November 2024
by Cindy Bell
COP29 Brief Report
This year’s focus was on Climate Finance and so it was a particularly difficult one. People living in the Global South need funding to assist them with the transition to available renewable energy, as well as with mitigation for the problems they already face as a result of climate change, adaptation for what is coming and help with the loss and damage that is regularly happening. The issue isn’t just more violent storms and flooding, it’s chaos, the spread of disease and loss of homes, farmland, livestock and many other factors related to a situation they did not create and cannot control.
Drama evolved at the Closing Plenary, when many countries flatly rejected the offer of $250b (billion),leaving the COP a failure with cries of “no deal is better than a bad deal”. The session was paused for several hours while the negotiators attempted to find a solution these countries could live with(literally). In the end, a figure of $300b was agreed on, leaving many representatives angry and disappointed. However, progress was made and there is hope for more private investments to help close the finance gap. The global south countries, including LDCs (Least Developed Countries) had requested 1.3t(trillion), so the $300b fell far short. It was still a tripling of the prior COPs amount, so no one was satisfied, though a compromise was reached.
The other really big news from this COP is that a global Carbon Market is nearly ready to go live. It’s a big deal because every single country has to agree on every rule. There was a lot of excitement when the news came out, with a lengthy standing ovation from the representatives. This was 10 years in the making and, while it certainly won’t fix everything, it is thought that it must be part of the solution and was included as part of the Paris Agreement (Article 6).
I was never able to work with the rest of the LWVUS team due to digital issues here in Ruby, though I was able to access a great deal of what I was most interested in.
Since even the most basic reporting is too long for our newsletter, I invite you to check the LWVMHR website for more information and a longer version of this report.