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In today’s bulletin:
- Campaigners: No deal better than a bad deal
- Saudis oppose anti-fossil fuel and pro-human rights language
Campaigners: No deal better than a bad deal
As negotiations ground on to find agreement on the key new climate finance goal (NCQG) expected from COP29, climate justice campaigners called on governments to walk away from the summit rather than accept a weak outcome on behalf of workers, women and vulnerable communities around the world.
They insisted that no deal in Azerbaijan would be preferable to a “bad deal”.
Mohamed Adow, founder of Kenya-based think-tank Power Shift Africa said securing a strong deal for $1.3 trillion in international public finance as developing countries are demanding is central to success. “There can’t be a COP outcome if the rich world don’t step up and put forward an ambitious climate finance goal that meets the needs of the developing countries – period,” he said.
Developed and developing nations remain far apart on the amount of the new goal, as well as who should contribute towards it, as pressure grows on wealthier emerging economies – including China and the Gulf nations – to pay up too. Those countries don’t want to be put on a par with industrialised countries that are historically more responsible for the emissions fuelling global warming.
A draft text on the NCQG released on Thursday contained no specific figures on what developed countries are prepared to put on the table through to 2035, provoking a furious reaction from most developing-country groups who called on them to show their hand.
Coalition against fossil fuel subsidies expands but misses initial targets
A new text is due to be released on Friday afternoon and is expected to contain some indication of the size of the goal.
Lidy Nacpil of the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development, called on developing country governments to “be strong and united in the face of the Global North” and push them to recognise “what they owe us” for the rising damage done by climate change.
“We are really appealing and challenging our governments in the South to hold their ground and stand up for our rights,” she told journalists.
Adow said he feared that even though developing countries are “hugely disappointed” by the lack of progress in Baku “they are diplomats and so they would rather work behind the scenes and want to salvage a good outcome”.
He criticised the wealthy nations and the Azerbaijan COP presidency for not negotiating openly and “engaging eye to eye” with poorer countries.
India, donor countries give up on Just Energy Transition Partnership – German official
Joseph Sikulu, Pacific regional director for 350.org, slammed the use of “stalling tactics” in Baku – which he said had happened in Dubai last year – and the lack of space to negotiate. That had left the process devoid of “values” such as including vulnerable and Indigenous peoples.
“We hope that over the next year we see more leadership from Indigenous peoples bringing these values into the negotiations and hope that they ground that in these presidencies,” he said, referring to the COP30 in Brazil next year.
Women’s rights and LGBTQ+ activists have also complained that the Azeri COP presidency has given a low priority to talks on the renewal of a key programme on gender and climate action, which have struggled amid pushback from socially conservative governments.
Liane Schalatek, speaking for the “women and gender constituency” of NGOs at COP29, said space for civil society had been restricted at the COP in Azerbaijan – which has a poor record on human rights and civil liberties – and the whole process had suffered from a lack of transparency.
“Also [governments] don’t know what is going on,” she told reporters in Baku, saying it was more important than ever to respect “the democratic ground rules that are the foundation basically of the climate regime”.
Saudis oppose anti-fossil fuel and pro-human rights language
Across COP29’s various negotiating streams, the Saudi Arabian delegation has been pushing to remove both criticism of fossil fuels and support for human rights.
In Thursday’s open meeting, Saudi negotiator Albara Tawfiq said that the Arab Group of countries “will not accept any text that targets any specific sectors including fossil fuel”. He said such an approach was “outside of the mandate and unacceptable”.
He was commenting on Thursday morning’s draft text on the post-2025 finance goal, which “calls” on governments to “reduce investment flows towards fossil fuel infrastructure”. It caveats this with “acknowledging the need for certain investments, including towards repurposing and futureproofing infrastructure being compatible with a 1.5C pathway”.
The text also “acknowledges the need to continue to explore and develop”, with certain caveats, “innovative instruments targeted towards the fossil fuel sector and other high-emitting sectors in line with the polluter pays principle such as carbon pricing”. A coalition of both developed and developing countries is looking into ideas like taxing fossil fuel producers to fund climate action.
Weak gender focus at COP29 risks leaving women behind in greener future
The text also calls on the fossil fuel industry to align its operations with the Paris Agreement.
