AT RECENT CLIMATE SUMMIT
World leaders at the 29th United Nations Climate Summit (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, have reached a new climate finance deal. After about two weeks of intense deliberations and negotiations, wealthy nations have pledged to provide $300bn annually to poorer countries to help them address climate change challenges. The COP29 President, Mukhtar Babayev, announced the deal during Sunday’s closing plenary of the summit in Baku.
“The Baku Finance Goal represents the best possible deal we could reach. In a year of geopolitical fragmentation, people doubted that Azerbaijan could deliver. They doubted that everyone could agree. They were wrong on both counts,” he said.
The framework establishes a new global objective to mobilise $1.3tn in climate finance directed toward developing nations by 2035, representing a substantial increase in agreed funding to support climate adaptation and mitigation efforts. But there are concerns that the finance may not be enough for the gargantuan challenges created by climate change.
For instance, reacting to the deal, the Nigerian delegation to COP29 described it as inadequate. Speaking on the issue, Nigeria’s focal person and Director General of the National Council on Climate Change (NCCC), Nkiruka Maduekwe, described the new climate finance goal as “unrealistic” and an insult to the spirit and letters of the UN framework convention on climate change.
“We do not accept this. You expect us to have ambitious NDCs. The NCQG was supposed to enable us to have realistic finance goals. $300 billion is unrealistic. Let us tell ourselves the truth.
“It is going to be a disservice to me, my country and women, the rural women, the women who are in the developing countries; not just the women [but] everybody, if we walk back home with $300 [billion USD] and we say that the developed countries are taking the lead. This is an insult to what the convention says,” she said.
Also speaking, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he had hoped for a more ambitious outcome but called on parties to unite and honour the commitment.
“It must be honoured in full and on time. Commitments must quickly become cash. All countries must come together to ensure the top-end of this new goal is met,” he said.