UCS Comments on Appalling COP29 Climate Finance Text Released Today

BAKU, Azerbaijan—The annual U.N. climate talks—also referred to as COP29—have entered the final hours of negotiations. New text on the paramount issue of securing a climate finance commitment from richer nations to help low-income countries cut emissions, adapt to mounting climate impacts, and address loss and damage at home, was released today and remains vastly insufficient.

Below is a statement by Dr. Rachel Cleetus, the policy director and a lead economist for the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). She has been attending the U.N.’s international climate talks and has partnered with the international community on climate and energy policies for about 20 years. Dr. Cleetus is currently in attendance at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

“With a paltry climate finance offer of $250 billion annually, and a deadline to deliver as late as 2035, richer nations including E.U. countries and the United States are dangerously close to betraying the Paris Agreement. This is nowhere near the robust and desperately needed funding lower income nations deserve to combat climate change. The central demand coming into COP29 was for a strong, science-aligned climate finance commitment, which this appalling text utterly fails to provide. Wealthier nations seem content to shamefully renege on their responsibility and cave in to fossil fuel interests while unjustly foisting the costs of deadly climate extremes on countries that have contributed the least to the climate crisis. Instead of actions to undermine trust and thwart progress, it’s urgent for developed countries to agree to a meaningful scale of funding that treats people on the frontlines of climate change with humanity and respect.”

UCS experts are on the ground at COP29 and tracking the paramount issue at this COP: climate finance. Additionally, UCS experts can discuss adaptation, Loss and Damage, upholding the previously agreed to fossil fuel phase out, the U.S. nationally determined contribution (NDC) pledge and pathways for reducing national emissions, implications of the U.S. elections on the talks, risks and costs of climate change impacts, relevant scientific reports and climate litigation. They are also monitoring how fossil fuel industry influence, disinformation, and deception is showing up in negotiations.

Additional UCS Resources:

• A UCS statement on the conclusion of week one and what to expect in week two of COP29.
• A UCS statement on the presence of fossil fuel polluters at COP29.
• A UCS statement on the repercussions of a Trump presidency on global climate action.
• A letter signed by more than 80 US Climate Action Network members, including UCS, urging the Biden administration to reach an ambitious outcome on climate finance at COP29.
• The latest blogposts by UCS experts on COP29 and the implications of the U.S. presidential election.