Baku COP29 hits low end as African countries decry 'climate colonisation'

Africa's group of negotiators is in sync with the Civil societies outcry that the proposed $300 billion by the global North, to be mobilized by 2035 is an insult to the Global South that is on the receiving end of the climate change effects.

“The proposed target to mobilize $300 billion by 2035 is totally unacceptable and inadequate to deliver the Paris Agreement. The adaptation Gap Report alone says the adaptation needs are $400 billion; $300 billion will lead to unacceptable loss of life in Africa and around the world, and imperils the future of our world.” Lamented Amb. Ali Mohamed, Kenya’s climate envoy, who chaired the Africa Group at COP29.

Mr. Fred Njehu, Pan-African Political Strategist, Greenpeace Africa, stated that, 

The Global North's offer isn't just inadequate but an insult to every African already suffering from climate disasters.

“This isn't climate finance - it's climate colonialism. While our continent burns, floods, and starves from a crisis we didn't create, wealthy nations offer pennies while pocketing billions in fossil fuel profits.

This finance deal is a masterclass in historical injustice. It betrays climate justice and mocks the polluter pays principle.The same nations who built their wealth on fossil fuels to prosperity now expect us to shoulder the devastating costs of their actions with pocket change,” added Njehu.

Nnimmo Bassey- Director-Health of Mother Foundation (HOMEF), said, “The proposed amount does not indicate that there is a consensus about the urgency for developed nations to pay up for squandering the carbon budget and bringing the world to the brink of climate catastrophe. Additionally, by pushing the date for providing needed funds a decade down the road, it does appear that there is no consideration about what the scale of climate disasters may be 2035 and what would be the value of $300billion then.”

The Africa Group of Negotiators(AGN) had pushed to have $1.3 trillion, with the Arab Group asking for $1.1 trillion all in the form of grants, not loans.

According to professor Fadhel Kaboub, an economist and member of the independent Expert Group on Just Transition and Development, mobilization of $300billion per year by 2035 is misleading and not in good faith revealing that mobilizing $300billion by 2035 is meant to belittle climate change sufferers, clarifying that, “Even with a very conservative inflation rate of 5%, the net set value of $300billion mobilized in 2035 would be worth approximately $175 billion and not the $300billion.

Just for reference, African countries are paying $163 billion in debt service this year alone. Now, let that sink in! That is how serious the Global North is about climate action,” added Kaboub.

The economist emphasized that the Azerbaijan, Baku COP was meant to be a climate finance COP, but acting in bad faith to show off their supremacy, they waited until the last official day of the conference to reveal their climate finance New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance (NCQG), when, in fact, It should have been announced on day one to allow collective negotiation on the proposed amount.

“They kept using the bracketed term “X trillion” in the draft text, only to go back to the small billions and announce the $250 billion in low-quality finance, which they eventually increased to $300 billion, that is nowhere near the $5 trillion that climate finance experts and civil society groups have suggested.”

Africa continent delegates have however declared not to be intimidated by the global North in the push for climate justice.

“Our true opponents are the fossil fuel merchants of despair and reckless nature destroyers who hide snugly behind every government’s low climate ambition. Their lobbyists must be disallowed, and leaders need to summon the courage to get on the right side of history.

People are fed up, and disillusioned, but we’ll persist and resist because this is a fight for our future! We will not give up. As we look to COP30 in Belem, we must hold on to hope - hope that is firmly anchored on people demanding climate ambition,” stated Jasper Inventor, Head of COP29 Greenpeace Delegation in Baku.