"Betrayal in Baku: developed countries fail people and planet", 23 November 2024

"Climate Action Network wholeheartedly rejects the outcome of COP29 in Baku. The linchpin of the climate talks was public finance, and developed countries did not deliver despite their historic responsibilities. The figure for the climate finance goal is wholly inadequate, the quality of finance is missing with no equity or justice reflected in the text, and the direction of finance from developed to developing countries did not come through. The goal completely missed the mark in responding to the needs of developing countries.

Developed countries are to blame – they have used the US election result as an excuse to push through this weak outcome. The US has been trying to dismantle the Convention and the Paris Agreement for years, Trump or no Trump. 

Two years of progress on Just Transition, where Parties were starting to shape a common vision, were trashed due to bad process, showing dismay for the millions of people concerned about their lives, jobs, livelihoods. In COP29, justice was not served on any front.

Tasneem Essop, Executive Director of Climate Action Network, said: “This has been the most horrendous climate negotiations in years due to the bad faith of developed countries.  This was meant to be the finance COP, but the Global North turned up with a plan to betray the Global South. In the end, we saw the same story play out, with developing countries being left little choice but to accept a bad deal. As civil society we called on developing countries to reject a bad deal, a deal that would betray the people in the Global South. We are not defeated; we will fight back home, we will be out in numbers and louder than ever. The fight is far from over.”

Anabella Rosemberg, Senior Advisor on Just Transition, Climate Action Network International, said: “The Just Transition Work Programme was thrown under a bus – one more casualty in a COP29 that added salt to the injury caused by a disgraceful deal on climate finance. Justice must now be served at COP30 in Brazil, whose incoming Presidency will have the difficult duty to repair what has been broken in Baku.”

Ann Harrison, Climate Justice Adviser, Amnesty International said: “The process and outcome of this COP, held in a country with a severe crackdown on civic space, are unacceptable. Developed countries and the Presidency have ridden roughshod over the human rights of billions by bullying developing countries to accept a deal that will bring further indebtedness and climate distress rather than creating the space for enhancing justice and dignity for all. Climate finance is an obligation, not charity, and this obligation does not disappear just because negotiators managed to insert some weasel words in COP outcome texts.  Polluters must pay for the damage they have already caused and we will continue to support and amplify the calls of climate activists around the world in the run up to COP30 in Belem, Brazil, to demand payment of the climate debt. We also call for the immediate release of all activists and environmental human rights defenders arbitrarily detained in Azerbaijan, including Anar Mammadli, Gubad Ibadoghlu, and the independent Abzas media journalists including Nargiz Absalamova..."