By AFP - Agence France Presse
G20 climate compromise attracts mixed reviews at COP29
Activists and one of the main negotiating groups at the stalled COP29 climate talks on Tuesday cautiously welcomed a statement by G20 leaders supporting a financial deal for the poorest countries, but some criticized the lack of reference to fossil fuels.
The leaders of the world's 20 richest economies came under pressure during their summit in Brazil to break the deadlock over climate finance at the COP29 negotiations in Azerbaijan.
A statement issued by the G20 leaders in Rio de Janeiro overnight reiterated support for an agreement to be reached in Baku, where the first week of negotiations ended in a bitter stalemate.
“We needed to see a strong signal from the G20, and we got that on finance,” said Mohamed Adow, Kenyan climate activist and founder of the Power Shift Africa group.
Jasper Inventor from Greenpeace described the support for a financial agreement as “a positive signal.”
“This momentum must now be translated into concrete results in Baku,” he said.
Rich nations are being urged to significantly increase their pledge of $100 billion a year in funding for poorer countries to take action against climate change.
But efforts to finalize the agreement in Baku have been frosty, with disputes over the value of the deal, who should pay, and what types of funding should be included.
The president of the G77 + China, a group of developing nations, told AFP that the Rio declaration was a “good foundation” for the climate talks, as the G20 leaders recognized that the needs were in the “trillions” of dollars.
However, Adonia Ayebare, the group's president in Uganda, said that the G77 “is not comfortable” with the vague text that says the money must come from “all sources.”
“We have insisted that this money must come from public sources. Grants, not loans,” said Ayebare.
Harjeet Singh, an activist from India, said that the G20 “has demonstrated a glaring failure of leadership.”
“Their repeated rhetoric offers no consolation for the tense COP29 negotiations, where we continue to see a stalemate on climate finance,” he said.
The statement did not explicitly repeat a pledge made last year at COP28 to transition the world away from fossil fuels, an issue that has caused tensions in Baku.
The G20 leaders made reference to phasing out “inefficient fossil fuel subsidies,” but the main language enshrined with much fanfare in the commitment made at the end of 2023 was absent.
“The silence on the new climate finance target and the muteness on phasing out fossil fuels is unacceptable coming from the largest economies and emitters,” said Rebecca Thissen of the Climate Action Network.
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