government, Giorgia Meloni, assured that there was “no single alternative” to fossil fuels, that it was necessary to have a “realistic” vision.

“We cannot rush into industrial oblivion in the name of carbon neutrality,” declared Greek conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

What are we doing here?

These debates are being held in the year that will likely be the hottest ever measured, and will once again break a record for CO emissions.₂generated by the combustion of coal, oil and gas, according to a new estimate from scientists at the Global Carbon Project.

This study adds that the world must aim for net zero CO emissions₂ by the end of the 2030s to hope to contain global warming to 1.5°C, compared to the end of the 19^e century. That is, much earlier than 2050, the horizon currently envisaged by around a hundred countries.

“This is what the presidency has been promoting since the beginning of the year: the time window is narrowing and we must act urgently,” reacted to AFP Ialtchine Rafiev, Azerbaijan’s main negotiator for the COP29.

For him, “it is still possible to keep 1.5°C within reach” and an agreement on climate finance by November 22 “will undoubtedly pave the way”.

The general atmosphere of doubt was well summed up by the Prime Minister of a small country usually discreet in this forum, Albania.

“Life continues with its old habits,” lamented Edi Rama. “What the hell are we doing in this assembly, if again and again, there is no common political will to unite and move from words to action? »