The final outcome of COP29 is an obituary. The failure of the COP29 Presidency and of Parties to meet the necessary ambition against the escalating climate crisis is an indictment of a captured process undermining intergenerational justice. We are appalled by the shameless tactics employed by Global North governments and fossil fuel interests to deprive frontline communities of the resources and support necessary to face the climate crisis. While these same governments call on greater climate ambition, they also deny developing nations the means to do so.
Moreover, we stand in solidarity with India, Bolivia, Nigeria, and Malawi in rejecting the text, and in denouncing the Presidency’s shocking abuse of trust and forcing the adoption of the NCQG despite objections from several countries. Parties must understand that the decisions made at COP29 threaten the progress made on loss & damage at COP26 after three decades of struggle. The current outcome endangers the survival of Small Island Developing States, Least Developed Countries, and other developing countries and communities particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts. No deal was better than a bad deal, and this deal is abysmal.
In effect, we denounce:
- The insufficient financial goal, set at USD 300 billion a year until 2035, rather than the evidence-backed floor of USD 1.3 trillion called for by developing states and civil society;
- The lack of climate finance and language specific to loss & damage;
- Weak language only calling on developed countries to take the lead on mobilising finance, while also allowing for private finance to complement developed nations’ historical responsibility as reiterated in the Paris Agreement;
- A missing working definition of climate finance;
- The uncertainty on how the NCQG will deliver on loss & damage as part of the “Baku to Belem Roadmap to 1.3 trillion”.
The NCQG is not the way forward – it is a suicide pact. We call on developed countries to step up, pay up, and immediately correct this outright betrayal.
Nicolas Gaulin, Canada - Global Coordinator at the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition
The outcomes of COP29 constitute an outrageous act of backsliding from the Global North vis-à-vis their established responsibilities towards frontline communities. This agreement condemns most impacted populations on the outskirts of the industrial core to yet another decade of intensifying extreme climate events, without the resources or support necessary to recover. In particular, the glaring omission of quantified finance for loss and damage calls into question the intention of developed nations regarding the Fund for Responding to Loss & Damage, which saw only two new pledges in Baku. This callous act will not be forgotten as we attend the Fund’s fourth board meeting in Manila in a few weeks
Hamira Kobusingye, Uganda - Founder, Climate Justice Africa
COP29 was dubbed the “Climate Finance COP,” but it has become painfully clear that the COP29 Presidency and developed nations had no genuine intention of delivering on this promise. The outcome of COP29 reads more like an obituary than a step forward. The devastating impacts of the climate crisis are no longer in question, yet the text being proposed is a profound betrayal to the communities on the frontlines of this emergency. How can we present this to them? How can we claim to have represented their interests when we simply stood by as wealthy nations imposed their agenda? We cannot accept this betrayal. We can only compromise with figures in the trillions, not billions. Anything less is an insult to the scale of the crisis and the lives already being lost.
Shreya K.C., Nepal - Advocacy Co-coordinator, Loss and Damage Youth Coalition
The awful and insulting outcome on climate finance shows how gravely unserious developed countries—who bear the historical and moral responsibility—are about addressing the climate crisis that are wreaking havoc in the most vulnerable countries in the cruellest ways. As countries prepare their transparency reports and next round of enhanced climate action plans (NDC3.0), COP29’s weaker signals on both finance and mitigation are utterly disappointing and unacceptable. The world cannot afford inaction disguised as progress, while those of us in the frontlines are losing everything—our homes, families and communities—despite doing nothing to create this crisis.
History will remember this bulldozed outcome with shame, as a betrayal of justice and responsibility at a moment when urgent action and support was direly needed.
Lamis El Khatieb, Egypt - Research Co-coordinator, Loss and Damage Youth Coalition
COP29 promised hope but delivered humiliation. Vulnerable communities deserve climate justice, not empty gestures. COP29’s outcomes are a reminder that promises without action are an insult to those on the frontlines of climate change. Offering crumbs to vulnerable nations is not climate justice, it’s climate hypocrisy. COP29 failed us all. It is a failure for humanity not just climate policy