Baku, Azerbaijan – The UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) has ended with a bare minimum agreement on a new public climate finance goal of $300 billion USD.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n
Jasper Inventor, Head of COP29 Greenpeace Delegation said:<\/strong> \u201cThe agreed finance goal is woefully inadequate and overshadowed by the level of despair and scale of action needed. The best and worst of multilateralism saw isolated blockers and difficult talks stymie change before a deal was brokered at the death knell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \u201cOur true opponents are the fossil fuel merchants of despair and reckless nature destroyers who hide snugly behind every government\u2019s low climate ambition. Their lobbyists must be disallowed and leaders need to summon the courage to get on the right side of history.\u201d On the new climate finance goal, Tracy Carty, Climate Politics Expert, Greenpeace International added:<\/strong> \u201cBitter disappointment. $300 billion USD by 2035 is way too little, way too late. Developed countries came here with empty pockets and shamefully squeezed developing countries to agree. But this finance goal comes with no assurance that it will not be delivered through loans or private finance rather than the grant-based public finance developing countries desperately need. <\/p>\n\n \u201cIf developed countries are worried about what they can afford, let\u2019s not forget the billions of dollars in profits the polluting oil and gas companies make and send them the bill. The fossil fuel industry has been spared any responsibility to pay and will be laughing all the way to the bank. One glimmer of hope is an agreement to develop a roadmap by COP30 for scaling up finance: this must be a roadmap for making polluters pay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n On the mitigation, Maarten de Zeeuw, Climate and Energy Campaigner, Greenpeace Netherlands said: <\/strong>\u201cThe elephant in the room is the fossil fuel producers blocking progress. It\u2019s alarming how progress on mitigation stagnated, but in spite of the fossil fuel lobbyists prowling the halls we\u2019ve prevented rollbacks on the COP28 decision to transition away from fossil fuels. In response to the agreement on Article 6, An Lambrechts, Biodiversity Politics Expert, Greenpeace International said:<\/strong> \u201cThe carbon market mechanism agreed at COP29 is not a climate finance solution and will only provide a lifeline to the polluting fossil fuel industry, allowing it to offset emissions. Photo and videos are available in the Greenpeace Media Library<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n Contacts:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Aaron Gray-Block, Climate Politics Communications Specialist, Greenpeace International, aaron.gray-block@greenpeace.org<\/p>\n\n Gaby Flores, Communications Coordinator, Greenpeace International, +1 214 454 3871, cflores@greenpeace.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n
\u201cPeople are fed up, disillusioned, but we\u2019ll persist and resist because this is a fight for our future! We will not give up. As we look to COP30 in Belem, we must hold on to hope – hope that is firmly anchored on people demanding climate ambition.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n
\u201cYet, amid the worsening tropical cyclones, record wildfires, an historical drought and unprecedented ocean warming, the global climate movement is more determined than ever. Our future is on the line! Next year\u2019s deadline of 2035 climate action plans must serve as the turning point in our climate fight to deliver a hopeful Paris Agreement anniversary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThis mechanism is a climate scam and polluters should be made to pay to clean up the mess they\u2019ve caused, but instead they\u2019re winning a get out of jail free card. Baku is infamously now an offsets COP, delivering carbon markets with gaping loopholes and a glaring lack of integrity.
\u201cBut all is not lost. We see momentum on aligning global climate and biodiversity action and in building bridges between the two. At COP30 in Belem, in the Amazon, it\u2019s time to connect the climate and biodiversity fights together.\u201d
Zhe Yao, Global Policy Adviser, Greenpeace East Asia said: <\/strong>\u201cChina\u2019s decision matters. COP29 has shown a clear need for climate leadership, but the trillion-dollar question is how determined China is to turn its strengths on clean technology into leadership?
\u201cBetween now and Belem, China has the potential to reinvigorate the multilateral process by presenting a strong NDC and outlining its plans to transition away from fossil fuels. This NDC can provide a leading light and take up the climate fight.\u201d
Ra\u00edssa Ferreira, Campaign Director, Greenpeace Brazil said: <\/strong>\u201cIt was essential to get an agreement on climate finance here to raise ambition and to set the stage ahead of COP30. We call on President Lula to take the baton, forge improved synergies between climate and biodiversity and display true global climate leadership. We will persist in our demands.\u201d
Fred Njehu, Pan-African Political Strategist, Greenpeace Africa stated: <\/strong> “How generous of the Global North to acknowledge our $1.3 trillion USD need while offering a pipette to fill an ocean? It’s like agreeing someone needs a full reservoir of water to survive, then handing them an eye dropper and saying, ‘Good luck!’
\u201cThis finance deal not only betrays climate justice but makes a mockery of the polluter pays principle. The same nations who built their wealth on fossil fuels now offer band-aids while expecting us to bear the trillion-dollar burden of their historical emissions.
\u201cThis isn’t climate finance – it’s climate colonialism. But Africa’s spirit remains unbroken. We will carry our demands for climate justice to Belem, insisting that polluters finally pay their fair share for the destruction they’ve caused.”
ENDS<\/p>\n\n