According to analysts, the COP29 presidency presents a “fraud” in the form of a draft

The COP29 presidency followed through on what it promised on Wednesday: “First of all, some texts will be published on Thursday so that the parties have time to review them.” No sooner said than done. This Thursday, Baku came up with several newly printed documents on the main topics of discussion, but did not comply with the second part in which the assurance was given: “We would like to offer bridges,” although the proposed bridges would satisfy neither the rich countries nor the Neither are poor countries. Not to countries, nor to climate organizations.

The document presented by the Azeri presidency has been reduced from 25 pages at the beginning of the week to about 10, including proposals from each group of negotiators and those put on the table in recent days. “It can’t even be considered a draft,” several climate summit attendees said. “This lesson should have been seen days ago; there is still a lot of work to be done,” warns David Waskow, director of the International Climate Initiative at the World Resources Institute. Linda Culture of Strategic Perspectives goes further and calls it “cheating”.

The 61 paragraphs are filled with “calls”, “insists”, “takes notes” and “underlines”, but no numbers appear, they only show different viewpoints and distant positions that span more than three years. We have not come even a centimeter closer to the conversation. Thus, Mukhtar Babayev and his working team offer negotiators two options from sections 22 to 28, with different approaches and concepts, but neither of them includes the figure about whom so much has been talked about in the last 10 days. Has been.

The Azeri proposal includes one option that could unlock billions of dollars (US trillions) sought by developing countries and another that “could allow countries of the Global North to shirk their responsibilities by hiding behind the private sector and ” of the Global South”, say several environmental organizations.

In the words of Tracy Carty, climate policy expert at Greenpeace International, “The countries of the global North appear to have arrived in Baku with a plan and are implementing it: achieve a big, attractive target that covers all financial flows, Including those in the private sector and countries in the Global South, in order to divert attention from their pitiful offers of public financing.

There aren’t even any bridges to cross on the list of who has to pay. These bridges do not even have pillars to bear the weight. Contributor Aadhaar will also have to be filled. Sources consulted by this newspaper assure that the EU is pressing hard on this point in the text. The Community Club wants to include China, South Korea and Persian Gulf countries in the bill.

However, “there are some good elements that, hopefully, can persist,” says David Raifisch, head of future-proof finance at the Germanwatch organization. “This refers to the principle that those who pollute must pay.” According to him, this phrase could force EU-identified countries to contribute to climate financing, although the key that remains up in the air is whether these contributions should be mandatory, as marked in Copenhagen in 2009. In the case of countries, or such as China, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates, voluntary actions are being taken so far.

second concern

“This text leaves negotiators with little room for progress in the coming days, and the path to agreement will have to be quick and honest, with data on the table,” warns Rob Moore, associate director of the E3G think tank. , The famous New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) or collective climate financing target is not the only point to be resolved at COP29.

A draft mitigation text, which stalled in technical talks last week, has also been presented. Maarten de Zeeuw, climate and energy activist for Greenpeace Netherlands, said: “This is outrageous. Fossil fuels are not mentioned in this mitigation draft. “They recognize the urgency, but they cannot agree on the necessary actions, even though many countries are calling for rapid progress in phasing out fossil fuels.”