Summer 2024 the hottest on record
The summer of 2024 was the hottest on record. Recent alerts included floods sweeping through Spain, warmer than usual autumn temperatures across the UK and Japan, devastating hurricanes in the USA, destructive mud slides from floods in Nepal and a receding Caspian Sea. Extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and severity, claiming lives, destroying infrastructure, and wrecking economies. Urgent action is needed to protect people and the planet: COP29 took place at a crucial time.
Trump’s presidency and the climate
Donald Trump will likely withdraw the USA from the UNFCCC Paris Agreement, having previously called climate change a “hoax”. There were also rumours circulating that he would withdraw staff from the UNFCCC. Ali Zaidi, outgoing US National Climate Advisor, stressed that the burden should not be placed on one country to lead on global climate negotiations, but that all countries have a collective duty to work out how to mitigate the effects of climate change at their annual meeting. Additionally, Zaidi pointed out that the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG), the elusive financial target, which was under negotiation at COP29, will run to 2035, whereas most political administrations come and go every four years.
Money takes centre-stage
Before COP29, climate campaigners, including at the World Economic Forum, calculated that commitments of about $1trillion per annum are needed to halt – and mitigate the effects of – climate change. Others feared that no agreement at all would be reached in Baku.
Despite fraught negotiations, which saw several countries storm out of the negotiating room, world leaders reached a last-minute deal on cash for developing countries. They established a new Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD). The FRLD is designed so that wealthier countries that have burned more fossil fuels can support poorer nations both in their reduction of emissions and in addressing their effects from climate change, ranging from the destruction of crops and infrastructure to the loss of life and land, as well as harm to cultural heritage.
The more than 190 countries represented at Baku agreed a target for richer, polluting countries – such as the UK, EU countries and Japan – to contribute $300bn a year by 2035. (The COP15 target in 2009 had been $100bn per year; this has been achieved, but not until 2022.) Campaigners also wanted the agreement to enable the FRLD to hold rich nations to account. However, contributions to the FRLD are left to the discretion of rich countries and the poor attendance at the conference by heads of government from the world’s top 13 polluters has made the task of unlocking funds for the FRLD even more difficult.
As well as the size of contributions, the FRLD faces two important further issues. The first is that this money should be additional to current Overseas Development Assistance (ODA or aid) commitments. CARE International had previously reported that 93 per cent of climate finance reported by wealthy countries between 2011 and 2020 was taken directly from development aid. At COP28 in Dubai, heads of government had promised that climate finance would be “new and additional money”. If the money means further reductions in aid, projects helping the world’s most disadvantaged and vulnerable individuals are likely to suffer. The UN message of leaving no one behind is crucial. Climate finance should go beyond economic decisions and also consider human rights implications of climate inaction.
The second key issue is that the funding should be in the form of grants not loans. As Debt Justice explains, there is a danger that climate finance will push lower-income countries further into unsustainable, crushing debt. But the present agreements allow climate finance to be provided from the private sector, which is likely to mean a devastating burden of debt repayments on the most vulnerable countries.
The UK’s climate commitments
The UK’s Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband, said the deal is “not everything we or others wanted”, but described it as a “step forward”. “It’s a deal that will drive forward the clean energy transition, which is essential for jobs and growth in Britain and for protecting us all against the worsening climate crisis,” he added. Despite the challenges around financing, the UK delivered an ambitious message to delegates at COP29. Offshore wind developers will be incentivised to invest in the UK’s historic industrial heartlands, coastal areas and oil and gas communities, boosting green jobs and supporting sustainable factories.
Delivering on a government manifesto commitment, the Clean Industry Bonus will come with a provisional £27 million per Gigawatt of offshore wind projects. That means that, if between 7 to 8GW of offshore wind is generated, the budget could go up to £200m. It will help to attract private investment into Scotland, Wales, the Northeast and the Northwest, to build more sustainable offshore wind blades, cables and ports – reducing industrial emissions, generating green jobs and helping support the rollout of clean, secure, cheap power for families. It is hoped that the increased number of offshore wind farms will help power sustainable factories and create green jobs in those areas, thus supporting the local and national economy.
The message delivered by Prime Minister Keir Starmer was welcomed at COP29. The UK government wants to see the country return as a global leader on climate. With an ambitious goal of reducing the country’s emissions by 81% against 1990 levels by 2035, it is evident that the UK ’means business’. However, the government has reiterated that it will not dictate how people should live their lives; instead, investments will go towards investing in clean technology and transport, which will make people’s lives greener in the future. The UK has already reduced its annual greenhouse gas emissions by around half since 1990 and this announcement is a positive step forward in the global fight against climate change.
However, the UK has continued to take its contribution out of the aid budget, which has decreased financial support for projects including protecting women and girls in conflict. The Labour Government is yet to indicate that it will reverse this position.
TAKE ACTION!
Despite some positive news coming out of COP29, the main message remains the same: promises need to be translated into clear actions. More people across the world, especially in developing countries, are at risk of serious climate disasters and the world is warming at rapid rates. Please write to your MPs to ensure that the UK demonstrates strong climate leadership, especially against the backdrop of the recent US election.
We urge the UK to:
- Keep its FRLD promise and ensure it, with other rich countries, provides at least $300bn a year towards this fund by 2035. It should also support urgent steps to increase this to the $1 trillion a year that is really needed.
- Ensure that the FRLD is ‘new money’ and not coming out of an-already depleted foreign aid budget, thus harming support for the world’s most vulnerable people.
- This funding must be in the forms of grants rather than loans, in order not to trap the poorest countries in additional unsustainable debt problems.
To echo the words of UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, the “world must pay up or humanity will pay the price. Climate finance is not a charity but an investment”.
from LASER Campaigns Officer, Valeria Minisini
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