Wealthy countries always say they need parliamentary approval for police climate finance – now is the time to start
2024 has only just begun, but the coming months will determine whether Cop29 is a success and whether the benefits trickle down to vulnerable communities in developing countries.
The Cop29 summit in Baku in November will focus on climate finance.
Government negotiators in the Global North always say fiscal ambitions are up to parliaments.
This has been emphasized in many negotiations by developed countries.
They emphasize that there is no authority or possibility to expand funding because Congress does not approve it.
So we need to act now, as parliamentary debates on budgets and allocations begin at the beginning of the year.
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Just a few weeks ago, Cop28 concluded. The results were shown to be a success, with the creation of a new loss and damage fund, global adaptation goals, and a first step towards a transition away from fossil fuels.
However, the commitments and commitments made at Cop28 and previous summits all rely on available, scaled-up and accessible climate finance.
This is why the next summit, Cop29, will be so important. In Baku, the government will set new fiscal targets for 2025 and beyond, affecting all previous agreements on expanding ambitions for emissions reductions, climate change adaptation, loss and damage, and technology transfer. It turns out.
The climate finance gap is huge and continues to widen. Without more accessible funding, humanity will never be able to address or tackle the climate crisis.
Further mobilization of climate finance is critical, especially in the least developed countries, where access to finance has been lacking for years, if not decades.
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Without further grant-based funding, our plans to adapt to climate change and reduce emissions will not be achieved. Not implemented. Our efforts to ensure green and sustainable growth and development will not succeed and we will never have a chance of addressing the growing threat of climate-related loss and damage.
So Cop29's decision on climate finance is extremely important. Apart from agreeing on scaling up funding, we also need to work on agreeing on time frames, measures and tools for tracking and accounting, and where and how funds should be spent and directed.
Increased funding can be achieved in a variety of ways. Some parties have emphasized the potential of “innovative finance.” It is certainly an area that must be explored. The Group of Least Developed Countries already proposed a ticket tax in 2008, and many proposals have been put forward since then.
But innovative finance only complements the global North's funding commitments, based on its historical commitment and capacity.
I look forward to the governments of the Global North arriving at Cop29 with strong and ambitious parliamentary mandates, including expanding climate finance, to join the negotiations.
We all need to remember that without money there is no action, and without action we will never manage the climate crisis.
Mr. Evans Nywa is the Chair of the Least Developed Countries Group and an employee of Malawi's Ministry of Environment.
