COP29 in Baku ends in ‘disappointing deal’

The 29th international UN climate summit in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, ended with a disappointing outcome on Sunday night. The summit disappointed developing countries, which are also the most vulnerable to climate change. There is a prevailing feeling that the wealthiest industrialized countries have left them in the dust.

Oxfam Novib, in its response, said the summit’s most important theme, climate financing, led to a disappointing result. In 2009, it was agreed that countries already hit hardest by the climate crisis and least responsible for it would receive financial support.

Climate finance target

Although the final text mentions a new climate finance target of $1,300 billion, which is the amount that developing countries need to combat climate change and absorb climate damage, the contribution from rich countries is ‘only’ $300 billion.

It is completely unclear where the rest of the proposed total amount of $1,300 billion will come from. Developing countries have also been asked to contribute to the new total amount.

No progress

Also on other points, such as reducing global CO2 emissions, the rich countries, historically responsible for most emissions, have not made any progress. No progress was made on this at this climate summit.

“As the climate crisis continues to escalate, we see fewer and fewer countries leading the way with ambitious climate policies to stay below the critical limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius, said Hilde Stroot, climate expert at Oxfam Novib.

Mixed feelings

However, opinions about the outcome of the COP29 summit in Azerbaijan differ. “An important step,” said US President Joe Biden. Dutch Climate Minister Sophie Hermans called the climate summit agreements ‘ambitious and feasible’. Although at the same time she recognizes that poor countries need more money to arm themselves against climate change and to make the transition to renewable energy themselves.

“An optical illusion,” says the Indian delegation in Baku. The most nuanced assessment came from Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations. “The outcome is not ambitious enough in light of the challenges we face, but the agreement is a foundation on which we can build further.”

Battle-weary

Paleoclimate scientist and director of the Belgian Climate Center in Uccle Valerie Trouet is pessimistic and warns of irreversible consequences. In an article in the newspaper De Morgen, she severely criticized the lack of urgency in the fight against global warming while temperature records are being broken and natural disasters are increasingly making headlines.

“The consequences are already serious and we are still heading for 3 degrees of warming instead of 2. Climate extremes that we are already seeing today will follow each other in rapid succession.”

“They will cause suffering and damage that, as a society, will take years to repair. The pace will accelerate with more and more climate disasters. Where will the volunteers and billions continue to come from? We can’t handle that. Societies will become mentally, logistically, and economically exhausted.”

Valerie Trouet will return to the United States around Christmas. She’s battle-weary. She wants to regenerate and will continue her primary research on climatic variability over the last 2,000 years and its impact on human systems and forest ecosystems.