A few of the reactions. First up, the headliner from CNN, Updated 9:39 PM EST, Sat November 23, 2024:
The world agreed to a new climate deal at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, Saturday, with wealthy countries pledging to provide $300 billion annually by 2035 to poorer countries to help them cope with the increasingly catastrophic impacts of the climate crisis — a figure many developing countries criticized as vastly insufficient.
The agreement came after more than two weeks of bitter divisions and fractious negotiations, thrown into chaos by boycotts, political spats and open celebrations of fossil fuels.
At points there was fear the talks would implode, as groups representing vulnerable small island states and the least-developed countries walked out of negotiations Saturday. But at 2:40 a.m. local time Sunday, more than 30 hours after deadline, the gavel finally went down on the agreement between nearly 200 countries.
“People doubted that Azerbaijan could deliver. They doubted that everyone could agree. They were wrong on both,” said Mukhtar Babayev, the Azerbaijani state-oil company veteran and president of COP29.
The $300 billion will go to vulnerable, poorer nations to help them cope with increasingly devastating extreme weather and to transition their economies toward clean energy.
“It has been a difficult journey, but we’ve delivered a deal,” said Simon Stiell, head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. “This new finance goal is an insurance policy for humanity, amid worsening climate impacts hitting every country.”
The amount pledged, however, falls far short of the $1.3 trillion economists say is needed to help developing countries cope with a climate crisis they have done least to cause — and there has been a furious reaction from many developing countries.
In a fiery speech immediately after the gavel went down, India’s representative Chandni Raina slammed the $300 billion as “abysmally poor” and a “paltry sum,” calling the agreement “nothing more than an optical illusion” and unable to “address the enormity of the challenge we all face.”....
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From The Guardian, November 24
Cop29 climate finance deal criticised as ‘travesty of justice’ and ‘stage-managed’
Some countries say deal should not have been done and is ‘abysmally poor’ compared with what is needed....
From Al Jazeera, November 24:
‘Optical illusion’: Key takeaways from COP29 at Baku
Climate finance deal criticised at COP29 as inadequate, lacking real money and clear grants for developing countries....
From The Independent, November 24:
Cop29 finance deal ‘a death sentence’ and ‘woefully inadequate’, activists say
From Forbes, November 24:
Developing Nations And NGOs Reject ‘Disaster’ COP29 Climate Deal
From the Executive Director of New York University's Center on International Cooperation (CIC)
#COP29 in Baku was a disaster for developing nations and a glaring symptom of the systemic failures embedded in global governance. The $300 billion annual finance pledge by 2035 is a hollow offering—a fraction of the $1.3 trillion needed annually by 2030. This outcome reflects a…
— Martin Kimani (@AmbMKimani) November 24, 2024
And finally, from Semafor, November 24, a deeper dive:
The COP29 deal is even smaller than it looks
The News
Negotiators at COP29 rescued the summit from near collapse — but with an agreement that will leave just about everyone frustrated, and is likely even worse than the disappointing headline number indicates.Under the deal, rich countries will take the lead on raising at least $300 billion per year by 2035 to support climate adaptation and emissions reductions projects in developing nations. Other donors — including less wealthy countries (read: China), development banks, and private investors — are invited to chip in. The agreement also “calls on” all these parties to work, on a voluntary basis, toward a far loftier goal of $1.3 trillion. The figures are far lower than what many in Baku had hoped for.
Turning those numbers on a page into hard cash in the hands of the most climate-vulnerable countries will be a challenge. Recent history, and the new language adopted in Baku, don’t bode well.
“The commitments made in Baku — the dollar amounts pledged and the emissions reductions promised — are not enough. They were never going to be enough,” said Ralph Regenvanu, climate envoy from the island nation Vanuatu. “And even then, based on our experience with such pledges in the past, we know they will not be fulfilled.”
Tim’s view
In the decade since the first global climate finance target, $100 billion, was set, countries like Vanuatu have had a front-row seat to everything that can go wrong as rich countries work toward the headline number. And the agreement reached in Baku isn’t very reassuring that things will be better this time.First, there’s the number itself. Inflation and the ever-escalating costs of climate impacts mean the number gets less impressive over time; so even though the target is nominally higher than the current goal, some delegates in Baku saw it as a step backward. Economists also doubt that $300 billion in government funds is anywhere near enough to “leverage” an additional $1 trillion from the private sector; historically, $1 of public finance unlocks an average of 22 cents from private investors, according to the think tank ODI. And in any case, the actual amount of funding developing countries need for climate action is closer to $2.3 trillion, economists said last week....
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