Still no number for new climate finance goal as COP29 reaches final hours

MANILA, Philippines – The draft negotiating text on the new climate finance goal was released a day before the United Nations Climate Change Conference or COP29 is set to wrap up on Friday, November 22, but without the long-awaited number that has deeply divided countries in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The 10-page document came out on Thursday morning, November 21, Manila time, as parties continued to negotiate on the top agenda item of the annual climate talks, the new collective quantified goal for climate finance (NCQG).

The text, which arrived several hours behind schedule, showed a disparity between what the poor and rich nations want.

“Right now, developed nations are forcing developing countries to play the game of ‘bad deal or no deal,'” John Leo Algo, a Filipino climate activist present at COP29, told Rappler.

Algo, the national coordinator of Aksyon Klima Pilipinas, said they continue to support the Philippine delegation’s position to include loss and damage in the NCQG.

“Anything short of trillions of dollars in public finance as part of the new global finance goal is a bad deal for the most vulnerable communities, whom these negotiators are supposed to be representing at the table,” added Algo.

There are two options in the current text: a “climate finance of at least [X] trillion of dollars annually,” and a climate finance of “USD [X] trillion per year, by 2035.”

The first option, setting trillions of dollars per year, says the funds should be provided in grants and grant-equivalent terms. The second option is eyeing “all sources of finance.”

African negotiators welcomed the 10-page draft but were wary of the absence of a specific number “despite a common position from the G77 and China on a $1.3-trillion annual mobilization goal,” said Ali Mohamed, Kenya’s special climate envoy.

“This is the reason we are here, identifying a quantified goal, but we are no closer and we need the developed countries to urgently engage on this matter,” Mohamed said in a post.

Mohamed said early on Thursday, as negotiators were still waiting for the text to come out, that they came to Azerbaijan to “negotiate in good faith” and that it would be “too premature to talk about walking out.”

Aside from the number, developing nations are also vigilant about how the money will be given to them and where the money will come from.

Previously, countries agreed to mobilize $100 billion every year to help poor nations deal with the impacts of climate change. This target was not met on its original deadline back in 2020.

“The clock is ticking for developed nations to put forward a finance goal that begins to give justice to the death and devastation suffered by vulnerable peoples of the Global South,” said Gerry Arances of Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development, in a statement.

Racing against time

COP29 observers were not surprised by the content of the draft text per se but that it came out late in a form that leaves much to be desired.

David Waskow of the World Resources Institute said in a press conference on Thursday that some conversations happening behind closed doors were not yet reflected in the text. Still, he said there are still paths forward.

“But the fact that this is the text that the presidency has put out at this point suggests that there is quite a long road to go,” Waskow said.

European Commissioner for Climate Action Wopke Hoekstra was in agreement that as it stands now, the draft text “is clearly unacceptable.” – Rappler.com