Campaigners have hit out at a “woefully inadequate” financial package for developing nations agreed at Cop29 – with one charity condemning it as a “death sentence for millions”.
A 300 billion dollar (£239.5 billion) deal to help combat the impact of global warming was announced at the international conference in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The money falls far short of the $1.3 trillion that developing countries were asking for, but is three times the $100bn a year deal from 2009 that is expiring.
UN climate chief Simon Steill hailed it as an “insurance policy” for humanity, while Energy secretary Ed Miliband described it as a “critical 11th-hour deal at the 11th hour for the climate”.
But Christian Aid said people who needed a life raft had been given a plank of wood instead. And the charity Water Aid said it was a “death sentence for millions” and a “mere fraction” of what was needed.
Lesley Pories, lead policy analyst for WaterAid, said: “While experts touted needs around one trillion dollars annually for the new collective quantified goal (NCQG), an agreement for 300 billion dollars was reached – a mere fraction of the finance we all know is desperately needed.”
They said that from hurricanes and flash flooding to wildfires and worsening drought, the global water crisis was a “growing tragedy” and that it was “deeply shameful that… governments could not set aside their differences for the sake of the most vulnerable.”
Jasper Inventor, head of the Cop29 Greenpeace delegation, said: “The agreed finance goal is woefully inadequate and overshadowed by the level of despair and scale of action needed.”
But US President Joe Biden said that while “substantial work” remained to be done, the conference had set an “ambitious international climate finance goal”.
“While some may seek to deny or delay the clean energy revolution that’s under way in America and around the world, nobody can reverse it – nobody,” he said.
Friends of Earth head of policy Mike Childs credited the UK delegation for playing a productive role in the talks, but warned that they “failed to solve the question of climate finance”.
“Instead they have again kicked the can down the road. Developing countries are being hammered by climate extremes now, predominantly fuelled by the current and historic polluting activities of rich nations, like the UK.”
The Cop29 climate conference in the Azerbaijan capital had been due to finish on Friday but ran on as negotiators from nearly 200 countries struggled to reach a consensus on a climate funding plan for the next decade.
