Parties at the UN Cop 29 climate summit have agreed on a draft for a new climate finance goal, but it is lengthy, fails to bridge long-standing divisions and still lacks a position on an amount from developed countries.
Agreement on finance is key, to ensure that all countries can implement their respective energy transitions and cut emissions, in line with the Paris climate accord. Developed countries agreed in 2009 to deliver $100bn/yr in climate finance to developing nations, and Cop 29 is focused on the next iteration of this — the new collective quantified goal (NCQG).
The draft text is riddled with options and brackets, which is not uncommon in the first week of Cop negotiations. But it still has every opinion given in the past year on offer, meaning that parties have a long road ahead to reach agreement. "There is no alternative to this text," Cop 29 lead negotiator Yalchin Rafiyev said today.
Developed countries have not provided an amount, but are promoting a "multi-layered goal" and want to expand the contributor base. Meanwhile, developing countries are now pushing for sub-targets of $220bn/yr for least developed countries (LDCs) and $39bn/yr small island developing states (Sids), while broadly calling for climate public finance of over $1 trillion/yr, mostly in grant and concessional finance.
Rafiyev described the text as a "workable basis for discussion". But EU negotiator Jacob Werksman struck a more pessimistic tone, saying that parties are significantly far apart and that it is hard to see where the landing zone lies.
Parties stuck to their positions at a high-level finance meeting today, with no sign of movement. "The support goal should be both ambitious and realistically achievable", the US negotiator said — echoing Belgium's representative almost word for word.
Developed countries called for more contributors, including from developing countries in a position to contribute. The UN climate body the UNFCCC works from a list of developed and developing countries from 1992 — delineating 24 countries plus the EU as developed — and many of these note that economic circumstances have changed over the past 32 years.
Parties such as the UK called for increased mobilisation of private sector finance, through multilateral development banks (MDBs), whose reforms should be accelerated, while Sweden called for enhancing the mobilisation of domestic finance. But these issues are largely outside of the remit of the Cop, even though they may get a boost from upcoming G20 discussions next week.
Panama's representative called for trillions, Guatemala said that "finance must be more accessible", with Colombia saying that it is currently "entangled" in development agencies. Zimbabwe told fellow negotiators that it was crucial that developing countries' debt burdens were not increased.
Werksman is hoping for some compromise next week, when ministers join negotiations, he said today. Parties had in October reached some convergence after a series of ministerial meetings ahead of Cop 29.
He pointed to a finance report released today by a UN-mandated high-level group, that he said, could guide policymakers. International private finance could meet around half of the funds that developing countries need — $1 trillion/yr by 2030 and $1.3 trillion/yr by 2035 — the group said.
The possibility of levies — on shipping and air travel — as well as on fossil fuel producers, is likely to be floated too. Many jurisdictions, including the EU, have previously called for taxes and levies to be imposed to provide further climate finance. Colombia called for increased action on global taxation today.
But "that requires very careful consideration before we stunt some of our industries", Egypt's representative said today. Delegates representing Tanzania and Marshall Islands reiterated that finance supporting the development of fossil fuels should not be part of the goal.
