Two weeks of often intense U.N. climate summit negotiations tottered across the finish line, with rich nations agreeing to a nonbinding commitment that they will aim to provide at least US$300 billion a year by 2035 to help the developing world cope with climate change.
Delegates from nearly 200 nations attending COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, also agreed to rules for a new international market designed to facilitate carbon credit trading. The system lets polluters offset their emissions by purchasing carbon credits emitted by projects targeted at removing or reducing greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said finance has been priority number one at the summit.
"Developing countries swamped by debt, pummeled by disasters, and left behind in the renewables revolution, are in desperate need of funds," he said. "I had hoped for a more ambitious outcome – on both finance and mitigation – to meet the great challenge we face. But this agreement provides a base on which to build."
Developing world calls agreement 'insulting'
Representatives from the developing world, including small island nations whose existence is threatened by rising sea levels, panned the deal-making as inadequate and “insulting.” They had sought more than a US$1 trillion.
The summit’s outcome offers a lifeline to the most vulnerable nations, but only if rich nations quickly put their money where their mouth is.
“Commitments must quickly become cash,” Guterres said. He urged signatories to the agreement to cooperate in meeting the upper end of the new financial goal.
Insurance policy that must be paid
U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell, who a week ago told negotiators to “cut the theatrics” and the “you-first-ism,” was cautiously optimistic about the outcome, calling it “an insurance policy for humanity.”
“But like any insurance policy it only works if the premiums are paid in full and on time,” he said.
Organizers called the summit – officially the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change – the “climate finance summit.”
The funding that they agreed on is targeted to reach at least US$1.3 trillion by 2035 but will mostly depend on private sector investment, and replaces an existing US$100 billion goal that expires next year.
The deal was largely panned by delegations from the developing world. Bolivia and Nigeria said they were deeply disappointed and called the finance target “insultingly low,” while also expressing dismay that the summit failed to build on an agreement from last year’s summit in Dubai where negotiators agreed to “transition away from fossil fuels.”
Chandni Raina, a member of the negotiating team from India – the third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the U.S. – called the new finance goal “paltry.”
“I am sorry to say that we cannot accept it. We seek a much higher ambition from developed countries,” she said.
U.S. unlikely to honor its commitment
U.S. politics and the election of Donald Trump, a climate change denier with an aggressive "America First" agenda, hung over the summit.
It’s unlikely that Trump will honor any U.S. commitment made at COP29. He has already said that he would, for a second time, withdraw the U.S. from the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and keep global warming in check.
Meanwhile, 2024, a year marked by record-breaking hurricanes and sea-surface temperatures as well as historic flooding and drought, is on track to be the hottest year on record.
The COP29 funding pledge will be judged by whether – and how quickly – the additional money reaches the communities that need it most, said Jagan Chapagain, a Nepalese engineer who is secretary general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
"The agreement in Baku creates a pathway, but trust and action go hand in hand," he said. "Communities need delivery and action now."
