Betrayal or progress? COP29 ends without progress on climate protection and with a weak financial target
The 200 or so countries were only just able to prevent the climate conference in Baku from failing completely. However, there was no major breakthrough - and climate protection is not getting off the ground.
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- After a bitter dispute, the World Climate Conference in Azerbaijan has agreed on a new financial target for climate aid to poorer countries.
- The appeal is so broad that climate activists are criticizing the fact that no one is specifically responsible for this part of the financial target.
- The new core target for climate financing, with the industrialized countries leading the way, is 300 billion dollars per year until 2035.
- The overall target is at least 1.3 trillion dollars, but this includes many loans and private investments.
- However, no progress was made on climate protection - despite two weeks of consultations and another 32 hours of extra time.
Some speak of a new era, others of fraud and a bad joke: after a bitter dispute, the World Climate Conference in Azerbaijan has agreed on a new financial target for climate aid to poorer countries. However, no progress was made on climate protection - despite two weeks of deliberations and another 32 hours of extra time.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock nevertheless praised the decisions in Baku as an important signal in a difficult geopolitical situation. Now, however, all the world's economic nations are called upon to create "a reasonably reliable life insurance for the poorest". "Europe cannot do this alone", she said - also with a view to China and the rich Gulf states, which have so far stood aside.
Guterres: "Commitments must quickly become cash"
UN Secretary-General António Guterres expects the 200 or so states to keep their promises "in full and on time". "Pledges must quickly become cash!"
The new core target for climate financing, with the industrialized countries leading the way, is 300 billion dollars annually by 2035. The overall target is even at least 1.3 trillion dollars, but this includes many loans and private investments.
In addition, other donor countries are to be encouraged to participate voluntarily. The appeal is so broad that climate activists criticize the fact that no one is specifically responsible for this part of the financial target. Germany, which provides around six billion euros a year from the federal budget, is no more obliged to make specific payments than any other country.
So far, the traditional industrialized countries have mobilized a good 100 billion dollars in climate aid every year. However, according to an independent UN expert group, the need for external aid is now around one trillion dollars per year by 2030 and as much as 1.3 trillion dollars by 2035.
Anger and frustration over the resolutions
Developing countries are to use the money to pay for more climate protection and adapt to the fatal consequences of global warming. Examples include more severe and more frequent droughts, storms and floods, which cause millions of people to suffer and in some cases force them to flee abroad.
EU Climate Action Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said that the conference heralded "a new era of climate finance". The group of least developed countries sees things differently: "This is not just a failure, it's a fraud," said the countries, many of which are in Africa, Asia or the Caribbean.
Their anger was already palpable during the night after the Azerbaijani conference leader had hammered through the compromise - decisions at climate conferences are traditionally sealed with a hammer blow from the host.
Nigeria's representative described the 300 billion figure as a "joke" and an "insult" to applause from parts of the hall. A representative of Bolivia complained that the developing countries were being left alone with their suffering in the climate crisis. An era was dawning in which everyone was just trying to save their own skin.
Saudi Arabia hit the brakes
Less than a year ago in Dubai, the world celebrated the joint renunciation of coal, oil and gas as historic, but less than a year later it is no longer even possible to repeat this formulation. According to negotiators, Saudi Arabia in particular vehemently opposed this. Ultimately, the wording was weakened to such an extent that not everyone was willing to agree. The envisaged resolutions on climate protection were postponed until next year following last-minute resistance in the plenary session.
In the meantime, failure was also on the cards in Baku: Baerbock and many others criticized Azerbaijan's chaotic leadership. The organizers from the petrostate, 90 percent of whose export revenues come from oil and gas, on the other hand, praised themselves: Despite "geopolitical headwinds", every effort had been made throughout to be "an honest broker" for all sides.
Climate researchers: emissions "exploded" despite climate conferences
Was the conference doomed to fail? Prominent voices are now questioning the entire process of the annual climate conferences: "We have 28 conferences behind us and emissions have exploded. The COP is a spectacle that has done nothing for the climate so far," climate researcher Mojib Latif told the Rheinische Post newspaper.
The initiator of Fridays for Future and former icon of the climate movement, Greta Thunberg, no longer has any hope in the process: it is "based on a system of injustice" and sacrifices current and future generations in favor of profits, she wrote on X.
This time, the climate conference was overshadowed from the outset by Donald Trump's election victory in the USA. It is expected that the United States could once again withdraw from the Paris climate agreement and thus practically abandon any ambitions for climate protection.
Outgoing US President Joe Biden described the decision in Baku as a "historic" achievement and said: "Some may try to deny or delay the clean energy revolution underway in the US and around the world: No one can undo it - no one."
SDA