UN climate chief Simon Stiell has told negotiators at the COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan that setting an ambitious new climate finance target is crucial for the well-being of all nations, including the wealthiest and most powerful.
Officially the 29th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), COP29, which began on Tuesday will end on Nov. 22.
This is to replace the 100 billion dollar pledge set in 2009, which expires at the end of the year and which many say is far less than what is required to cope with fast-rising air and sea temperatures.
“Let’s dispense with any idea that climate finance is charity;” runaway climate change is impacting “every single individual in the world one way or another,” Stiell said in a statement on Monday.
Stiell, who is the Executive Secretary of UNFCCC, underscored that the UNFCCC process “is the only place where the world can address the rampant climate crisis, and to credibly hold each other to account to act on it.
“And we know this process is working. Because without it, humanity would be headed towards five degrees of global warming.”
He gave stark examples of why a new deal on climate finance is so critical, saying that every country would pay a terrible price if at least two-thirds of the world’s countries cannot afford to rapidly reduce their emissions.
Moreover, the entire world economy could collapse if countries are unable to strengthen their supply chains in the face of rising costs linked to climate shocks, such as falling water levels in the Panama Canal which had a dramatic impact on shipping volumes.
“I’m as frustrated as anyone that one single COP can’t deliver the full transformation that every nation needs… [but] it is here that Parties need to agree a way out of this mess.
“That’s why here in Baku, we must agree a new global climate finance goal.”
Stiell, who hails from Grenada, where his home island of Carriacou was nearly flattened by Hurricane Beryl in July.
Speaking against the backdrop with images of the devastation, he told COP29 delegates that he was inspired by his neighbours, like an 85-year-old woman named Florence – and millions of others worldwide – who become victims of climate change “but get up over and over again.”
“But we cannot afford to continue up-ending lives and livelihoods in every nation – so let’s make this real,” he said, posing a series of simple questions to the delegates.
“Did they want their grocery and energy bills to rise even more; their countries to become economically uncompetitive? Did they want even further global instability, costing precious life?
If the answer to any of those questions was “no”, then making a new climate finance deal was all the more important.
To that end, he called for robust reforms to the global financial system, which he believes is essential for nations to address climate impacts effectively.
Stiell wrapped up his remarks with a reminder of the historic importance of COP29.
“We cannot leave Baku without a substantial outcome,” he said, challenging delegates to “stand and deliver.”
He called on every nation to show that global cooperation is “rising to this moment” rather than faltering.
NAN
