COP29's $1.3 tn fund plan disappoints Global South

The 29th edition of the UN climate change conference in Azerbaijan emerged from a deadlock with an annual climate finance goal of $1.3 trillion for developing countries, much to the disappointment of the Global South.

- Puja Das

On Friday, the closing day of COP29, a revised five-page text on the climate finance package, or the world's new collective quantified goal (NCQG) on climate finance, was issued specifying two separate goals.

The first states that "all actors to work together to enable the scaling up of financing to developing country parties for climate action from all public and private sources to at least $1.3 trillion per year by 2035".

The second goal mentions that developed countries must take the lead in mobilizing $250 billion per year by 2035 for climate action by developing countries from public and private, bilateral and multilateral, and alternative sources.

For climate experts, the issue is this: the goals do not specify that the annual $1.3 trillion in climate finance should flow from developed economies to developing countries.

"It's a good thing that $1.3 trillion is acknowledged, but how that will be met right now is totally unclear," said Avantika Goswami, programme manager, climate change, at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). "It must specify (that) out of $1.3 trillion, $600 billion must come from the government budget of developed countries. That's what G77 has asked for."