COP29 concluded in late November with uneasy agreement on the controversial Baku Finance Goal pledging $300 billion in climate funding to developing countries, writes Susan Rossney
COP29, the global climate summit, concluded in the early hours of 24 November in Baku, Azerbaijan.
There were some positive developments, such as the deal reached on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement to finally allow countries to trade carbon credits with each other.
Most significantly, though, for this ‘climate COP’, was the final agreement called the Baku Finance Goal.
In 2009, at COP15 in Copenhagen, parties agreed a collective goal for developed nations to provide $100 billion annually in climate financing to developing countries.
The new goal agreed at COP29 ups the annual financial target to $300 billion, to be funded from public sources, with provision for the shortfall to be made up of funding from private sources.
To say opinion was divided on this new goal is an understatement. While some parties are cautiously optimistic that the agreement would at least keep the core principles of the Paris Agreement alive, many more were outraged by how much the new goal falls short of what is actually needed.
It is generally agreed that $1 trillion per year by 2030 (rising to $1.3tn per year by 2035) is needed to help developing countries build resilience, prepare for disasters and cut emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases.
While this figure is enormous, it’s worth noting for context that $2.4 trillion was spent on weapons in 2023, and at least $1 trillion was spent in 2022 on subsidies to keep fossil fuel prices artificially low.
Also worth noting is that the provision of financial support to developing countries for climate action serves both a moral and economic purpose for wealthier countries. The chaos caused by the climate and biodiversity crises to societies and economies is not limited to developing countries alone.
This was demonstrated most recently by the 224 lives lost in Spain as a result of flooding linked to rising temperatures in the Mediterranean Sea. On 28 November, Spain’s government approved a new “paid climate leave” entitlement of up to four days to allow workers take time off if unable to travel to their place of work in the event of official warnings of extreme weather conditions.
The Institute for Economics and Peace further predicts that one billion people face being displaced within 30 years due to the climate crisis, with huge impacts for both the developed and developing worlds.
COP30 will take place in Belém, Brazil in 2025. Its focus will centre on efforts by each country to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change (the so-called ‘NDCs’ or ‘nationally determined contributions’).
It remains to be seen if COP30 will achieve what G20 leaders have said it should – i.e. to be “our last chance to avoid an irreversible rupture in the climate system”.
Susan Rossney is Sustainability Advocacy Manager at Chartered Accountants Ireland.
Check out Chartered Accountants Ireland’s sustainability centre for signposts to a variety of resources available to businesses. Also, subscribe to the Institute’s fortnightly Technical Round Up and weekly Sustainability/ESG Bulletins, both in the weekly Chartered Accountants Ireland newsletter, and on LinkedIn.
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