As climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan run overtime after the latest text for the New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance was received with outrage, civil society groups urged the governments of climate-vulnerable countries not to accept a bad deal.
The text that landed on the last scheduled day of the 29th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) was called ‘insulting’ by developing country parties and civil society alike, with language reflecting a goal of a measly $250 billion annually, with no assurance that financing will come in a manner that averts more debt for developing nations. The text also gravely fails to reflect the responsibility of historical polluters to deliver this finance.
“Year in and out, climate-vulnerable communities in the Philippines and across the world lose their lives and loved ones from intensifying impacts of the climate crisis. The text that came out yesterday is cruel, placing a price tag of merely $250 billion on this suffering. In contrast, oil and gas companies in the US alone and in 2023 alone earned $244 billion,” said Bishop Gerry Alminaza of Caritas Philippines.
“If we allow world leaders to walk away with such a deal, we allow them to deliver our people to death and destruction. We urge our government in the Philippines and in developing nations to stand up and fight for the poor and vulnerable for an ambitious and just finance goal. Before it’s too late, developed countries, highly responsible for polluting our Mother Earth, must assume their moral responsibility to make reparation for the loss and damage they have caused. It is high time that we make money work not for the destruction of our Common Home, but for its protection and the dignity of human life. Delivering trillions, not billions, will convey their solidarity with developing countries and will allow them to begin delivering on their accountabilities,” Alminaza said.
Overnight, over 300 civil society groups on the ground at COP29 wrote to parties in G77+China urging them to reject the latest text and push for the $1.3 trillion goal in grants, not loans, from developed countries, asking that “If nothing sufficiently strong is forthcoming at this COP we urge you to walk away from the table to fight another day, and we will fight the same fight.”
“Climate chaos is now our reality in the Philippines in Southeast Asia, with supertyphoons and other impacts breaking record after record. The text we received yesterday is atrocious. We know that there is no lack of finance that developed countries should be able to deliver: since the Paris Agreement, Global Northern governments and financial institutions continued to fuel both gas expansion in Southeast Asia even as the region’s domestic ambition and financing for renewable energy grew tremendously,” said Gerry Arances Executive Director of think-tank Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development, citing a recent CEED analysis on the energy and financing landscape of the region.
“Developing countries have been calling for a goal that comes in trillions, not billions, and in the form of grants and not debts. We will continue holding the line. Anything less is perpetuation of the Global North’s injustices,” Arances added.
As of writing, delegates and observers in Baku are waiting on a new iteration of texts and a plenary to be convened by the presidency.
