The recently concluded United Nations COP29 Climate Change Conference, like many of these gatherings of late, was filled with drama and intrigue. It was also the second consecutive conference hosted by a fossil fuels-exporting nation. But while COP28 in Dubai last year gave some glimmers of hope for its mention, if tepid, of a phaseout of fossil fuels and an acceleration toward renewable energy, COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, took a step back from the speed and scale required to meet the challenge posed by the climate crisis.
This year’s conference was centered on reaching a New Collective Qualified Goal, or NCQG, on climate finance to replace the $100 billion annual target set out in 2009 in Copenhagen. The need to do so reflects how different things are today than they were 15 years ago. It is now estimated that economically developing nations will require $1.3 trillion annually by 2035 to both transition their energy systems and adapt to a changing climate reality. But to the great disappointment of most observers, COP29 set a climate finance goal—with limited enforcement, to boot—of just $300 billion by 2035.
The resulting climate financing will be provided in the form of loans and grants by economically developed nations. As a result, economically developing countries will have access to more financing, but with terms and interest rates that will likely exacerbate what for many of them are already heavy debt burdens. For comparison, direct and indirect government subsidies to the fossil fuel industry—in funding, not loans—amounted to $7 trillion globally for 2023 alone, according to the International Monetary Fund. So even as governments are unwilling to commit to climate finance at the needed scale, they are actively contributing financially to the principal cause of climate change.