COP29 closes in on a minimum agreement on climate financing amid chaos to save the summit

The COP29 climate summit, after a chaotic extension, has come to a close, an agreement that saves the face of climate diplomacy: rich countries have agreed to contribute 300 billion annually from 2035 to help poorer countries cut CO2 emissions And adapt to the climate crisis. They are Rs 50,000 million more than the initial offer. The text assumes that these countries need $1.3 trillion annually.

The summit has threatened ruin this Saturday. Island states such as the Marshall Islands and the Group of Least Developed Countries left the negotiating table when they noted that the amount of that fund had not changed from the first version. increase of the same amount And the inclusion of a vague mention that a plan will be developed to reach $1.3 trillion: They have called it 1.3 trillion roadmapIn that sheet, they express, “Transfers and instruments that do not generate more debt,” should be one of the capital concerns of the countries of the Global South.

How close the abyss had come was underlined by the long applause in the plenary session. However, India has completely rejected this way of adopting the agreement.

Irene Rubiera, from the legal sector of Ecologistas en Acion, believes that “the step we have seen in the latest text amount This is another example of the complete lack of respect for economics, this process, multilateralism and international climate law as a whole. The COP is the only legal space in which the South and those most affected can look to the North and demand responsibilities and responses for their actions.”

Other important texts of this agreement, which talk about cutting fossil fuel emissions (mitigation), ultimately did not include the taboo words again in the COP: fossil fuels. The guidelines to implement last year’s findings on how the Paris Agreement is going (global stocktaking) “reaffirm” what was achieved in Dubai, (transition away from fossil fuels), but oil, coal Or not to mention gas: the fuel that causes most CO2 emissions, i.e. the cause of climate change.

These guidelines should guide new national climate plans that countries must submit next year. These plans are commitments that states make to meet the objective of limiting global warming to less than 2ºC,

During the two weeks in Baku the Saudi Arabian delegation has made it clear that they will not accept any mention of fossil fuels. He has been called the “wrecking ball” of negotiations at the COP. The Azeri President of the host country Ilham Aliyev himself made the tone of the first day of the summit very clear: in his opening speech he called these fuels “God’s gift.”

The COP was due to end this Friday, but President Babayev’s compromise proposals sparked a flood of complaints. Several delegations from poorer states asked whether the text was “a joke”. in his opinion amount 250 billion euros by 2030 was completely inadequate, taking into account that economic experts have calculated that they need a trillion dollars.

But rich countries don’t really like to do direct money transfers because they like to have some control over where the money is going. Valvanera Ulargui, director of the Spanish Climate Change Office, made this point when she said that “public money is useful for developing countries and our commitment is to increase that contribution”, that is, to use it in the deployment of renewable energy against fossil goes. Fuel or adapt programs to the impacts of climate change.

This has been the push and pull of the entire summit. And this is the result.