Climate conference agrees on $1 trillion deal after tensions

By Stefan J. Bos 

After 11 long days of often tense negotiations, the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP29, concluded with a deal that campaigners said was a “betrayal” of the developing world. 

Under the deal, the developing world should receive at least $1.3 trillion a year in funds to help it shift to a low-carbon economy. The money will also help it set up infrastructure to cope with the impacts of extreme weather by 2035.

COP 29 President Mukhtar Babayev seemed pleased with the outcome. “When the world came to Baku, people doubted Azerbaijan could deliver. They doubted that everyone could agree. They were wrong on both counts,” he said. 

“With this breakthrough, the Baku Finance Goal will turn billions into trillions over the next decade. We have secured a trebling of the core climate finance target for developing countries each year,” Babayev added. 

However, not everyone shares his enthusiasm. 

Critics noted that only $300 billion of the promised 1.3 trillion dollars will come primarily from grants and low-interest loans from the developed world. 

The rest must come from private investors and a range of potential new sources of money, such as possible taxes on fossil fuels and frequent flyers, which have yet to be agreed upon.

That angered India, explained the Indian delegation representative Chandni Raina. “We are disappointed in the outcome, which clearly brings out the unwillingness of the developed country parties to fulfill their responsibilities,” she said.

"I regret to say that this document is nothing more than an optical illusion. This, in our opinion, will not address the enormity of the challenge we all face. Therefore, we oppose the adoption of this document,” Raina stressed. 

Some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries fought hard during nearly two weeks of tense negotiations at the COP29 UN summit in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, for a bigger share of the money to come directly from developed countries. 

They also wanted more available finance to go to the most needy countries instead of being shared with more significant emerging economies.

Questions remain over the deal's practicalities. During last year's COP28 summit in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, there was a call to “transition away” from coal, oil, and gas. 

That was seen as groundbreaking because, for the first time, 200 countries, including top oil and gas producers like Saudi Arabia and the United States, seemed to agree to phase down fossil fuels. 

However, the latest talks only mentioned the Dubai deal without explicitly repeating the call for a transition away from fossil fuels.