At COP29 today the United States announced that it scaled up U.S. support for vulnerable developing countries to over $3 billion in FY23 to implement the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE). At the COP 29 U.S. Center today, speakers representing U.S. federal and local government, private sector, and civil society discussed how they are working to build a more climate-resilient world.
But that isn’t enough. The devastating impacts including extreme heat, stronger storms, and unprecedented weather events to lives and livelihoods become more and more evident every day. As we work to reduce pollution and limit the warming that intensifies these weather events, we must also work urgently to save lives and adapt to the impacts of a rapidly warming planet. As negotiators have been working in closed door meetings at COP29 on a climate finance deal in hopes of doing just that, the spotlight has been on the diplomatic turmoil.
People of faith including representatives from ACT Alliance, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Council of Churches â from a variety of religions rally through a skit entitled ‘Climate Finance Unwrapped’ for just climate financing mechanisms to be established at the United Nations climate summit COP29 taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan, as the world grapples with the challenge of addressing climate change. Photo: LWF/Albin Hillert
In a decision that one Argentinian activist is calling “unprecedented”, the Argentinian negotiating team was ordered by the President Javier Milei to pack up and leave on Wednesday, just three days into the two-week COP29 summit in Azerbaijan. No specific reason was given for their departure, though President Milei has made no secret that he is a sceptic of climate change. [1]
France’s Environment Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher said on Wednesday she would not travel to Baku after Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev accused Paris of colonial “crimes” and “human rights violations” in its overseas territories.[2] President Aliyev also raised concerns from many civil society members by insisting natural resources including carbon-emitting fossil fuels were a “gift from God”.
Progress on the new climate finance deal, named as one of the key goals of the COP29 talks is proving painfully slow, with the major sticking point being how much developed countries should pay to help poorer nations adapt to climate change and transition away from fossil fuels.
Wealthier nations, concerned about inflation and struggling economies at home, are reluctant to increase the US$100 billion a year already committed. But developing countries say they need at least US$1 trillion to defend against the ravages of climate change and meet commitments to reach net-zero emissions. Negotiators are working hard to wrestle a draft text into a reasonable form before ministers arrive in a few days to start nailing down a deal. The European Union’s lead negotiator Jacob Werksman said he was “very worried” about the slow process.[3]
And he isn’t alone in those worries.
The rallying call at the Leaders’ Summit of the Small Island Developing States [SIDS] on Climate Change, jointly convened by the COP29 Presidency and Commonwealth Secretariat, in Baku today, echoed that the international community must keep promises to provide greater financial support to small island countries at the frontline of climate change.
The summit was reminded again, that despite contributing the least to the climate crisis, SIDS are grappling with a relentless assault in terms of impacts from the climate crisis, which has destroyed decades of development and infrastructure gains and often burden SIDS with mounting debt. [4]
Among those attending the summit were António Guterres, the UN Secretary-General and HE Dickon Mitchell, Prime Minister of Grenada.
Addressing the gathering, Prime Minister of Grenada, Dickon Mitchell stated that: “SIDS have repaid in debt financing 18 times more than they have received in climate financing.” He added: “The debt we pay to survive is unsustainable in financial terms and in terms of livelihoods and lives. Our people want to hear that the Loss and Damage Fund has money, its accessible, it is for SIDS, it is based in a SIDS country, it is controlled by SIDS and will be used for all the loss and damage we suffer year in and out.”[5]
Bilateral Meetings with UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Climate Finance Day (Photo: UN Climate Change – Kiara Worth)
The UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, stated the need to reform the international financial architecture in terms of climate finance as soon as possible so vulnerable countries can access funds and fund mitigation and adaptation measures. He encouraged the audience that it is possible. “We must convert this anger to action. Together we can win.”[6]
The Grenadian Prime Minister Mitchell posed the question, the world is asking: “If we can find trillions of dollars for wars, why can’t we find trillions of dollars for climate finance?”[7]
[1] https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/3286627/cop29-host-tries-calm-waters-after-diplomatic-turmoil
[2] ibid
[3] ibid
[4] https://thecommonwealth.org/news/cop29/Climate-finance%20key%20to%20COP29-success-say-small-island-leaders
[5] ibid
[6] ibid
[7] ibid