Three hundred billion dollars per year, in ten years: developed countries committed Sunday in Baku to more financing for poor countries threatened by climate change, at the end of a chaotic UN conference in Azerbaijan whose world in development leaves disappointed.
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The funding promised for 2035 “is too weak, too late and too ambiguous,” lamented Kenyan Ali Mohamed, speaking on behalf of the African group.
His counterpart from Malawi, representing the 45 poorest countries on the planet, Evans Njewa, denounced an “unambitious” agreement.
“The amount proposed is pitifully low. It’s ridiculous,” denounced Indian delegate Chandni Raina, criticizing the Azerbaijani presidency of COP29.
This financial commitment from European countries, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and New Zealand, under the auspices of the UN, is to increase from 100 billion today to “ at least 300 billion dollars” annually by 2035 their loans and donations to developing countries.
Money to adapt to floods, heatwaves and droughts. But also to invest in low-carbon energies instead of developing their economies by burning coal and oil, as Western countries have done for more than a century.
The small island states regretted “the lack of will to respond to the needs of vulnerable developing countries”, through the voice of Samoan Cedric Schuster, once again disappointed with a multilateral process to which he nevertheless said he was attached.
Westerners, including the Europeans, the world’s leading donors of climate finance, were not ready to go beyond this amount, in a period of budgetary tightening and political upheaval. But believe they have contributed to a historic result.
The European commissioner in charge of climate negotiations, Wopke Hoekstra, however, expressed regret: the Europeans would have “liked to see more ambition” on the reduction of greenhouse gases in all countries. Postponing this debate until next year “is a failure,” said Kévin Magron, French climate ambassador.
Standoff over fossils
The unpublished background of this 29e COP is a year 2024 is likely to be the hottest ever measured. And, nine years after the Paris agreement, humanity will still burn more oil, gas and coal than last year.
In two weeks of meetings in Azerbaijan, storms killed Philippines in Honduras, Spain licks its wounds after deadly floods, Ecuador declared a national emergency because of drought and fires.
The disappointment had been anticipated for several days, which did not mitigate the reactions of NGOs, most of which were very negative.
“The result offers false hope to those already bearing the brunt of climate disasters,” said Harjeet Singh, campaigner for the Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative.
The Baku agreement “is not as ambitious as the moment demands,” said Laurence Tubiana, architect of the Paris agreement, who nevertheless noted a reason for satisfaction: “multilateralism is alive and more necessary than ever.
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