Negotiators are far from reaching agreement on how to mobilize the US$1,000 billion needed to help developing countries combat climate change.
More than a week after the start of COP 29, negotiations between rich and developing countries are at an impasse in Azerbaijan, notably on how to mobilize the $1,000 billion needed to combat climate change.
Developing countries, including those in Africa, need US$1,300 billion a year in the form of subsidies, not loans, to reduce their dependence on oil and cope with the energy transition and climate disasters.
Western countries, for their part, insist that their public funds will only cover a fraction of this amount, relying on the private sector and contributions from new players such as China.
As a result, negotiations between rich and poor countries have ground to a halt, complicating the work of the ministers from nearly 200 countries expected to attend the second week of COP29, which ends on November 22.
“Given the divisions between North and South, no major breakthrough was expected and the negotiators left the thornier issues to the Ministers”, assures an observer from the Moroccan institute IMAL.
At the same time, around 200 activists demonstrated in Baku on Sunday November 17, 2024, demanding that developed countries “pay their climate debt”.
For UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, it is important that the leaders of the G20 countries assume their “leadership” to achieve a “positive outcome” in the negotiations.
Olivier KAFORO