COP29 climate finance deal is disgraceful and unacceptable

“The finance agreement at COP29 means that some of the world’s poorest countries, who are currently facing catastrophic impacts of climate change – a crisis they did not create – have been abandoned by wealthier countries and left to solve this crisis themselves,” Concern’s Climate Resilience Advocacy Advisor Laura Bahlman said.

The $300 billion agreed, known as the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), will replace the existing $100 billion annual goal that is due to end in 2025. This amount is inadequate, she said. “While some negotiators claim this represents a tripling of the previous commitment, when inflation is factored in, it doesn’t even equate to a doubling of the previous sum,” Ms Bahlman said. 

“The language in the agreement is also ambiguous on how this new goal will be met and states a wide range of sources, public, private, bilateral and multilateral and encourages lower income countries to contribute, with no solid commitment to grants based or low- interest rate loans.”

The NCGQ agreement “notes with concern the gap between climate finance flows and needs, particularly for adaptation in developing country Parties; and highlights the adaptation finance needs are estimated at USD $215–387 billion annually, up until 2030.” 

Yet the final agreement fails to put in place any meaningful way in which to meet these needs until 2035, only setting forth a "Baku to Belem Roadmap" towards $1.3 Trillion. 

World leaders also agreed to scale up finance to lower income countries from public and private sources, to reach $1.3 trillion by 2035.  There is nothing binding in this commitment, Ms Bahlman noted. It is also unclear what form investment could take in lower income countries. 

“When higher income countries who have signed on to the convention and are accountable have so far failed to meet the financial targets to date, it is abhorrent to think climate vulnerable countries must now rely on the good faith of parties outside the convention to meet their needs,” she said. 

The COP29 agreement comes in the global context where climate change is now a major driver of hunger around the world. The scale of the devastation currently being caused by climate change is daunting. The 2024 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change found that the increase in drought and heatwave events since 1981–2010 was associated with 151 million more people experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity across 124 countries assessed in 2022.

For more information or interview requests, please contact Nicole Bayes-Fleming at [email protected]