According to the Earth Negotiations Bulletin, which observes and provides information on the talks, the Arab Group in “long-term finance” talks also wants to add in a reference to an obscure 2001 COP agreement which “encourages” governments to cooperate on carbon capture and storage and “less greenhouse gas-emitting advanced fossil-fuel technologies”.
On the NCQG, Tawfiq added that “conditionalities related to human rights issues in the text and language not relevant to finance issues are unacceptable”. The draft finance text he was referring to “underscores that climate finance must respect, protect, promote, and fulfil human rights by being human rights-based and gender-responsive”.
Mary Robinson, former Irish president and member of The Elders, said Saudi Arabia’s attempts to strip fossil fuel language out of the COP29 outcomes was “simply outrageous”.
“The science is clear, and neither Riyadh nor any other country can bend the laws of physics,” she added. “Blocking talks and backsliding raises the risks of extreme floods and brutal heatwaves. This COP must cement the transition to clean energy.”
The post COP29 Bulletin Day 11: No finance deal better than bad deal, campaigners say appeared first on Climate Home News.
COP29 Bulletin Day 11: Global South slams proposal for $250bn climate finance goal
SYDNEY, Thursday 30 October 2026 — In response to reports that the Albanese government is set to introduce draft legislation this year that would seek to ban data centres in Australia’s suburbs, Joe Rafalowicz, Head of Climate and Energy at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said:
“These reports are a testament to the growing community opposition to these completely inappropriate AI factories that have sprung up across our suburbs, and Big Tech corporations should take heed — the data centre build-out must not happen without the endorsement of the Australian people.
“But the government can’t simply ship this problem out to regional Australia without addressing the fundamental issues with this extractive new industry.
“We’re already seeing a trend of AI data centre proposals moving to the regions, in areas that are more water-scarce, more environmentally sensitive, and next to sources of fracked and coal seam gas to support their massive BYO gas-fired power plans — a pattern we’ve seen play out in the United States.
“From the Beetaloo Basin in the NT to the Western Downs in Qld, we’re seeing a wave of AI data centre proposals that would see new gas fast-tracked to support their massive energy demand, and threaten to completely derail Australia’s energy transition.
“Just as suburban Australians are asking, “what for?”, regional communities like Berry Springs and Dalby do not want dirty data centres setting up shop with absolutely no benefit to their communities. Greenpeace is calling for a moratorium on AI data centre developments until strict and enforceable safeguards are in place to protect our climate and our communities.”
-ENDS-
Media contact
Kate O’Callaghan on +61 406 231 892 or kate.ocallaghan@greenpeace.org
AI data centre ban in suburbs would not address fundamental issues: Greenpeace
In the thick of the COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan in 2024, the UN climate talks were rattled by what can only be described as a major PR disaster. The BBC, Reuters and The Guardian all carried headlines, attributed to leading climate policy experts, that the COPs were “no longer fit for purpose”.
The articles outlined a series of reforms called for in an open letter signed by 22 eminent scientists and politicians, including a former UN secretary-general and previous UN climate chief, with a further 150 lending their support. The headlines shook confidence in the COP process, just as governments were wrestling over a new climate finance goal.
The Club of Rome – which handled the media relations for the letter – hurried to say that its “constructive, supportive ideas” had been “misinterpreted”. Negotiators kept calm(ish) and carried on, in the end landing the finance goal after some high-stakes drama on the final day.
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Early speakers’ list suggests few powerful leaders will attend COP31
Just 77 heads of state or government are scheduled to address the COP31 climate summit in Antalya, a third less than the COP28 peak -
Africa wants adaptation finance on COP31 agenda, raising risk of a fight
The African Group wants dedicated space on tripling adaptation finance, the Green Climate Fund and trade, setting up a possible clash
To my surprise, when I went back this week to read the letter again, I could not find the offending line about the COPs not being fit for purpose. The Club of Rome has yet to respond to my query about its disappearance.
Whatever happened to the wording, that sentiment has been widely shared. COPs have ballooned in size while the importance of their outcomes seems to have diminished since the 2015 Paris Agreement (with the exception of the 2023 COP in Dubai where countries agreed to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems).
