At COP 29, a financial agreement reached at 300 billion per year, far from the 1000 billion hoped for – Libération

This is very far from the 1,000 billion dollars dreamed of by the countries of the South, and even the 500 billion hoped for. After two weeks of chaotic negotiations, the 197 countries meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan for the 29th United Nations climate conference (COP29) approved, on the night of Saturday November 13 to Sunday November 14, an agreement providing for at least 300 billion dollars of annual funding for developing countries. The latter demanded much more to be able to invest in low-carbon energies, instead of developing their economies by burning oil and coal, and to face the devastating effects of climate change. But they have resigned themselves to accepting this new financial objective for 2035.

More precisely, the European countries, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and New Zealand, designated in 1992 as historically responsible for global warming, are committed, under the aegis of the UN, to increase from 100 billion today to “at least $300 billion” annual loans and grants to developing countries by 2035. The world's leading donor of climate finance, the European Union was not ready to go beyond this amount: many member states are experiencing a deterioration in their public finances and political upheavals. But she believes she contributed to a historic result. “COP29 will go down in history as the start of a new era for climate finance”wants to believe Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra. France, through its Minister of Ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, judged the agreement “disappointing” and “not up to the challenge”.

Joe Biden saw there, “a big step forward” while recognizing that there remained “a lot of work to be done to achieve our climate goals”. And the British Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband, welcomed this deal on the wire, this “critical agreement of the last hour [pris] at the eleventh hour for the climate”. «It's not everything we or others wanted but it's a step forward for all of us.”he added.

“A mountain of work to accomplish”

But the agreement, adopted after exhausting negotiations and greeted by the applause of some delegates, left a bitter taste for many participants. The representative of the 45 poorest countries on the planet judges it thus “not ambitious”. The head of the African group's negotiators, Kenyan Ali Mohamed, regrets a financial commitment “too weak” et “too late” et “too ambiguous in its implementation”. “We leave Baku knowing that we have made progress in some areas, but that what we have achieved is far from what we hoped for,” he detailed. “No country got everything it wanted, and we leave Baku with a mountain of work to do, recognized UN climate chief Simon Stiell. So now is not the time to do laps of honor.”

Azerbaijan's management of climate negotiations is harshly judged. Germany criticized it for its proximity to oil-producing countries, and the poorest states on the planet slammed the door on a meeting on Saturday, believing they had not been fully consulted. Baku was a “painful experience”said Marina Silva, the Minister of the Environment of Brazil, which will host the next COP in a year.

The transition away from fossil fuels has disappeared

Another disappointment, the call for «transition» towards the exit from fossil fuels, the main achievement of the COP28 in Dubai opposed by Saudi Arabia, does not appear explicitly in the main final texts presented in Baku. The call to “make a just, orderly and equitable transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems” had been painfully torn away in 2023. On the other hand, the “transition fuels”the gas industry term for natural gas, deserves explicit mention. The Europeans, who were hoping for more ambition in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, will also not find in the text the creation of a system for annual monitoring of transition efforts away from fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas) that they were hoping for.

This relative failure, or this half-success depending on the interpretations, occurs at the end of a year, 2024, which will likely be the hottest ever measured. And, nine years after the Paris agreement, humanity will still burn more oil, gas and coal than last year. During the two-week summit in Azerbaijan, storms killed in the Philippines and Honduras, Spain continued to lick its wounds after deadly floods, Ecuador declared a national emergency over drought and fires .