It’s the final countdown

So, how much should rich countries pay for developing countries to cope with climate change and decarbonise their economies?

Two draft texts were released on Thursday and Friday, and the documents are now in front of the negotiators. Thursday’s text led to incredulity from developing nations because the $ amount was marked with an “X”.  In a five-hour plenary session on Thursday, dozens of countries expressed anger at the state of what the Azerbaijani COP presidency had put forward.

Incredulity turned to exasperation and alarm when the latest text was released with the number $250 billion from economically developed nations. This had a promise to find $1.3 trillion by 2035 (including $250 billion from developing nations themselves by then). The text cites money coming from a “variety of sources” including private finance, governments and also presumably debt/loans.

“The $250bn offered by developed countries is a spit on the face of vulnerable nations like mine. They offer crumbs while we bear the dead. Outrageous, evil and remorseless,” said Panama special representative Monterrey Gómez.

“The proposed target to mobilise $250 billion per year by 2035 is totally unacceptable and inadequate to delivering the Paris Agreement,” said Amb Ali Mohamed, Kenya’s special envoy for climate change, and chair of the African Group of Negotiators.

 “We cannot be expected to agree to a text which shows such contempt for our vulnerable people,” said the Alliance of Small Island States.

 We now await a plenary for country reactions to be formally expressed.

Run for cover

There is to be no cover text at COP29 – this is normally the headline statement of the conference that sets out priorities. Remember Glasgow’s “phase down coal” (not phase out). Last time it was UAE’s “transition away from fossil fuels” often known as the paragraph 28 statement (that one took 30 years to agree). 

However, these cover statements are often where the conference gets bogged down in semantics. A group called the Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDC), including Saudi Arabia, is trying to debate paragraph 28 and so it’s been decided to avoid a cover text altogether.

“The Arab group will not accept any text that targets any specific sectors, including fossil fuels,” said Albara Tawfiq from the Saudi delegation. 

UAE has urged that the statement agreed in COP28 be adhered to.

Fossil wood

In good news, Indonesia has seemingly made a commitment to end coal power by 2040. 

President Prabowo Subianto said: “We plan to phase out coal-fired and all fossil-fuelled power plants within the next 15 years. Our plan includes building over 75GW of renewable energy capacity during this time.” 

Indonesia has been growing its global pipeline for coal for the last 10 years and has been the world’s bigger coal exporter in recent years. This indicates a major change in direction.  

Modern wood

The UK has pledged £239 million to help forest-rich nations tackle climate change and tackle deforestation. £188 million will be to support the “development of high-integrity forest carbon markets” – so planting stuff to offset other emissions. £48 million will be to unlock private investment in the sustainable forest enterprise. And a paltry £3 million to help the UNFCCC to help countries protect their forests.

The negotiations go on, and on, and on.

I hope the coffee is good in Baku because it will be morning before we hear.