COP29: Brazil reiterates need for further progress on financing
In a speech a day before the end of the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference—COP29—in Baku, Azerbaijan, Brazil’s Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Marina Silva, reinforced the need for countries to agree on a new collective quantified goal (NCQG) on climate finance.
“Here in Baku, what we need is a breakthrough in financing. This is the NCQG finance COP, which will pave our way for ambition and implementation at COP30. The 1.5 [ºC increase maximum] goal is an unswerving ethical imperative. It reflects what science says is necessary, however challenging some may find it,” she declared.
The statement was made just a few hours after the governing body of the climate convention published a text stating that it is understood that $5.036 to $6.876 trillion will be needed by 2030 ($455–584 billion a year) for the new climate finance agreement that will replace the $100 billion a year planned for 2020–2025.
The text is based on what has been presented so far by the ministers of the countries that have signed the agreement and does not establish a definitive figure, but it does say that this figure should exceed one trillion a year.
“We need an alignment regarding means of implementation and financing, an alignment between substance and finance, Mr. President. This is the COP on means of implementation and financing. We have a process to measure whether our 1.5 degree targets are being met. We also need a process that can measure whether the financing is up to this challenge,” she argued.
The minister noted that the conference in Baku will determine the path for action up to COP30, to be held in Brazil, when countries will have delivered the third generation of ambitions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In her view, the finance targets established will determine the new nationally determined contributions, i.e. the greenhouse gas emission reduction targets for each country, for compliance with the Paris Agreement. Under the agreement, the signatories undertake to keep the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to make efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
“This obligation will show us whether what we are saying is consistent with what we are doing in terms of mitigating, implementing, and transforming our unsustainable development models that have brought us to a crisis with terrible damage, especially for developing countries,” she concluded.
COP29 is due to end this Friday. However, the topic of financial obstacle could push the discussions into the early hours of Saturday morning.
