"COP29: Finance target is a blueprint for inequalities and violations", 25 November 2024

"The derisory new climate finance target agreed at the close of COP29 in Azerbaijan will put the human rights of billions of people at risk and perpetuate global inequalities, Amnesty International said today. Following days of protracted and opaque negotiations in Baku, the conference ended yesterday with an agreement by high-income countries to mobilize USD300 billion annually by 2035, to help lower-income countries address the escalating climate crisis.

This is less than a quarter of the minimum amount demanded by many lower-income countries and activists....

“The world’s wealthiest countries have spent this year’s climate conference bullying lower-income countries into accepting a miserly finance agreement which could saddle them with huge debts. High-income countries and the Azerbaijan presidency are loudly congratulating themselves, but no amount of spin can hide the fact that this agreement is a disaster for the human rights of people and communities on the front line of proliferating climate impacts,” said Ann Harrison, Climate Justice Advisor at Amnesty International....

Many lower-income countries had called for at least USD1.3 trillion in annual public grant-equivalent finance, to help them adapt to climate change and recover from loss and damage. The deal reached at COP29 will do neither. Instead, it risks trapping lower-income countries in a cycle of indebtedness at a time when they are seeking to take urgent climate action.

COP29 also failed to make any progress on the critical issue of phasing out fossil fuels...

Amnesty International also highlighted how new regulations on carbon markets which lacked robust human rights protections were adopted on the first day of COP29, before parties had time to properly consider them. Also alarming was the concerted effort by some parties to remove references to gender and intersectionality in many draft decisions.

Azerbaijani voices missing

Meanwhile, aspects of the negotiations themselves did not respect key human rights principles related to participation and transparency.

Many grassroots climate activists decided not to attend COP29 because of high costs and security concerns. Intense surveillance by Azerbaijani authorities led to heavy self-censorship among civil society, with many delegates reluctant to even mention the host country’s name for fear of reprisals....

In contrast, there were more than 1770 fossil fuel lobbyists present, often with much greater access to the negotiating teams. The decisions taken at COP reflect this unequal access...."