COP29: Rich countries fail moral test on new climate finance goal
Michelle Higelin, Executive Director of ActionAid Australia says:
“Rich, high polluting countries have once again failed the moral test on climate action. They have ignored objections from women, Indigenous Peoples, and communities on the frontlines of this crisis around the world to force through a heartless deal that shirks their responsibility to pay the climate finance that is desperately needed.
“The goal that has been gavelled through is shameful and will only deepen gender inequality and poverty. Almost nothing of what frontline communities have been fighting for is in here.
“Low-income countries came to COP29 demanding at least US $1 trillion from rich countries each year to recover and rebuild from relentless disasters like floods and cyclones. They were not playing games – the actual cost of rebuilding after climate disasters is much higher.
“This goal of US $300 billion by 2035 barely covers inflation, let alone the staggering rise in the cost of responding to climate disasters in low-income countries, which has risen well into the trillions of dollars annually. Rich countries have taken a backslide on their obligations, only agreeing to ‘take the lead’ in mobilising climate finance.
“This deal has also further jeopardised the urgent goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees, denying low-income countries the resources they need for the just transition away from fossil fuels.
“Loss and damage finance is nowhere to be seen in this goal, there’s no reference to gender or human rights, and no commitment to public grant-based finance, giving rich countries a green light to scale up loans rather than delivering the crucial grants that frontline communities need and have called for. Low-income countries should not be forced into further debt to pay for a crisis they did not cause, while rich countries and corporations reap the profits.
“We call on Australia to urgently scale up its climate finance – we must not abandon the people who have done the least to cause this crisis.”
Teresa Anderson, the Global Lead on Climate Justice at ActionAid International, says:
“This text is not worth the paper it’s written on.
“Superficially the numbers may look bigger than the previous 100bn climate finance goal. But scratch the surface, and this is packed full of loans. In order to artificially bulk out the numbers with existing funding streams, it is trying to count everything, everywhere all at once, while also shifting the burden onto developing countries.
“This is the result of developed countries refusing flat out to provide any real finance. It means that instead of COP29 greenlighting future climate action, the fight for finance will need to be central to every negotiation ahead.”
Brandon Wu, Director of Policy and Campaigns AAUSA, says:
“This ‘Finance COP’ was supposed to unlock the money needed by developing countries for climate action. Instead, thanks to some appalling intransigence from developed countries, developing countries are getting an arguably worse deal than what they had before. The vaguely worded weak targets in the COP29 outcome provide no real leverage to ensure developed countries pay their fair share.
“Developed countries, led by the United States, have long sought to escape their obligations to reduce emissions and provide finance. Their strategy culminated in Baku, where – in addition to setting a pathetically low goal of $300 billion per year by 2035 – developed countries successfully watered down the language about who exactly should be paying and how.
“Now we will have to fight for every penny to flow from the rich world to poorer countries.”
[ENDS]
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