The poorest countries vulnerable to climate change unleashed their anger on Saturday against the Azerbaijani presidency of the UN conference in Baku, believing that they had not been heard on their financial needs and promising to continue fighting over time. .
After more than 24 hours of delay, the closing session of COP29 finally began on Saturday evening, with a call from the president of the conference, Mukhtar Babaev, for countries to overcome their “divisions”.
This session could last part of the night and include suspensions.
The origin of the anger is the final draft text on climate finance, presented on Saturday behind closed doors by the organizers of COP29 to the countries. Delegates from the 45 poorest countries on the planet, mainly African, and around forty small island states slammed the door on a meeting with the presidency.
This had the effect of being re-invited directly at the start of the evening to the second floor of the Baku stadium in the offices of the summit presidency, for new consultations, in which the European Union is participating.
The island states “remain committed to this process, we are here in a spirit of faith in multilateralism”, declared Samoan Cedric Schuster on behalf of the island states of the Pacific, the Caribbean, Africa…
No one backed out of a deal.
“After the difficult experience in Baku, we must achieve a minimum acceptable result in the face of the emergency,” said Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva, who will host the next COP in a year.
But confusion reigns, the financial text still not having been published.
“I am sad, tired, demoralized, I am hungry, I lack sleep, but I keep an ounce of optimism because this cannot become another Copenhagen, we need an agreement,” says Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, the Panama negotiator who became a figure of this COP with his hat. The 2009 Danish COP ended in fiasco.
Delegates, observers and journalists prepare for a sleepless night, amid the noise of workers dismantling installations and delegations' wheeled suitcases.
– Draft agreement –
In the draft final agreement, Western countries (Europe, United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, New Zealand) would commit to increasing their commitment of financing for developing countries. But less than the demands of developing countries which demand at least double.
The poorest countries have not yet obtained what they demanded, namely that 30% of climate finance be directed towards them.
The draft agreement attempts to reconcile the demands of developed countries, notably the EU, and those of developing countries, which need more money to adapt to a more destructive climate, heated by all the oil and the coal burned for more than a century by the former.
Western countries have been calling for months to expand the UN list, dating from 1992, of states responsible for this climate finance, believing that China, Singapore and Gulf countries have since become richer.
But these countries seem to have obtained what they wanted: the latest text clearly stipulates that their financial contributions will remain “voluntary”.
– Battle with the Saudis –
Saudi Arabia and its allies are being singled out for slowing down any point in the final COP29 agreement that targets fossil fuels. The Europeans are trying to negotiate an annual review of efforts to reduce greenhouse gases.
“There was an extraordinary effort by the Saudis so that we obtained nothing,” chokes up a European negotiator.
“We will not let the most vulnerable, in particular the small island states, be defrauded by the few new countries rich in fossil fuels which unfortunately have the support at this stage of the presidency” of Azerbaijan, denounced the German Minister of Foreign Affairs , Annalena Baerbock, without naming a country.
– Western austerity –
More than 350 NGOs called on developing countries on Saturday morning to leave the negotiating table, saying it was better to have no agreement than a bad agreement.
A strategy which contradicts the message of urgency carried by many developing countries. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has other priorities in mind for COP30 in Belem next year, insisted on “not postponing” Baku's task until 2025.
But Europeans are under budgetary and political pressure.
The final draft separately sets the goal of raising $1.3 trillion per year by 2035 for developing countries.
This total would include the contribution of 300 billion from developed countries and other sources of financing (multilateral, private, taxes, other countries of the South, etc.)
– Azerbaijani organization –
Negotiators and NGOs criticize the management of the conference by the Azerbaijanis, who had never organized such a global event.
The COP took place in a heavy atmosphere. President Ilham Aliyev attacked France, an ally of his enemy Armenia. The two countries summoned their respective ambassadors.
Two American parliamentarians say they were harassed in Baku. Several Azerbaijani environmental activists are detained.
Related News :