Negotiations at COP29 summit in Baku hit a roadblock on Tuesday, after a delayed start to talks on the first day of the two-weeks-long summit on Monday, with developing countries unanimously rejecting a draft of the new collective quantified goal (NCQG) and seeking a new text to be drawn up.
Among other things, developing countries have said that the quantum of the fund should be around $1.3 trillion a year, the mobilisation goal should be from developed to developing countries, and that a global investment goal is not a subject of negotiation.
“G77 plus China and the Like Minded Developing Countries want the text having elements as per priorities of the Global South,” a negotiator familiar with the negotiations said.
“We have said that NCQG text must clearly outline what does not count as climate finance under the goal from an accounting perspective, including non-concessional loans and export credits which cannot count towards the progress on the delivery of the goal,” another negotiator said.
The finance goal is a critical issue for the negotiations this year and will determine the future of the Paris Agreement, Rebecca Thissen, Global Advocacy Lead, Climate Action Network International said.
“The climate finance goal, known as the NCQG, is the critical issue of the COP and will determine the future of the Paris Agreement. Therefore we can’t accept to start the negotiations from an unbalanced and inequitable basis. The recent call from the G77 - representing 80% of the world’s population - signalled that some substantive omissions in the text were problematic and needed to be addressed,” said Thissen in a statement.
{{/usCountry}}“The climate finance goal, known as the NCQG, is the critical issue of the COP and will determine the future of the Paris Agreement. Therefore we can’t accept to start the negotiations from an unbalanced and inequitable basis. The recent call from the G77 - representing 80% of the world’s population - signalled that some substantive omissions in the text were problematic and needed to be addressed,” said Thissen in a statement.
{{/usCountry}}“The call for an ambitious quantum in the range of the trillions is essential for the Global South to cope with the climate crisis, the G77 collectively called for 1.3 trillion per annum. The goal needs to cover mitigation, adaptation, as well as Loss and Damage: all are crucial in responding to the climate crisis,” she added.
Meanwhile, COP29 Presidency opened the World Leaders Climate Action Summit, with Ilham Heydar oghlu Aliyev, the President of Azerbaijan, called out what he said were double standards of the western nations.
“Unfortunately, double standards, a habit to lecture other countries and political hypocrisy became kind of modus operandi for some politicians, state-controlled NGOs and fake news media in some Western countries,” Aliyev said.
The Presidency announced that the fund for responding to Loss and Damage is now ready to accept contributions after the signing of key documents.
A ceremony at COP29 in Baku celebrated the signing of the Trustee Agreement and the Secretariat Hosting Agreement between the Board of the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage and the World Bank, as well as the Host Country Agreement between the Fund Board and the Fund Board’s host country, the Republic of the Philippines. The Presidency is working with all countries that have pledged money to complete their contribution agreements as soon as possible, it said.
Welcoming the “significant milestone”, Harjeet Singh, Climate Activist and Global Engagement Director for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, said, “Accelerating the operationalisation of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage is indeed a significant milestone, but let’s be clear: it’s also decades overdue. Rich countries have a responsibility to support vulnerable nations and communities that have long advocated for this Fund. As climate impacts worsen, the cost in lives and livelihoods continues to rise.”
“We cannot afford complacency when hundreds of billions of dollars are needed to help people recover and rebuild from a crisis they did not create. The world is watching, and this Fund must not only meet but set the highest standards of equity, efficiency, participation and accountability to deliver the full support these communities urgently deserve,” he said.
As world leaders took to the podium, the UK announced updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
Making the announcement, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the country aims to reduce all greenhouse gas emissions by at least 81% on 1990 levels by 2035.
“Our goal of 1.5C is aligned with our goals for growth. But a global problem also requires global partnership,” Starmer said.
“There is no national security…There is no economic security…There is no global security…Without climate security,” he said.
Speaking at the summit, IPCC chair Jim Skea warned that limiting warming to 2°C, the upper limit of Paris Agreement, is at risk. “Today, our chances of limiting warming to 1.5 °C are hanging on a very slender thread. The recent UNEP Gap Report concluded that global emissions would need to fall by 7.5 per cent per year through to 2035 to return us to a 1.5 °C pathway. If we delay more ambitious action to 2030, this becomes an unprecedented 15 per cent per year. Even limiting warming to 2 °C is at risk,” Skea said.
“Children born today will not know a world without climate change,” he said.
Meanwhile, the likely, and impending, withdrawal of the US from the Paris Agreement dominated the talks on Tuesday.
“Unsurprisingly, negotiations at #COP29 on the new collective quantified goal on #ClimateFinance touch upon the elephant in the room: how to account for the possibility that countries withdraw from the #ParisAgreement, in the context of which the goal is to be defined?” the Earth Negotiations Bulletin wrote on X.
Possibly in an indirect reference to US’s likely pulling out of Paris Agreement, Simon Stiell, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary said: “These are not easy times, but despair is no strategy, and it’s not warranted. Our process is strong, and it will endure. After all, international cooperation is the only way humanity survives global heating.”
“Worsening climate impacts will put inflation on steroids unless every country can take bolder climate action. Let’s learn the lessons from the pandemic – when billions suffered because we didn’t take the collective action fast enough when supply chains were smashed. Let’s not make that mistake again. Climate finance is global inflation insurance,” Stiell said.