After a week of negotiations and disagreements, the delegates from across the world gathered in Baku for COP29, released a draft outlining the climate finance goal — New Collective Quantified Goal — but several revisions are expected before an agreement is reached, if any.
The bone of contention is where the finance will come from, as the Global South, including Pakistan, demands money from the developed countries for the damage they caused to the environment since the industrial age began.
In his speech at the World Leaders Climate Action Summit last week, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif highlighted the unmet pledges made at previous climate conferences and called out the loan-laden climate finance instead of aid to build resilience. In its stance at the ongoing negotiations, the G-77 Group, of which Pakistan is a part, and other blocks comprising developing countries, argued for easy access to climate finance and aid instead of loans.
These negotiations, after almost a week of efforts, seemingly resulted in a small win for the Global South as, for the first time, ‘aid’ made its way to the draft for the new climate finance.
This story was produced as part of the 2024 Climate Change Media Partnership, a journalism fellowship organized by Internews' Earth Journalism Network and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security. It was first published in DAWN on November 18, 2024. It has been translated to English and lightly edited for length and clarity.
Banner image: A high-level session at COP29 / Credit: UN Climate Change - Kiara Worth.
Zaki Abbas
