The Presidency of the 29th UN Climate Change Conference (COP 29) on Friday released a draft financial plan, calling on developed countries to jointly mobilize $250 billion per year by 2035 to support developing countries in addressing climate change. However, the proposed deal faced widespread criticism from various groups for being inadequate and inefficient.
Following the rejection of the first draft, the COP29 Presidency asserted that the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG) requires countries to cooperate to increase the financing to poorer nations for climate action, targeting a minimum of US $1.3 trillion per year by 2035. The new plan would also require developed countries to increase their contribution from $100 billion to $250 billion by 2035 to help developing countries adapt to climate change and fund their transition to clean energy.
The draft drew criticism from climate activists worldwide, who found that the financial commitment from developed countries was inadequate to address the climate crisis affecting developing countries. They also condemned the proposal of transferring climate responsibility from industrialized nations to poorer countries.
Executive director of Climate Action Network International (CANI), Tasneem Essop, described the climate finance plan as a “joke,” stating:
This latest draft text on the New Collective Quantified Goal is not just a joke – it’s an insult to the people in the Global South living on the frontline of the climate crisis. The US$250 billion per year in public finance is peanuts. The Global South must not carry the burden of historic emitters’ failure to act. No deal is better than a bad deal.
Furthermore, Lien Vandamme, senior campaigner for the Center for International Environmental Law, criticized the new financial deal as unjust and highlighted that it reflected the reluctance of wealthier countries to contribute to climate finance. Vandamme added:
The new text entirely denies wealthy countries’ obligations to remedy the massive harm that the climate crisis is causing, providing grants-based finance for loss and damage and full reparation. The removal of all references to human rights is ugly and demonstrates how they are too often used as a bargaining chip in this process, rather than upheld as the obligations they are.
COP 29 has attracted calls from climate activists and human rights groups urging the international community to adhere to international law standards. On November 7, Amnesty International called on the COP29 leaders to integrate climate justice and human rights into their decisions. Additionally, a group of protesters gathered at COP29 in Azerbaijan to express their concerns about the slow progress in negotiations regarding financial commitments for climate action.
COP29 is a yearly UN conference where countries negotiate and develop strategies to address climate change. The main focus of the 2024 summit is climate finance. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) and the Paris Agreement require developed nations to provide financial assistance to developing countries to help them shift to green economies and adapt to extreme weather conditions.
