With just five months until this year's UN climate summit, countries are unable to agree on how much global funding to help developing countries fight climate change, much less how much distribution of this amount. The move is set to dominate COP29 climate negotiations in Azerbaijan in November, where nearly 200 countries are expected to agree on a new annual financing target to help poorer countries cut emissions and protect their societies in a harsher and warmer world.
An ambitious but crucial objective for the future of the planet
The new objective will replace the 100 billion euros annually that rich countries had committed to paying for climate financing from 2020. This objective was reached two years late. However, preliminary talks this week in Bonn, Germany, failed to achieve any major breakthroughs. If anything, the discussions once again highlighted the unwavering divisions between the world's largest economies over who should pay the most to combat climate change – and how much.
Speaking at the end of the talks on Thursday, UN climate chief Simon Stiell lamented the slow progress and said government ministers should step in to help unblock the talks before COP29. “We left ourselves a very steep mountain to climb,” Mr. Stiell said.
The amount of financing, a major issue in the negotiations
The new financing target is the central tool that global climate talks can provide to finance projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions – such as renewable energy or low-carbon transport. With all countries expected to update their national climate targets next year, negotiators fear failure could lead to weaker efforts.
“How are you going to move forward if there’s no funding? said South African climate negotiator Pemy Gasela. His country is among many developing nations warning that they cannot afford to reduce emissions faster without additional financial support – in South Africa's case, to move from heavy reliance on coal CO2 emitter to clean energy.
Yet rich countries are reluctant to set a target too high and risk it not being met. The missed 100 billion euro target became politically symbolic during recent UN climate negotiations, fueling distrust between nations as developing countries argued that the world's economic powers were abandoning them.
Divergent proposals on the table
Diplomats in Bonn have been circling the question of how much money to put on the table. If countries agree that €100 billion is too low, they are unlikely to agree to muster the €2.4 trillion a year that the UN climate chief declared in February necessary to keep global climate goals within reach.
Who should pay? The annoying question
Countries also disagree over who should contribute. There are currently around twenty long-industrialized countries that are obliged to contribute to UN climate financing. This list was drawn up during the UN climate negotiations in 1992, when China's economy was even smaller than Italy's.
The EU wants China – now the world's biggest CO2 emitter and the world's second-largest economy – and Middle Eastern countries with high per capita income to contribute to the new target. The United States also advocated for adding additional countries to the donor base.
However, Arab countries and China have strongly opposed the idea, with Beijing reiterating China's status as a “developing country” under the UN climate convention. “We, the developing countries, have no intention of making your numbers look good or being part of your responsibility, because we are doing everything we can to save the world,” Chinese negotiator told other diplomats during negotiations on the financing target in Bonn on Tuesday.
Neither side of the country has compromised on who should pay, said Joe Thwaites, who tracks climate finance negotiations for the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council. “Things are moving slowly,” he said.
Faced with these persistent divisions, it is clear that negotiations on financing the fight against climate change are at an impasse as the COP29 summit approaches. However, the issues are crucial for the future of our planet. Without an ambitious agreement on the amount and distribution of funds, it will be difficult for developing countries to implement the necessary measures to reduce their emissions and adapt to the impacts of global warming. The coming months will therefore be decisive in unblocking the situation and reaching a historic compromise at the November conference in Azerbaijan. The climate emergency does not wait, and it is time for the international community to rise to the challenges that lie ahead.
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