Argentina withdrew this Wednesday from the Baku climate summit by order of its president, Javier Milei, on the third day of COP29, where negotiations on climate financing are progressing slowly and countries remain very polarized. Up to 85 people are accredited to COP29 from the Argentine delegation, which was present at the summit until today, when the envoys no longer went to the venue where the meeting is being held until November 22.
The decision to withdraw was also made public on the day the results of a report that added pessimism to the environment were released: the “Global Carbon Budget” for 2024, which anticipates an increase of 0.8% in carbon emissions. global CO2 emissions in 2024, compared to the previous year.
The document, published in the scientific journal Earth System Science Data, includes data on reforestation rates and the use of fossil fuels in the world, and quantifies CO2 emissions and the capacity of natural sinks (plants and oceans) to capture them, which gives a global idea of the situation of the carbon cycle.
Talks
The UN climate summit in Baku reached the middle of its first week without major progress on financing, the central issue to be negotiated in Baku, something that has left developing countries “very frustrated” by the lack of progress, according to sources commenting on the process.
This Wednesday the co-facilitators of the negotiations on the new quantified and collective climate financing objective published what technicians call a “draft for consideration”, a preliminary text that includes many options and that must be narrowed down and then negotiated by the countries.
The new quantified and collective goal of climate financing is the focus of the Baku discussions, and will star in the text that ends up becoming the final agreement at the UN climate summits.
But the draft that is on the table at the moment is a “very long” document, 30 pages, and covers even more options than those already included in the results of the working group on this matter, which has been going on for three years. outlining the details of the objective: from the total amount to the structure it will adopt.
This objective, which by mandate of the Paris Agreement must be adopted in 2025, will replace the one that called for allocating at least 100 billion dollars annually by 2020, in order to finance the decarbonization of economies, adaptation to the impacts of climate change, and the losses and damages that the phenomena derived from global warming cause.
The bloc of developing countries and China (G77+China) finally proposed a total annual financing figure for this objective, 1.3 trillion dollars; But it remains to know the proposal of the developed countries, which have not yet suggested any option regarding what they call the “quantum” of the goal.
A group of Multilateral Development Banks also announced this Thursday their commitment to allocate a total of $120 billion to climate financing in low- and middle-income countries by 2030.
Financial estimates cover lenders such as Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank Group, African Development Bank (AfDB), Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Council of Europe Development Bank (ECB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Inter-American Development Bank Group (IDB), the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and the New Development Bank.
Emissions reduction
Regarding the mitigation of global warming, the other big issue to be negotiated in Baku, this Thursday Brazil presented its emissions reduction plans for 2035 to the UN: it aims to cut emissions by 67% for that year, compared to those issued in 2005.
At a press conference, Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva avoided detailing how much money she believes developed economies should transfer to developing countries starting in 2025 to assist them in their climate plans, but noted that current commitments of 100,000 million dollars a year “have proven insufficient.”
Brazil is the second country, after the United Arab Emirates – which plans a 47% reduction compared to 2019 -, to officially present its updated commitments to reduce its emissions, national plans that all states are called to present before February of 2025.
Other countries, such as the United Kingdom, have made their intentions public but have not yet officially presented plans. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Monday that he wants to cut the United Kingdom’s emissions by 81% by 2035 compared to 1990.
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