A band-aid on a bullet wound: Climate Action Network Canada reacts to COP29 outcome

Baku, Azerbaijan, 24 November 2024:

COP29 concluded today in the early hours of the morning, as the Presidency forced through an agreement on a New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), provoking strong criticism from countries on the front lines of climate change and from civil society. Amidst attempts to scrub COP28’s commitment to transition away from fossil fuels from decision texts, other negotiations on Just Transition and on implementing the Global Stocktake have been postponed.

“The climate finance deal reached today in Baku is a band-aid on a bullet wound,” said Caroline Brouillette, Executive Director, Climate Action Network Canada. “The fact that it’s a bigger band-aid than we’ve seen before is cold comfort when the world is also bleeding more heavily than ever. The climate crisis is hurting people here and now; a vague promise to be fulfilled by 2035 is an insult to those who have already lost their homes, health, and livelihoods.

“There’s no other way to say it: this COP truly sucked. There have been glaring violations of process here in Baku. The hasty gavelling-through of the climate finance goal without allowing statements from countries was outrageous. Moreover, the Just Transition Work Programme negotiations disappeared from the agenda – a loss of progress that’s a slap in the face to workers, communities and Peoples.

“COP29 is a story with multiple villains: foot-dragging countries from the Global North, an obstructive Presidency, the fossil fuel lobby. But there are heroes too, with the most vulnerable countries and Indigenous Peoples leading the charge for justice and civil society standing strong despite severe restrictions. At a time when multilateralism is more fragile than ever but more important than ever, we will continue fighting every step of the way for our collective future.”

“We always knew that it would be a fight to get Global North countries to commit to a number that matches the needs of the Global South – even though the money is there,” added Soomin Han, Climate Finance Policy Analyst, Climate Action Network Canada. “But it stings to see the mistakes of the $100 billion goal repeated, with no clarity on what will be public vs. private finance, grants vs. loans, mitigation vs. adaptation vs. loss and damage. As we proceed from Baku to Belém for COP30 to mobilize at least $1.3 trillion per year by 2035, it is especially critical that the foundation is set strong to provide financing to developing countries through public grants and non-debt-inducing instruments, and take an ambitious step in anticipation of the review of the goal in 2030.” 

This COP took place during the hottest year on record and amid disastrous climate impacts in Canada and around the world, with those least responsible for causing climate change bearing its worst effects. Despite the urgency, and despite having had decades to get their act together, Global North countries came to this “finance COP” with uneven and unclear proposals for how they would pay their climate debt, and with poor coordination with their finance ministries. While the COP29 Presidency deserves criticism for its handling of the process, wealthy countries bear the blame for failing to put numbers on the table.

While COP29 is over, the next tests for Canada are fast approaching. Canada will set its post-2025 climate finance goal in the coming months, and Climate Action Network Canada has called for a tripling of climate finance as a good faith down payment on its climate debt. In the light of this weak and disappointing outcome, it’s more important than ever that Canada put its money where its mouth is and make a strong finance commitment – to show that the NCQG agreement is the floor and not the ceiling for ambition.

Canada must also set its 2035 climate target within a week, by December 1, and a more detailed plan to achieve it in its Nationally Determined Contribution, due early 2025. As one of the world’s biggest polluters and producers of fossil fuels, Canada must take on its fair share of the climate effort – which requires an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2030. The United Kingdom has already set the bar by announcing an 81% emissions reduction target by 2035 here at COP29.

Next June, Canada will host the G7 Summit. This will be a critical moment in the diplomatic calendar, and Canada must use all its influence to build momentum towards Belém, where COP30 will be hosted next year.

Other key points:

