Credit: Orkhan Farmanli, Unsplash
Climate news today:
The world’s first tax on agricultural emissions, which includes flatulence by livestock, has been agreed upon in Denmark. From 2030, farmers will have to pay a levy of 300 kroner (£34) per tonne of methane on emissions from livestock, rising to 750 kroner (£84) in 2035. Denmark announced their Green Tripartite Agreement in June, after extensive negotiations between the country’s major parties, farmers, trade unions, and environmental groups. After receiving a ‘broad majority’ in Parliament, the Green Tripartite Minister said that they will do ‘whatever it takes to reach our climate goals’.
Another part of the agreement is to reduce nitrogen pollution in an attempt to restore the coasts and fjords. AFP news agency reported that nitrogen emissions could be reduced by 13,780 tonnes per year from 2027, and Danish nature may change ‘in a way we have not seen since the wetlands were drained in 1864’.
COP29 Day 11:
Director of the Climate and Energy Programme at the Centre for International Environment Law, Nikki Reisch, stated this morning that ‘We are seeing at this COP the chasms between positions of different states come to the fore’. Saudi Arabia reneging on last year’s fossil fuel transition pledge in a public statement yesterday has certainly helped to throw negotiations off track. Mary Robinson, UN envoy and former Irish President said that ‘The science is clear, and neither Riyadh nor any other country can bend the laws of physics. This COP must cement the transition to clean energy’.
Susana Muhamad, a Colombian minister, has accused nations in the Global North of playing ‘geopolitical games’ rather than reaching a meaningful agreement concerning climate finance. Developing countries are demanding a figure of $1.3 trillion a year for climate finance and specify that this sum needs to be provided in direct grants rather than loans.
The developed world, however, have so far given no indication as to what figure they’re willing to pay. Panama’s climate envoy Juan Carlos Monterrey was asked this morning what climate funding he would accept. In response, Monterrey said ‘That’s like asking how many dead people we’re willing to have in our countries’.
The expected finance text was released long overdue today, leading Mohamed Adow (Director of climate and energy think tank Power Shift Africa) to label the summit ‘one of the most poorly led and chaotic COP meetings ever’.
The draft decided a core amount of $250 billion a year by 2035, a figure significantly less than what developing countries were hoping for. Moreover, in the 2009 agreement developed countries were compelled to pay by 2020 (notwithstanding that this target was missed). Now, the vague wording simply asks them to ‘take the lead’. The text also ‘calls for’ a target of at least $1.3 trillion a year as part of a broader mission which includes finance from ‘all public and private sources’. Although loss and damage was mentioned a few times within the text, there was no inclusion of this funding in the new climate finance draft. The goal of 2035 is also not likely to be satisfactory, with developing nations hoping for a quicker response. There have been major concerns that the important phrase ‘transition away from fossil fuels’ would be rolled back after Saudi Arabia’s statement yesterday. The key phrase has, fortunately, survived in the draft text – although it is present in an extremely convoluted manner. Along with the release of the new climate finance text, the Azerbaijani Presidency released a statement calling the text ‘a balanced and streamlined package’ and the result of ‘an extensive and inclusive consultation process that extended into the early hours of the morning’.
Civil society groups were the first to react to the draft, with overwhelmingly negative reactions. Oxfam International’s climate justice lead Safa’ Al Jayoussi described the text as a ‘shameful failure of leadership’. Amar Bhattacharya, Vera Songwe, and Nicholas Stern, co-Chairs of the Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance declared that the $250 billion core finance figure is ‘too low’ and inconsistent with the delivery of the Paris Agreement. They highlighted that their analysis showed developing countries would need $300 billion a year by 2030, and $390 billion a year by 2035.
Monterrey, Panama’s climate envoy, lambasted the draft as ‘ridiculous’ and the core finance figure too low. He lamented that ‘It feels that the developed world wants the planet to burn’. Michael Bloss, a Green MEP from Germany, posted on X that the proposal was ‘unacceptable’, clarifying that ‘It is not expected to be available for another 10 years – and then it will be less than half of what is needed’. The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), which includes countries such as Samoa, Barbados, Bermuda, and Tonga, stated that the $250 billion a year target will ‘severely stagnate climate action efforts’, and that the text shows ‘contempt for our vulnerable people’. They further declared that the text was a ‘shoddy placebo goal’ and appealed to the ‘moral conscience’ of the delegates present. In their conclusory lines, they stated that ‘All we ask is that we are guaranteed and receive the protection that is promised to us under the Paris Agreement. This ask is not a threat. It is just a matter of justice’.
During the 11 day COP29 summit, 171 people in the Philippines have been killed so far in the 6 tropical storms which have hit the country in succession.
It is possible to take a more optimistic perspective of the finance text, by arguing that the $250 billion a year proposal could form ‘a good downpayment’ which could be built upon by other contributors and sources. The summit is expected to overrun, and negotiations will continue tonight and tomorrow.
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