DEAL!
$350 billion in climate finance from developed nations to the developing world by 2035. This is part of an aspirational $1.3 trillion target. The mechanism for this finance is not stated – leaving the door open for private finance, loans, and even more developing world debt.
If you want to solve a crisis that affects the whole world then:
• Covid-19 cost the world $12.5 trillion. The world stepped up. We survived
• The US bailed out American banks by $700 billion in 2008, but the overall economic loss was $4.6 trillion by 2016. They continue their behaviours with the same wanton lust for wealth, and the same lack of regulation today.
https://hbr.org/2018/09/the-social-and-political-costs-of-the-financial-crisis-10-years-later
Fossil fuel companies make $1 trillion in profits per year, according to analysis of World Bank data.
So $1.3 trillion to save the world doesn’t seem all that bad?! Surely.
This weekend was a hard watch as the negotiations went overtime by 35 hours. The initial offer from developed nations was $250 billion, which various commentators in the developing world described as a “joke”. The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) walked out of a meeting, stating they wanted at least 33% of the funding required (=$430 billion).
The final agreement was $300 billion, which is a significant increase from the previous $100 billion per year (promised in 2015, only fully ‘delivered’ by 2022, and much of it as interest-charged loans).
• Channi Riana, a negotiator from India, described COP29’s outcome as “abysmally poor” and “a complete travesty of justice”.
• Panama’s Juan Carlos Monterrey Gómez said: “Developed nations always throw text at us at the last minute, shove it down our throat, and then, for the sake of multilateralism, we always have to accept it, otherwise the climate mechanisms will go into a horrible downward spiral, and no-one needs that.”
• The Least Developed Countries group said “our pleas were met with indifference. This outright dismissal erodes the fragile trust that underpins these negotiations and mocks the spirit of global solidarity.”
Is this really the best that the world’s political elites can manage? Is this really fair?
In a tragic aside, a Word document of the COP29 text was allegedly passed between Azerbaijani and Saudi delegates with “track changes” enabled for the Saudis to edit the text. All other nation states received uneditable PDF documents. The Saudis have been dubbed a “wrecking ball” throughout this process and wanted to remove the statement discussing “transitioning from fossil fuels”, having previously stated that Saudi would “not accept any text that targets any specific sectors, including fossil fuel”.
Might petrostates have a vested interest when hosting meetings on climate action?
As I write from a developed nation that kicked off the industrial revolution based on cheap, abundant, highly emitting coal, we are under 150 “danger to life” flood warnings from Storm Bert. The Welsh valleys have been already hit by catastrophic flooding this weekend and the rail networks warn “do not travel on any route”. Yet we think we are immune, or choose to turn a blind eye. Regardless, I will go to work today to help generate revenue for a corporate while trying to make a difference. We may all be part of the system but we all have influence and can apply soft power. Parents for Future Scotland is one way we can find solidarity in our concerns, support in our anxieties and the comfort that we are not alone.
We are nature.
And that is a wrap ... now let’s get to work fighting this BS.