Exit Press Release : Baku should not be final resting place for Paris Agreement! - PACJA

PACJA- Response to NCQG

November 22, 2024

PRESS RELEASE: COP 29 Outcome is a Flop

November 25, 2024

Baku, Azerbaijan – November 22, 2024

African stakeholders, bringing together diverse groups, including civil society, women, youth, Faith-based networks, indigenous groups, pastoralists, wish to express our deepest disappointment at the conclusion of COP29 in Baku.

Despite this year’s negotiations being billed as pivotal for securing real progress on the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG), COP29 has fallen alarmingly short of addressing Africa’s urgent climate and development challenges. Once again, Baku seems to repeat the same pattern from previous COPs where negotiations are deliberately dragged through snail pace for two weeks, only for the final card to be released by invisible powers at the last minute – a take-or-leave offer that is pushed into the throats of helpless poor countries.

The NCQG was expected to set a transformative financial framework to replace the disputed and unfulfilled $100 Billion annual pledge by 2025. For Africa, the NCQG represents a critical opportunity to unlock resources necessary to address climate-induced crises, adapt to worsening impacts, and transition to low-carbon economies. However, COP29 has witnessed an entrenched stalemate, with developed countries resisting commitments that reflect the true scale of Africa’s needs.

The NCQG negotiations should have been a turning point for climate finance justice. Instead, we are presented with vague, incremental language that disregards the scale of loss and damage, under-funds adaptation, and prioritizes the interests of the wealthy over the communities on the frontline of climate crisis.

The worst fear is eminent! It’s either there will be no deal or COP29 will be historic in delivering a bad deal! There will be no decision worth the description of the nature of the goal anticipated on the NCQG that will come out of Baku. COP29 is destined to a disastrous closure. Developed countries have again failed communities at the frontline of climate crisis after paying lofty promises at the onset of the conference.

Christened as the ‘COP of climate finance’ by the AGN, this COP leaves a vast majority of vulnerable communities in Africa vanquished and their hopes in the ability of multilateral processes to deliver justice dry.

We express solidarity with AGN and the G77+China on their demand for USD $1.3 trillion quantum of climate finance that is new, additional, predictable, grant-based, and non-debt-inducing.

It is disheartening that just a few hours before the curtains fall on COP29, Parties have not agreed on the most-awaited quantum, an essential element for NCQG. Yet, estimates on the costed needs in Nationally Determined Contributions of developing countries at USD 5.036 – 6.876 trillion up until 2030.

In few hours to closure, the critical purpose of Baku remains empty, with no quantum agreed, the negotiations remain on nothingness as figures proposed remain far way off the magnitude of the needs on the ground.

In the current status, Baku climate talks is predictably destined to fail. As matters stand, the core deliverable for COP29 is not only far off the sight, but achieving a flawed deal is in offing. We urge the AGN to heed our earlier advice; ‘No Deal for a Bad Deal is Good Deal’.

Stalled Progress on Key Issues:

NCQG: Baku has failed to secure a financial goal aligned with the needs of developing nations, leaving Africa’s adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage priorities dangerously underfunded. Without clear mechanisms and guarantees for predictable and accessible funding, African countries remain exposed to climate shocks threatening livelihoods, economies, and ecosystems.
Adaptation Finance: Despite strong advocacy from the AGN and civil society, developed countries are reluctant to commit to the means of implementation, largely climate finance to adaptation, through NAPs. This failure perpetuates Africa’s chronic underfunding in addressing the impacts of floods, droughts, and other climate-driven disasters. Equally, it’s a strong message to Africa and other developing countries that we are engaging in mere academic exercise in the Global Goal on Adaptation as there is no financial commitment to implement NAPs.
Fossil Fuel Phase-Out: COP29 has failed people and the planet. The current language in the negotiation that is not strong on phase-out of fossil fuels is a death sentence. The lack of ambition undermines global efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C, leaving Africa’s communities increasingly vulnerable to climate disasters.
The Loss and Damage Fund remains grossly underfunded and inaccessible to those most affected. The extremely low level of pledges secured in Baku to this Fund is a demonstration of the continued neglect of climate reparations owed to vulnerable countries.

COP29’s likely outcome, we fear, reveals the systemic inequities at the heart of international climate negotiations. The disproportionate influence of fossil fuel lobbyists and developed countries has drowned out the voices of the vulnerable and marginalised.