International NGOs: Developed countries block real climate finance solutions

The Global North countries apparently seek to shift responsibility and blame to the Global South, representatives of international NGOs within the Demand Climate Justice (DCJ) network said at COP29 in Baku, Report informs.

"After nearly 30 years of climate conferences, we must repeat that a few very wealthy countries, who are historically responsible for this crisis, are trying to 'pollute' this process and block real results at the financial COP29," said Rachitaa Gupta, representing DCJ.

"Rich European countries are disrupting negotiations and refusing to pay. The EU's historical and current emissions leave them with a huge debt to the Global South," stated Nina di Peter from the Dutch NGO "Friends of the Earth," adding that instead of paying and increasing grants, the EU promotes private funds and loans.

"Private money is not the solution; it only worsens the problem. Companies will always put profit above people, just as the EU is doing now," she said.

According to her, current financing leads to even more debt for the Global South.

She mentioned that while there's no official EU statement, rumors suggest EU negotiators are proposing a seriously understated amount - about 200-300 billion annually.

"For context: accounting for inflation, this means no additional public financing compared to goals set years ago. Climate financing and mitigation go hand in hand. Rich countries cannot expect Global South countries to increase their mitigation ambitions. And they cannot raise their ambitions if the same rich countries don't pay their fair share," di Peter stated.

Meanwhile, ActionAid US representative Brandon Wu stated that America "hasn't provided anywhere near its fair share of climate financing."

The reason cited that developing countries are reluctant to make specific commitments "sounds offensive." Developing countries don't do it because they lack confidence in having financing for actually fulfilling these commitments, he said.

"So the US not only provides no money, they're actively working to undermine negotiations on the new collective quantitative goal. For example, they're trying to water down the wording so there's effectively no responsibility, no obligations for developed countries. Everything comes down to private sector mobilization," Wu said.

"I know people are probably interested in the new text of the final agreement, so I'll briefly touch on some specific wording. The main thing is there's no figure. We came to this climate finance conference for a figure, a new collective goal for climate financing. Two days remain until the end of the conference. There's still no figure. The G77 developing countries proposed a figure they want to see - 1.3 trillion. Developed countries refused to even discuss this and offer a counter-proposal," he stated. "And therefore, if someone says developing countries are blocking, it's offensive because developed countries literally aren't offering anything. And this is exacerbated by the fact that they haven't fulfilled existing commitments for years," Wu added.