BAKU: Preliminary negotiations on climate finance are underway at the 60th session of the Subsidiary Bodies of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bonn, Trend reports.
Around 200 countries are striving to agree on a new global goal for climate finance ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference COP29, which will be held in Baku this November.
Climate finance involves major economies helping poorer countries invest in projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and cope with the worsening extreme weather conditions caused by climate change.
In 2009, developed countries agreed to contribute $100 billion annually to relevant funds from 2020 through 2025.
The goal for participants in the Bonn session is to increase the inflow of funds into these resources.
The worsening climate situation and the lack of investment in clean energy in developing countries mean that the required amounts must sharply increase once states agree on the first climate finance goal.
According to an independent 2023 report
cited by the UN, developing countries, excluding China, will need $2.4 trillion in annual investments by 2030 to meet their climate goals and protect societies from the impacts of climate change, which is more than four times the current level of investment.
The Arab Group, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt, proposes a UN goal of $1.1 trillion annually, with $441 billion to come directly from developed countries’ governments in the form of grants.
India, African countries, and small island states also stated that over $1 trillion is needed for these purposes, but there are disagreements about how much of this financing should come from the public sector.
Currently, only a portion of wealthy countries are obligated to provide climate financing.
This list of donor countries was determined during the UN climate negotiations in 1992 and has not changed since.
The EU and US officials believe that the list is outdated and propose adding new donors, including China, with the world’s second-largest econ
omy, as well as high GDP per capita countries like Qatar, Singapore, and the UAE, while Beijing is firmly against this.
At the COP29 conference in Baku, the main topic will be which countries should provide financing.
Issues to be discussed at this event include taxes on fossil fuels and the defense sector, as well as debt swap processes, where part of a country’s debt is forgiven in exchange for additional investments in climate action.
To note, this November, Azerbaijan will host COP29. This decision was made at the COP28 plenary meeting held in Dubai on December 11 last year. Baku will become the center of the world and will receive about 70-80,000 foreign guests.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an agreement signed at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992 to prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system. The COP-the Conference of the Parties-is the highest legislative body overseeing the implementation of the Framework Convention on Climate Change.
There are 198 countries that are parties to the Convention. Unless the parties agree otherwise, the COP is held annually. The first COP event took place in March 1995 in Berlin, and its secretariat is located in Bonn.
Source: Trend News Agency