COP29 Ends With an Unsatisfactory Climate Deal Package
An aactivist calls for more ambitious targets to fight global warming. X/ @wblau
November 24, 2024 Hour: 11:40 am
The agreements did not address the magnitude of the challenges involved in fighting global warming.
On Sunday, the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) culminated in Azerbaijan by announcing a package of climate agreements.
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The agreements included decisions on the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) for climate financing and issues relating to the global carbon market mechanism under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.
The agreements set the post-2025 climate finance targets, including an annual funding of at least US$300 billion from developed countries and a broader climate financing goal of at least US$1.3 trillion per year by 2035 for supporting developing countries’ climate actions.
The arrangement is expected to lay the groundwork for developing countries to undertake climate action and submit a new round of nationally determined contributions next year.
Nearly 200 parties also broke years of deadlock in multilateral negotiations, reaching a consensus on the international carbon market mechanism. This marked the completion of the implementation rules for the market mechanism under Article 6 and resolved the last pending issue within the Paris Agreement.
In addition, the conference also reached decisions on various issues, including the carbon trading mechanism, the implementation of the Global Stocktake results, the mitigation work program, and the global adaptation goal.
In terms of issues related to adaptation to climate change, COP29 left much to be desired. The final declaration is not very innovative, but it meets some of the demands of civil society, such as the establishment of progress indicators and a permanent item on the agendas of future summits.
Although the concept of “vulnerability” is generally applied to developing countries or small island states, the truth is that many of the so-called rich countries also suffer from it, as has been seen recently with the devastating floods in Spain
The difference is that developing countries have far fewer resources to deal with natural disasters. For this reason, countries previously created the Loss and Damage Fund, which should be funded with some US$400 billion annually. So far, however, this fund has not even reached US$1 billion.
Nevertheless, Zhao Yingmin, the Chinese vice minister of ecology, highlighted that the process of climate governance under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has faced challenges but has consistently moved forward over the last 30 years.
“Humanity is a community with a shared future, and in the face of the climate crisis, unity and collaboration are the only viable paths,” he said.
teleSUR/ JF Source: Xinhua – EFE
