Developed nations copout of COP29

As the second week of the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change draws to a close, negotiations on the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance drag on, with limited convergence between developed and developing countries.

A new iteration of the NCQG text was presented around 3 pm Baku time on November 22 by the COP29 Presidency with a call for “all actors to work together to enable the scaling up of financing to developing country Parties for climate action from all public and private sources to at least US$1.3 trillion per year by 2035” and to “set a goal in extension of the goal referred to in paragraph 53 of decision 1/CP.21, with developed country Parties taking the lead, to US$250 billion per year by 2035 for developing country Parties for climate action”.

Parties will now provide reactions to this text and negotiate further. The demand from the G77 and China bloc has been united around $600 billion, compared to the $250 billion in this new text. The text asks for “all actors to work together” to help scale up $1.3 trillion for developing countries, rather than the obligation of developed countries to do so. There is no mention of additionality, sub-goals of grants or grant-equivalent finance, and a clear revision timeline for the goal.