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The aim is to raise at least a billion dollars from companies and countries that produce fossil fuels to fight global warming.
COP29 host Azerbaijan has announced a new international climate action fund to mobilize one billion dollars to support new national climate targets in climate-vulnerable countries, helping them to cope with the effects of the climate crisis.
According to Reuters,financial contributions to the fund will be made by oil and gas companies and ten fossil fuel producing countries. The fund is being set up by the Azerbaijani government and its supervision will be conducted by an international board of shareholders, independent of the current multilateral development banks (such as the World Bank), in Baku, the Azeri capital.
“Traditional financing methods have proved inadequate to the challenges of the climate crisis, so we decided to take a different approach. The fund will be capitalized with contributions from fossil fuel producing countries and companies and will catalyze the private sector. Any developing country will be eligible to receive money from the fund,” explained Yalchin Rafiyev, chief negotiator for the COP29 presidency, to The Guardian.
The Climate Finance Action Fund will receive annual donations from its contributors, 20% of which will be invested in projects in developing countries that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help strengthen resilience to the impacts of extreme weather conditions.
“Countries rich in natural resources must be at the forefront of the fight against climate change. We call on donors to join us so that we can fulfill the COP29 plan to increase ambition and enable action,” Mukhtar Babayev, COP29 president-designate, told Reuters. Azerbaijan has not yet said which countries or companies have been contacted and has not specified its contribution to the fund, although it has pledged to do so.
Contributions to the fund will be voluntary and no mechanism is proposed to oblige the countries and companies most responsible for greenhouse gas emissions to contribute to it.
The initial plan was to create a tax on fossil fuel production to raise funds to combat climate change, but Azerbaijan ended up changing course due to resistance from some countries.
The officials stressed that the new fund would be more flexible than multilateral development banks and other global mechanisms, since shareholders would directly decide which projects to invest in.
In the coming weeks, Azerbaijan will set up a working group made up of economists and other experts to work out a formula that will allow potential donors to decide on the amount of their contribution and a process for developing countries to access the fund.
What is expected at COP29?
The issue of climate finance is expected to dominate the COP29 negotiations in Baku in November, where countries will try to agree on a new global target for climate finance that will be transferred annually from rich to poorer countries starting next year.
For UN climate chief Simon Stiell, “progress in Baku is not just about new green numbers. It’s about improving climate finance so that it meets the needs of developing countries now and in the future.”
Several activists and experts have already criticized the value of the fund. Bronwen Tucker, head of public finance at the activist group Oil Change International, told Reuters that “polluters should pay for their climate crimes on the scale of trillions, not with a voluntary fund of a billion dollars that gives decision-making powers to big oil”.
“Fossil fuel interests have knowingly and systematically blocked, delayed and undermined necessary climate solutions and should not have a seat at the table. This is a dangerous distraction from the strong new climate finance goal and the national plans that COP29 must secure for a just, complete and rapid phase-out of fossil fuels,” added Tucker.
“While the announcement of a new fund for developing countries reflects long-standing demands to hold the fossil fuel industry to account, it should not serve as a free pass for the continued extraction of gas, oil and coal,” Harjeet Singh, director of global engagement at the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, told The Guardian.
According to The Guardian, “the fund will not invest in any fossil fuels, including gas. Any profits generated by the fund, for example through investment in renewables, will be returned to the fund, so there will be no opportunity for profit-taking by private sector investors and governments.”
She might have chosen to study Meteorology and Oceanography, but ultimately pursued Communication. And that's fine because if they don't get their weather predictions right, she wouldn't be the one to change that. She started by looking for sustainable ideas and projects for the university, and since then, she has never stopped (who stops, really?). She loves to watch tv shows, but she watches few because she is demanding. You don't need much to convince her to embrace new, "greener" habits and challenges.
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