Late evening on Wednesday, countries approached Zaheer Fakir of the UAE and Fiona Gilbert of Australia, co-chairs appointed by the COP29 UN Climate Conference presidency to resolve technical differences and finalise a draft text for ministerial consideration, to “streamline” a 34-page draft that had been prepared overnight after the developing country bloc G77 and China rejected a seven-page framework that the co-chairs had prepared earlier.
With this all options are back on the table. Developing countries are clear that the new climate finance goal, the successor to the $100 billion plan, must be about rich industrialised countries providing the funding. Developing countries said any text that proposes shifting the burden of providing climate finance to them was unacceptable.
Explaining the reason why the G77 and China rejected the seven-page framework draft, Africa Group Chair Ali Mohamed said: “The attempt to redefine the commitments and obligations under the Convention and the Paris Agreement has been the biggest obstacle to climate finance negotiations this year, and here in Baku.”
Developed countries too had issues with the framework, particularly on inclusion of language that would result in assessing the share of the total that each developed country was responsible for.
One major bone of contention is over countries that would be liable for meeting the goal. Developing countries are clear that the Convention and the Paris Agreement assign the obligation to developed countries. “The Convention is very clear regarding the flow of financing. There are established commitments and obligations. Developed countries must lead in providing the financing, while developing countries are the recipients,” said Ali.Expanding the list of contributing countries to include developing countries such as China and the UAE is a core demand of developed countries. Speaking at the opening plenary, the top US climate diplomat, John Podesta, said that the new climate goal should be “multi-layered with an ambitious, realistically achievable, support layer involving new contributors”. The argument is that since 1992, when the Convention was negotiated, many developing countries have grown economically and their emissions too have increased; therefore these countries should be included into the contributor base.
Developing countries argue that the Convention and the Paris Agreement put the onus on developed countries and changing this core principle is tantamount to renegotiating the Convention and the Paris Agreement.
“This is the core principle of both the Convention and the Agreement, and it is not something we are willing to renegotiate afresh,” said Ali, emphasising: “We cannot reopen the Convention and the Agreement for further negotiation.”
