Civil society members staged a silent march at the U.N. climate summit
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Civil society members staged a silent march at the U.N. climate summit, condemning the developed nations’ proposal to increase annual climate finance to a meagre $250 billion by 2035. 

They called on the developing world to reject what they described as an “insulting” and “unjust” deal.  

With their arms crossed in defiance, protesters walked silently through the summit venue, where chanting is prohibited

“We urge you to stand up for the people of the Global South, and we insist: no deal in Baku is better than a bad deal, and this is a very, very bad deal because of the intransigence of developed countries,” said Climate Action Network (CAN), a global coalition of more than 1,900 civil society organisations, in a letter to G77 and China, the largest bloc of developing nations

The letter urged negotiators to abandon weak agreements, saying, “If nothing sufficiently strong is forthcoming at this COP, we urge you to walk away from the table to fight another day, and we will fight the same fight.”

Shailendra Yashwant, senior advisor at CAN South Asia, denounced the proposal, saying, “The NCQG (New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance) number of $250 billion in the latest ministerial text is not a joke, it’s an insult to the people of the Global South salvaging their belongings and trying to rebuild their lives from floods, heatwaves, cyclones, landslides or forest fires and other climate change-induced disasters.”

Harjeet Singh, Global Engagement Director for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, called the proposal “a disgrace”.

He said, “Developed countries are fully aware of the cost of climate action, which is running into trillions of dollars annually. Yet they had the audacity to offer this paltry amount.”  

Renowned activist Greta Thunberg also slammed the draft text on climate finance, calling it “a complete disaster” and a “death sentence” for millions already vulnerable to the climate crisis.

At the U.N. climate conference in Baku, countries are required to reach an agreement on a new climate finance package to help developing countries cut greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the warming world.

The summit was scheduled to conclude on Friday (November 22, 2024) but spilt into overtime as developed nations only presented a concrete climate finance figure in the closing hours. 

The $250 billion amount they have offered is a far cry from the trillions required to tackle the escalating climate emergency. Developing nations have been demanding at least $1.3 trillion annually — 13 times the $100 billion pledged in 2009 — starting in 2025 to address their escalating climate challenges.  They have said that a significant portion of this $1.3 trillion should come directly in public funding from developed countries. 

Delegates at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit on November 12, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan.
| Photo Credit: AP

Countries assembled in Baku for the annual climate conference, COP29, voted to clear a much-delayed agreement to finalise a global carbon market.

Also Read: COP29 Day 2 LIVE updates

Such a market would allow countries to trade carbon credits – certified reductions of carbon emissions – among themselves and whose prices are determined as a consequence of emission caps imposed by countries.

The market itself follows from a section in the Paris Agreement, called Article 6. Sub sections with the Article spell out how countries can bilaterally trade carbon among themselves (Art 6.2) and participate in a global carbon market (6.4).

Though most of the necessary nuts and bolts to make operational such a carbon market supervised by a United Nations body have been in place since 2022, there were several niggles, particularly on ensuring that the carbon credits generated are genuine and its antecedents are transparent.

There have been several rounds of talks involving the Parties (country signatories to the Paris Agreement) on these outstanding concerns that are raised. Last month, a supervisory body of the United Nations, which would be the ultimate arbitrator of the market, set out a draft text that laid out the standards for carbon removal and assessing projects.

A senior official who is part of the Indian delegation told The Hindu days before the COP 29 commenced, that even this version was not “entirely acceptable” but was something that could be ironed out.

Key issue

A key issue surrounding carbon markets is accounting.

Say, a company in a developed country finances an afforestation project in a developing country, and this theoretically prevents 1,000 tonnes of carbon from being released into the atmosphere. Would this saved carbon be part of the developed country’s ledger of saved credits when the actual prevention is happening elsewhere? At what stage of a renewable energy project’s life-cycle will a generated credit be considered eligible for trade? Can countries claim credits generated in their own borders, financed by foreign companies, and count them towards their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC)?

India, as part of its NDC, has committed to reduce emissions intensity by 45% by 2030 from 2005 levels and create a carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of additional forest and tree cover by 2030.

In the run-up to COP 29, there was general optimism that a global carbon trading mechanism could be a reality and that the first U.N.-sanctioned carbon credits would be available in 2025.

“This will be a game-changing tool to direct resources to the developing world,” Mukhtar Babayev, COP29 president, said in a statement. “Following years of stalemate, the breakthroughs in Baku have now begun. But there is much more to deliver,” he added.

Finalising Article 6 negotiations could reduce the cost of implementing national climate plans by $250 billion per year by enabling cooperation across borders.

“The decision on Article 6.4 is a major step forward. There is still some time till the rubber hits the road as now the methodologies for implementing have to be finalised but this should be fairly soon. However, this should not take the focus away from the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) as carbon markets are one of the ways to deliver on the NCQG,” Vaibhav Chauturvedi, energy economist and an expert on carbon markets, Council on Energy Environment and Water, Delhi, told The Hindu.

NCQG refers to an update to the $100 billion a year pledge made in 2009, that was to be made available to developing countries by developed countries to adapt to climate change as well as mitigate emissions. The Paris Agreement says that this new target must come into effect by 2025 and is therefore one of the most keenly awaited outcomes of the Baku COP.

U.N. Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell also emphasised the importance of reaching a new global climate finance goal in Baku.

“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. “So, let’s dispense with any idea that climate finance is charity. An ambitious new climate finance goal is entirely in the self-interest of every nation, including the largest and wealthiest.”