Kalain Hosein
Climate Change Consultant
kalain.hosein@guardian.co.tt
Last week, world leaders were in New York City for perhaps the largest climate gathering this year. It rivals the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Conference of the Parties, which will take place in Baku, Azerbaijan, in November.
However, financing the future of the planet amidst a warming climate was and remains a hot topic both in New York City and in Baku. The Baku COP, called COP29, has also been dubbed a finance COP as climate negotiators try to agree on a new finance goal.
Mukhtar Babayev, President-Designate of COP29 and Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan said in a recorded statement at one of the many NYC Climate Week events dedicated to climate finance, “The scale and urgency of the climate crisis is (sic.) clear at COP29 we must agree [on] the first climate finance goal of the post-Paris era. This is our top negotiated priority for the year. There is no room for delay.”
When countries signed the Paris Agreement in 2015, they set a “new collective quantified goal on climate finance” (NCQG) to replace the 2009 goal of US$100 billion per year by 2020.
This NCQG is meant to be adopted at COP29. This new finance goal is expected to channel greater funds toward urgently needed climate action in developing countries by supporting the implementation of low-carbon, climate-resilient solutions in energy, transport, agriculture, and other vital systems. However, the US$100 billion per year goal was not hit in 2020, and the target has been pushed to 2025.
Todd Stern, former US Special Envoy on Climate Change, said in an interview that reforms to the World Bank, multilateral banks, and other national development banks are needed outside of this goal, echoing sentiments shared by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley.
Mottley, since 2022, has long called for these reforms as part of her plan, the Bridgetown Initiative, which calls for reforms to the global financial system and address climate change and development challenges, especially for vulnerable countries.
Babayev, the President-Designate of COP29, said the upcoming climate conference is “a key opportunity for countries to take substantial and meaningful action to address one of the most pressing challenges of our time and to keep 1.5 degrees within reach.”
He added, “International cooperation and support will be crucial, especially for nations with limited resources. These countries need significant assistance, especially in the form of means of implementation, with finance at the centre to achieve their climate goals.”
Coverage of New York City Climate Week was supported by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network’s Reporting Fellowship.
