The U.N. climate summit known as COP29 concluded over the weekend in Baku, capital of the oil-rich country of Azerbaijan after two weeks of tense negotiations. Some of the major outcomes include an agreement by rich countries to provide $300 billion in climate finance annually by 2035, a broad goal for public and private actors to raise $1.3 trillion in climate finance annually by 2035, and an agreement on global market rules for buying and selling carbon credits. Global South countries, which are disproportionately impacted by climate change, blasted these results as woefully inadequate and dozens of their representatives walked out of negotiations near the end. India’s delegate Chandni Raina stated, “This document is little more than an optical illusion,” and Nigeria’s envoy Nkiruka Maduekwe called it “an insult.” Even the COP29 president Mukhtar Babayev acknowledged the frugality of rich Western countries by revealing that China had planned for a much more ambitious finance target and was ready to offer more had Western countries shown more of a lead:
More broadly it was a mistake for western countries to insist that the final draft deal – and particularly the draft financials – not be unveiled until the penultimate day. To the global south this, rightly, made it look like a fait accompli. My negotiating team argued vociferously for drafts to be made public far earlier. But that was not to be.
This approach differed from other leading nations that were expected to make increased financial contributions. China spent the full two weeks coordinating their response to the negotiations in a regimented fashion with the G77 group of the world’s poorest nations. The Chinese were willing to offer more if others did so too (but the others didn’t). Their target of $500bn for the industrialised world’s contributions alone still would not suffice to limit global warming to 1.5C, but it was a more acceptable minimum figure – something publicly acknowledged by Kenya and several other African nations. [Source]
Josh Gabbatiss, a climate policy correspondent at Carbon Brief, wrote an explanatory thread on Bluesky summarizing the Global South’s anger at the part of the deal relating to the finance goal:
IN SUMMARY:
Developing countries wanted:
Mobilisation: $1.3tn
Provision: $600bn
Investment: ⛔️They got:
Mobilisation: $300bn
Provision: 🤷♂️
Investment: $1.3tn (maybe)— Josh Gabbatiss (@joshgabbatiss.bsky.social) Nov 25, 2024 at 10:42
China sent nearly 1,000 delegates to the conference, slightly less than the COP28, making it the fifth-largest delegation of the nearly 200 countries that participated. Leading the Chinese delegation was vice minister of China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment Zhao Yingmin. This year, Liu Zhenmin replaced Xie Zhenhua as China’s climate envoy. Ding Xuexiang, vice premier of the State Council and Xi Jinping’s special representative at COP29, declared that China had already provided and mobilized over $24.5 billion in climate finance for developing countries since 2016. But as Fermín Koop and Niu Yuhan reported for Dialogue Earth, China’s climate finance responsibilities still came under scrutiny during the conference:
[C]alls for China to shoulder greater financial responsibility have grown louder. Several delegates argued that classifications dating back to 1992, which label China as a developing nation, are outdated. New analysis by Carbon Brief estimated that China’s historical emissions have caused more warming than the combined emissions of the 27-member European Union, further fuelling arguments that China should contribute more as a global economic powerhouse.
China has resisted these pressures. Zhao Yingmin, head of the Chinese delegation, told the media that it is neither legal nor reasonable for some countries to refuse to recognise that China is a developing country, and that this undermines the mutual trust and cooperation between the contracting parties.
He sought to emphasise that all negotiations must follow the terms of the Paris Agreement, which imposes financial obligations only on developed country parties, but encourages other parties to provide support voluntarily: “China’s South-South cooperation is voluntary, contrasting with the mandatory obligations of developed nations.”
Li Shuo, director of the China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute, warned that pushing China to contribute to climate finance on the same basis as developed nations could be counterproductive. “That would risk harming trust and reinforcing divisions,” he said, advocating for a focus on unity and pragmatic collaboration instead. [Source]
In a sign of the support that China appears to have among large parts of the Global South, one unnamed African negotiator told Africa Report that the African group does not want to alienate China by lobbying for it to be included among the new polluters and thereby be required to contribute greater financing. Instead, China will remain among the countries providing voluntary contributions to the climate finance agreements. Asked about the results of COP29, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Monday: “China calls on developed countries to earnestly fulfill their obligations and responsibilities of providing funding support to developing countries to boost global climate actions. China will continue to enhance South-South cooperation and provide as much support as we can for the climate response effort of fellow developing countries”
An elephant in the room was the incoming U.S. presidential administration of Donald Trump, whose America First policy agenda when it comes to climate includes pulling out of the Paris Agreement and reigniting a trade war with China that will likely spike the price of electric vehicles and other green-technology products. Governments and activists wonder to what extent China can fill the void left by the U.S. Chinese officials may have had these challenges in mind when they emphasised the need for an energy transition and multilateral cooperation, as Carbon Brief noted in its list of key outcomes of the COP29 as they relate to China:
At the South-South Cooperation on Climate Change forum hosted by China, Carbon Brief heard Huang saying that the world needs multilateral cooperation in combating climate change, but that “green trade barriers” prevent better cooperation, especially for developing countries.
Wang Can, director of the department of environmental planning and management at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, explained to Carbon Brief that the “green trade barriers” are “bans and tariffs…mainly from the US” on renewable technology products. He added:
“Technology development is at this stage now, countries could adopt and deploy them quicker. The gap in the deployment scale required to meet climate targets was caused by trade barriers in the west.”
[…] This desire from China-based academics for international cooperation was intertwined with an overarching official message; Carbon Brief heard from multiple Chinese senior officials and high-level climate advisors that China is committed to the energy transition but cannot accelerate it globally alone. [Source]
