NO DEAL IS BETTER THAN A BAD DEAL: NORTHERN GOVERNMENTS, PAY UP YOUR CLIMATE DEBT!
- Media Communications
- Nov 22, 2024
- 2 min read
The Global South countries suffering from the negative impacts of the climate crisis will not be shortchanged. After two weeks of negotiations, talks, and side events at the 29th Conference of Parties (COP) climate summit held in Baku, Azerbaijan, delegates from developing nations demand trillions, and not billions, of climate finance.
Reiterations are being made–Nations agreed to set a new climate finance goal by 2025, under the Paris Agreement(1). According to global models(2), the scale of finance needed is from $1.55 trillion to $5.8 trillion to $13.6 trillion annually by 2030. With only a $250 billion annual commitment to climate finance, we couldn’t have been any more clear: it is the Northern countries’ obligation to pay up the $5 trillion climate finance. The Global South refuses to be played by the hollow words and vague phrases of the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG). The current text downplays the Global North’s obligation and delivery of climate finance by being a mere leader in the mobilization of the funds. The language of the NCQG is as lousy as just recognizing and underscoring the challenges we are and will experience because of the impacts of the climate crisis.
More than recognition, the need for decisive action to have a stronger text is crucially important. The text must clearly state that Northern countries will not only lead the mobilization of funds but are the ones responsible and obligated to provide climate finance that is adequate, equitable, non-debt-creating, and grants-based. Rich nations must deliver the rightful amount that is free from conditionalities.
Without all of this, the NCQG appears to be nothing more than a makeshift mechanism designed to permanently escape their obligation of climate debt! The Global South refuses to be locked into a deal that is very low in number; and an unclear mix of public and private loans and investments.
We condemn this shameful orchestration of developed countries led by the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, and with complicity of the European Union. Some nations are breaking away from the fight but the Philippines, Malaysia(3), and other developing countries continue to stand and demand the real global solution to the climate crisis. This is a reminder that we need to hold the line until the end and beyond these negotiations for the people and the planet.
We refuse to be approached by rich nations to agree on aid, instead of clear climate finance, when the world is on track to cost $38 trillion a year in damages within the next 25 years(4). $250 billion annually is not enough! Global North, pay up $5 trillion per year now!
FOR INQUIRIES
Ellenor Bartolome
Senior Executive Officer for Policy, Campaigns, & Communications
Philippine Movement for Climate Justice
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