COP29 ends with new US$300bn climate finance goal

COP29 came to a close in the early hours of Sunday, November 24, as a new climate finance goal was adopted: one that is three times higher than previously, but less than a third of what developing countries need every year to manage the climate crisis.

After two weeks of intense negotiations, the new collective quantified goal for climate finance (NCQG) was adopted on Sunday despite clear opposition from developing countries including India and Nigeria. It states that rich countries will channel US$300 billion per year to the Global South until 2035, from “a wide variety of sources” including public, private and multilateral finance.

While developed economies will take the lead, developing countries are also invited to participate voluntarily in meeting this new goal. 

While this represents a tripling of the previous goal (US$100 billion per year until 2025), it falls short of the US$1.3 trillion climate finance experts estimate that vulnerable countries need to receive annually by 2035 to help them mitigate and adapt to climate change. 

“The US$300 billion goal is not enough, but is an important downpayment toward a safer, more equitable future,” commented Anu Dasgupta, President and CEO of the World Resources Institute (WRI).

A disappointment for the Global South

The last draft to be debated last Friday (November 22) offered two options for the final deal: one stated clearly that the money should be given by developed countries only, with the burden distributed according to historical emissions – and clarified that it should be provided in the form of non debt-inducing mechanisms such as grants.

But the final document ratified the second, looser option, which opened the door to all sources of finance and allowed for developing economies’ voluntary participations to count towards the NCQG.

Climate justice experts criticised the way the adoption process unfolded, with developing nations staging a walkout hours before the final gavel and clearly unhappy with an outcome that was meant to be approved unanimously.

"Developed countries and the Presidency have ridden roughshod over the human rights of billions by bullying developing countries to accept a deal that will bring further indebtedness and climate distress rather than creating the space for enhancing justice and dignity for all," pointed out Ann Harrison, Climate Justice Adviser at Amnesty International.

Beyond the process itself, the amount pledged in the final deal is considered grossly insufficient. 

“Bitter disappointment. US$300 billion 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,” said Tracy Carty, Climate Politics Expert, Greenpeace International.

A ‘glimmer of hope’ on the way to COP30

However, she sees one paragraph in the text as “a glimmer of hope”: the launch of the ‘Baku to Belém Roadmap to 1.3T’, which aims to scale up climate finance to developing countries to the level they need, ie. US$1.3 trillion by 2035. Under the agreement, the COP29 and COP30 presidencies (Azerbaijan and Brazil) will work together to investigate innovative mechanisms to meet this goal, and will be required to produce a report on what they achieve between the two UN climate change conferences.

For Carty, the ‘Baku to Belém Roadmap “must be a roadmap for making polluters pay”.

At WRI, Dasgupta added: “The hard work now begins to show a route to scaling up all sources of finance to deliver the US$1.3 trillion developing countries need by 2035, through the Baku to Belem Roadmap. Greater confidence that investments are coming will unlock more ambitious national climate commitments. This in turn sends a clear signal to investors to back the action we need.”