- This number will need to rise to $1.3 trillion annually by 2035.
- The expert team says your bill will be higher if you arrive late.
- Political disagreements continue as Argentina exits COP29.
BAKU: Negotiators were warned on Thursday to pay now to help poor countries adapt to climate change or pay later, as experts said poor countries need at least $1 trillion a year by the end of the decade to transition to greener energy and protect against climate conditions. Cruel. .
Money is a key focus of the COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan, and the summit’s success is likely to be judged on whether countries can agree on a new target on how much rich countries, development lenders and the private sector must give each year to UN efforts. Developing countries to finance climate action
The OECD said earlier this year that the previous target of raising $100 billion a year, which expires in 2025, was achieved two years too late in 2022, although most of it was in the form of loans rather than grants, which is… Beneficiary countries say it needs to change. .
Setting the tone at the start of the day, a report by the Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance said the annual target would need to rise to $1.3 trillion a year by 2035, or perhaps more if countries slow down now.
“Any shortfall in investment before 2030 will impose additional pressures on the following years, creating a more difficult and potentially more costly path to achieving climate stability,” the report said.
“The less the world achieves now, the more we will need to invest later.”
Behind the scenes, negotiators are working on draft texts of the agreement, but so far the initial documents published by the UN climate body reflect only a wide range of different views around the table, with little sense of where the talks will end up. .
Some negotiators said the latest text on financing was too long to work on, and they were waiting for a watered-down version before talks could begin to reach an agreement.
Any agreement is likely to be difficult given the reluctance of many Western governments – which have been forced to contribute since the Paris Agreement in 2015 – to provide more unless countries including China agree to join.
The potential withdrawal of the United States from any future financing agreement by incoming President Donald Trump has also cast a shadow over the talks, increasing pressure on delegates to find other ways to secure the necessary funds.
These include global multilateral development banks, such as the World Bank, which are funded by wealthier countries, and which are undergoing reform so they can provide more loans.
A group of the ten largest countries have already signaled a plan to increase their climate finance by about 60% to $120 billion annually by 2030, with at least an additional $65 billion from the private sector.
Efforts to raise new money by taxing polluting sectors such as aviation, fossil fuels, shipping or financial transactions have gained support as more countries said they would consider them, but any agreement is unlikely this time.
Zakir Nureyev, Chairman of the Association of Banks of Azerbaijan, announced on Thursday that the country’s 22 banks have committed to allocating nearly $1.2 billion to finance projects that help Azerbaijan transition to a low-carbon economy.
Farewell
Three days later, the conference has already witnessed a host of diplomatic disputes.
French Climate Minister Agnes Panier-Ronacher on Wednesday canceled her trip to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29), after Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev accused France of committing “crimes” in its overseas territory in the Caribbean.
“The voices of these communities are often brutally suppressed by the regimes in their city,” Aliyev told the conference.
Relations between France and Azerbaijan have long been tense due to Paris’s support for Azerbaijan’s rival, Armenia. This year, Paris accused Baku of interfering and inciting violent unrest in New Caledonia.
“Regardless of any bilateral differences, the COP must be a place where all parties feel free to come and negotiate climate action,” EU Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said in a post on X.
“The Presidency of the Conference of the Parties has a special responsibility to enable and promote this,” he said.
This came after Aliyev used his opening remarks at the conference on Monday to accuse the US and EU of hypocrisy by lecturing countries on climate change while remaining major consumers and producers of fossil fuels.
Meanwhile, Argentina’s government has withdrawn its negotiators from the COP29 talks, two diplomats who attended the event said. ReutersAlthough neither of them knew the reason for the decision.
The Argentine embassy in Baku declined to comment.
Argentine President Javier Miley had previously described global warming as a hoax.