• Canada’s role in the negotiations: While Canada could have been more vocal in the final days about the importance of the new goal to center the provision of public finance, Minister Guilbeault and his team of negotiators worked until the final hour to ensure that the world left Baku with a deal. We saw Canada center a rights-based and inclusive approach in its pushback against concerning attempts to roll back progress on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, human rights, gender equity, and intersectionality. Canada was also among the parties who refused to endorse a text on mitigation in which a reference to so-called “transition fuels” had been included.
• Quantity: While the climate finance needs of Global South countries are in the trillions, the NCQG only sets a goal of USD 300 billion in provision and mobilization. Once we adjust for inflation from 2009, when the USD 100 billion goal was set, the NCQG barely represents an increase.
• Process: This afternoon, the Alliance of Small Island States and Least Developed Countries temporarily walked out of negotiations in frustration that they had not been consulted on text. In the final plenary, a number of countries spoke out strongly against the way the NCQG was abruptly gavelled through. It is unacceptable that this process sidelined the voices of those most affected by climate change, and that the outcome did not address the needs they have so clearly raised for so long.
• Article 6: Decisions on Article 6.2 and Article 6.4 were also adopted on Saturday afternoon. Carbon markets are not climate finance, and weak rules risk leading to land grabs, rights violations, and failure to actually reduce emissions.
• Fossil fuels: Throughout COP, there have been attempts to backtrack on the COP28 agreement to transition away from fossil fuels. While finance is critical for enabling countries to move from oil, gas, and coal towards renewable energy, no amount of finance can fix the damage that will be done if the world continues expanding fossil fuel production. In the final hours, parties rejected a distressingly unambitious text carrying forward the work of the Global Stocktake, punting it to Belém.
• Civic space: Civil society has experienced tighter-than-ever restrictions this COP. This silencing is unacceptable; there can be no climate justice without a strong civil society.

Further quotes:

Julie Segal, Senior Program Manager of Climate Finance, Environmental Defence Canada:

“COP29 concluded with an outrageously inadequate offer on climate finance, with a stingy pledge which attempted to abdicate the obligations of major historical emitters. The decision was wrongfully steamrolled through despite opposition from the most vulnerable countries.

“Climate damages are getting worse globally, and the need to decarbonize is urgent. Yet wealthy countries like Canada with high greenhouse gas emissions provided no valuable offer of financing in the years to come. Developed countries have failed – and the most vulnerable countries were cheated by both the process and result of this deal. While annual global fossil fuel subsidies exceed $1.3-trillion, the proposal here at COP29 to move only $300-billion a year by 2035 is paltry. Cutting emissions now is the only way to reduce climate damages, both globally and at home in our communities, and this requires an international climate finance commitment that actually meets what is needed.”

Andréanne Brazeau, Senior Policy Analyst – Québec, David Suzuki Foundation:

“In the face of the climate crisis that is destroying communities and lives across the planet, skyrocketing the cost of living, undermining our health and well-being, and exacerbating inequalities, COP29 will go down in history for all the wrong reasons, as it undermines the credibility of the international climate regime. Canada and the other developed countries have abandoned the rest of the world with the timid sum of $300 billion that was finally adopted. With the summit once again packed with oil and gas lobbyists, it’s hardly surprising that the countries of the Global South express feelings of betrayal, distrust, and discontent at the end of this COP which saw no progress surrounding the critical phase-out of fossil fuels.

“If Canada failed to show leadership in Baku, it must do so quickly at home by proposing a fair target for the year 2035, adopting the climate measures currently on the table and, of course, increasing its contribution to climate finance.”

Andrea Koehle Jones, Executive Director, The ChariTree Foundation:

“Just as we can’t negotiate with the climate, we can’t negotiate with the future of our children. COP29 failed children everywhere today, with those in the Global South bearing the heaviest burden.. On days as disheartening as this, I remind kids not to lose hope—there are remarkable people working tirelessly behind the scenes, and we won’t stop until we achieve climate solutions and environmental education opportunities that leave no one behind.”

Liz McDowell, Senior Campaigns Director, Stand.earth:

“Not only did this year’s climate talks push through a shamefully inadequate climate finance package where big polluters like Canada refused to pay their debts to the rest of the world, but the operationalization of global carbon markets has added insult to injury. Now rich countries have a free pass to buy offsets from the global south instead of actually reducing their climate pollution, with few guardrails to ensure these dubious offset projects won’t destroy biodiversity or trample on human rights. But despite the abject failure of COP29 to achieve the outcomes we needed, we are undeterred in our fight for a climate-safe future for everyone. Regardless of what the 1,700 oil & gas lobbyists here would have us believe, the fossil fuel era is coming to an end – and big producer countries like Canada need to get on board with a renewable transition or get left behind.”

Louise Brownlee, co-chair, Grand(m)others Act To Save The Planet (GASP):
“GASP is deeply disappointed that developed countries have not come through with the level of finance needed to help developing countries deal with the climate crisis created by the fossil fuel industry. This is a serious letdown to countries in the global south and to future generations. Still we will raise our voices for climate justice.”

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