Allocated money is not enough to fight climate change: results of the COP29 summit
Kyiv • UNN
At the COP29 summit, rich countries agreed to allocate $300 billion annually to poor countries until 2035 to combat climate change. Experts and representatives of vulnerable countries consider this amount insufficient.
The participants of the COP29 climate summit have reached an agreement. Rich countries will give money to poor countries to fight climate change, but it is not enough. This is reported by Politico, according to UNN.
Details
The document comes after several days of public and private mutual accusations and bickering between the nearly 200 countries represented at the meeting near the Caspian Sea.
In particular, on Saturday night, the largest economic powers, including the United States, Britain, the EU, and China, argued over how and which countries would receive the money. After that, the big rich countries agreed to increase the offer from $250 billion.
As a result, the final agreement says that rich countries have agreed to provide at least $300 billion a year until 2035 to help poor countries fight climate change.
However, according to Politico, a minimum of $300 billion is far short of the trillions of dollars that poor and vulnerable countries will need to withstand the steady rise in sea levels, as well as storms, droughts and floods, which, according to several analyses, are increasing.
There are other ways to raise these funds. For example, private capital and carbon credit trading, the rules for which also reached a final agreement on Saturday. However, representatives of poor and vulnerable countries, such as Malawi, the Marshall Islands and the Maldives, said that this amount is simply not enough to meet their needs.
We have seen here, at this climate summit, the worst kind of opportunism. We are leaving with a small part of the funding that climate-vulnerable countries desperately need. It is far from enough, but it is a start,
The financial agreement also comes with a lot of uncertainty about the final amount that any rich country will pay. This comes as President-elect Donald Trump, who calls climate change a hoax, prepares to take over in Washington.
At the same time, the EU, which is already the largest donor bloc, expects to bear most of the burden as US participation declines.
The publication added that the deal was generally in line with the expectations set out in last week's UN report.
