Campaigners have called on developing countries to walk away from finance talks rather than accept a bad deal while Saudi Arabia defends fossil fuels and opposes human rights
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Campaigners: No deal better than a bad deal
As negotiations ground on to find agreement on the key new climate finance goal (NCQG) expected from COP29, climate justice campaigners called on governments to walk away from the summit rather than accept a weak outcome on behalf of workers, women and vulnerable communities around the world.
They insisted that no deal in Azerbaijan would be preferable to a “bad deal”.
Mohamed Adow, founder of Kenya-based think-tank Power Shift Africa said securing a strong deal for $1.3 trillion in international public finance as developing countries are demanding is central to success. “There can’t be a COP outcome if the rich world don’t step up and put forward an ambitious climate finance goal that meets the needs of the developing countries – period,” he said.
Developed and developing nations remain far apart on the amount of the new goal, as well as who should contribute towards it, as pressure grows on wealthier emerging economies – including China and the Gulf nations – to pay up too. Those countries don’t want to be put on a par with industrialised countries that are historically more responsible for the emissions fuelling global warming.
A draft text on the NCQG released on Thursday contained no specific figures on what developed countries are prepared to put on the table through to 2035, provoking a furious reaction from most developing-country groups who called on them to show their hand.
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A new text is due to be released on Friday afternoon and is expected to contain some indication of the size of the goal.
Lidy Nacpil of the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development, called on developing country governments to “be strong and united in the face of the Global North” and push them to recognise “what they owe us” for the rising damage done by climate change.
“We are really appealing and challenging our governments in the South to hold their ground and stand up for our rights,” she told journalists.
Adow said he feared that even though developing countries are “hugely disappointed” by the lack of progress in Baku “they are diplomats and so they would rather work behind the scenes and want to salvage a good outcome”.
He criticised the wealthy nations and the Azerbaijan COP presidency for not negotiating openly and “engaging eye to eye” with poorer countries.
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Joseph Sikulu, Pacific regional director for 350.org, slammed the use of “stalling tactics” in Baku – which he said had happened in Dubai last year – and the lack of space to negotiate. That had left the process devoid of “values” such as including vulnerable and Indigenous peoples.
“We hope that over the next year we see more leadership from Indigenous peoples bringing these values into the negotiations and hope that they ground that in these presidencies,” he said, referring to the COP30 in Brazil next year.
Women’s rights and LGBTQ+ activists have also complained that the Azeri COP presidency has given a low priority to talks on the renewal of a key programme on gender and climate action, which have struggled amid pushback from socially conservative governments.
Liane Schalatek, speaking for the “women and gender constituency” of NGOs at COP29, said space for civil society had been restricted at the COP in Azerbaijan – which has a poor record on human rights and civil liberties – and the whole process had suffered from a lack of transparency.
“Also [governments] don’t know what is going on,” she told reporters in Baku, saying it was more important than ever to respect “the democratic ground rules that are the foundation basically of the climate regime”.
Saudis oppose anti-fossil fuel and pro-human rights language
Across COP29’s various negotiating streams, the Saudi Arabian delegation has been pushing to remove both criticism of fossil fuels and support for human rights.
In Thursday’s open meeting, Saudi negotiator Albara Tawfiq said that the Arab Group of countries “will not accept any text that targets any specific sectors including fossil fuel”. He said such an approach was “outside of the mandate and unacceptable”.
He was commenting on Thursday morning’s draft text on the post-2025 finance goal, which “calls” on governments to “reduce investment flows towards fossil fuel infrastructure”. It caveats this with “acknowledging the need for certain investments, including towards repurposing and futureproofing infrastructure being compatible with a 1.5C pathway”.
The text also “acknowledges the need to continue to explore and develop”, with certain caveats, “innovative instruments targeted towards the fossil fuel sector and other high-emitting sectors in line with the polluter pays principle such as carbon pricing”. A coalition of both developed and developing countries is looking into ideas like taxing fossil fuel producers to fund climate action.
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The text also calls on the fossil fuel industry to align its operations with the Paris Agreement.
According to the Earth Negotiations Bulletin, which observes and provides information on the talks, the Arab Group in “long-term finance” talks also wants to add in a reference to an obscure 2001 COP agreement which “encourages” governments to cooperate on carbon capture and storage and “less greenhouse gas-emitting advanced fossil-fuel technologies”.
On the NCQG, Tawfiq added that “conditionalities related to human rights issues in the text and language not relevant to finance issues are unacceptable”. The draft finance text he was referring to “underscores that climate finance must respect, protect, promote, and fulfil human rights by being human rights-based and gender-responsive”.
Mary Robinson, former Irish president and member of The Elders, said Saudi Arabia’s attempts to strip fossil fuel language out of the COP29 outcomes was “simply outrageous”.
“The science is clear, and neither Riyadh nor any other country can bend the laws of physics,” she added. “Blocking talks and backsliding raises the risks of extreme floods and brutal heatwaves. This COP must cement the transition to clean energy.”
