Baku — The opening of COP29 on Monday carried an urgent message: the world stands at a crossroads.
Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), called on nations to unite, warning the planet cannot afford further delays.
“This crisis is affecting every single individual in the world in one way or another,” he said.
The global climate conference started in Baku, Azerbaijan, with climate finance as a central focus.
The conference has attracted tens of thousands of delegates from around the world, including government officials, climate experts, and representatives from various organisations.
The primary objective is to establish a new global climate finance goal to support developing countries in mitigating and adapting to climate change impacts.
Stiell stressed that failure to act would lead to increased grocery and energy costs, economic competitiveness losses, and further global instability. “That’s why here in Baku, we must agree on a new global climate finance goal.”
He argued that climate finance should not be seen as charity but as a self-interest imperative for all nations, including the wealthiest.
“If at least two-thirds of the world’s nations cannot afford to cut emissions quickly, then every nation pays a brutal price,” he said.
Though not explicitly stated, the backdrop of the conference was shadowed by news of Donald Trump’s re-election as US president, which has raised fears of America backtracking on climate commitments.
Though the new president-elect has yet to release an official statement on climate since his election, his history and recent campaign rhetoric make his stance clear: climate change is not a priority.
There are fears he may not only pull out of the 2015 Paris Agreement again, as he did during his first term, but also withdraw from the UNFCCC. This could severely destabilise international climate negotiations and impact the funding needed for developing economies, like SA.
There was hope that the US would galvanise other nations, including China, into action to achieve climate goals and assist developing economies, like SA, in reaching their targets.
It’s not a good look if the world’s largest economy and second-largest emitter fails to step up.
— Alden Meyer, senior associate at E3G
“It’s not a good look if the world’s largest economy and second-largest emitter fails to step up,” Alden Meyer, senior associate at E3G, a climate change think-tank operating from Washington said at a press briefing on Monday.
That said, the US has not been doing enough. “The silver lining in all this, and it’s bad news overall, is the US has not been pulling its weight to meet its fair share of climate finance at all under either Republican or Democratic presidents.”
Alex Scott, from Climate Diplomacy at ECCO, concurred: “The US has been leaving a gap for a while, and it’s not OK.”
However, the US will be missed in multilateral leadership, Meyer says. For global climate efforts to succeed, the world’s largest economies must lead the way, both in funding and driving the transition to renewable energy.
“I think what will be really missed is if the US pulls back from multilateral leadership in the World Bank, the IMF, working with Europe, with Japan, with other countries to try to scale up multilateral climate finance. That leadership will be sorely missed.”
The World Bank plays a crucial role in financing renewable energy projects and the US is its largest shareholder.
He says it’s going to be up to Europe, Japan, Norway, Canada and others to step up and fill the gap left by the US.
“We’re nearly at the 10-year mark since the Paris Agreement, and this COP is crucial for future climate finance and energy transitions,” Scott said.
The challenge is especially acute for Africa. Joab Okanda, a climate policy expert, painted a stark picture of the continent’s needs. “Africa is demanding $1.3-trillion to meet urgent climate needs. We need a finance package that won’t add to our debt burden but genuinely addresses adaptation and resilience.”
Scott stressed that European countries — even some of the conservative governments — seems to have risen to the challenge, but they cannot entirely replace the US.
“Italy pledged $100m to the Loss and Damage Fund, but it’s still a drop in the ocean compared to what’s needed,” Scott said.
She added that climate financing and multilateral co-operation were not optional but essential for global economic and security interests.
Meyer said he thinks it is the responsibility of the US civil society, community, philanthropy and others to do some work to change the politics of this issue in the US.
“It’s ridiculous that one of the top priorities of one of our two major parties in Congress was to block President Biden’s effort to ramp up climate finance.
“This is in America’s self-interest, our security interest, our environmental interest, our economic interest, to support developing countries in this journey, both on mitigation and on resilience and adaptation.”
• Business Day’s COP29 attendance, including flights and accommodation, has been made possible by the Meliore Foundation, a philanthropic organisation specialising in global communication.
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