The same on the surface
Two years on from those painful headlines in Baku, has anything changed for the better? You might be forgiven for thinking not. Official decisions are still made by consensus rather than the majority voting some have called for to stop blockers.
Tens of thousands of officials, activists and business execs still scurry around the halls to an ever-growing list of side events, roundtables and dialogues, while deals still come down to rows, all-nighters and jargon-filled texts adopted to rounds of applause.
But it would not be true to say that COPs have completely failed to respond to the very real need to translate the words of the Paris Agreement into action in the outside world.
Global warming is projected to be around 1.3C lower this century than it would have been if the world had not committed to tackle the climate crisis under that accord. Developing countries have a valued space at COPs in which their voices have equal weight in decision-making, unlike in many other international fora. And most importantly, perhaps, there has been a subtle shift, tipping the balance away from negotiating towards doing.
Brazil branded last year’s summit in Belém as the “COP of Implementation”, corralling the sprawling Action Agenda into six axes. This was a bid to impose some structure on the mushrooming efforts between governments, UN agencies, cities, businesses and civil society to set targets and spur faster results on their pet issues, from methane emissions to health and adaptation in conflict zones. COP30 alone saw the launch of 120 “plans to accelerate solutions”.
COP30 roadmaps off the cuff
Meanwhile, as the formal negotiations drew to a close, it was clear that consensus decision-making was evolving into something a little more improvised.
With only around half of all countries on board with the idea of a roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels, COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago announced his team would put one together over the coming year, along with another on how to meet a global goal to halt deforestation by 2030. Those roadmaps will be launched next week, presented and discussed at COP31, though it’s still unclear whether or how they’ll be incorporated into the formal negotiating agenda.
Some leading policy-makers don’t think that matters too much. Speaking to journalists before the Antalya summit, COP30 CEO Ana Toni and Dutch climate minister Stientje van Veldhoven said “coalitions of the willing” can move ahead without needing consensus from the COPs. This, they said, was evident this year at the first global conference on TAFF, co-chaired by van Veldhoven and attended by 60 countries.
“Consensus or no-consensus in the general COP doesn’t make a difference for the choices I have to make in my country to get my country to phase out fossil fuels,” said the Dutch minister. The Netherlands recently became one of the first to publish a national TAFF plan.
COP31 banks on flagship voluntary initiatives
This thinking has permeated the management and expected outcomes of this year’s COP too. Earlier this year, Türkiye, supported by international energy agencies, floated the idea of a voluntary goal to boost electrification to 35% of the world’s final energy consumption by 2035 – and this is now being touted as one of the main results to be expected from Antalya.
Türkiye is also championing a pledge on AI and climate, while co-host Australia is pushing to ease access to climate finance for least developed countries and small island states.
COP31 presidency announces AI pledge as UN climate chief says Big Tech ‘on thin ice’
None of these needs consensus. But with a political cover decision already in the works, as trailed by the COP presidents, they – and perhaps the fossil fuel roadmap – may find a home in the official text if language acceptable to most can be found, giving them them additional weight.
UNFCCC reform process in the shadows
Formal reform is underway too, if quietly. UN climate chief Simon Stiell is leading a review informed by ongoing consultations with a group of 15 well-respected climate policy experts, three of whom signed the open letter in 2024.
Among them is leading Swedish climate and sustainability scientist Johan Rockström who has strong ideas about how to make COPs function better, including a switch to majority voting. He told the same press briefing nothing stands in the way of this, because the rules of procedure for making decisions at COPs have never been formally agreed.
Still, to get away from the default setting of consensus would require agreement on a new system that may be impossible to achieve given the rise in bullying tactics by fossil fuel heavyweights.
Comment: The UN climate process was built for negotiation – now it must support implementation
The deliberations with the high-level policy gurus, as reflected in a summary of June’s session in Bonn, largely echo what’s already happening organically, calling for stronger partnerships and accountability both in and between the Action Agenda and negotiations. It doesn’t mention voting.
A general overview of the reform exercise says that “improving and optimizing the [UN climate] process over the medium to long term… will be critical to fostering trust, enhancing collaboration, and catalyzing increased ambition”.
In the short term, don’t hold your breath for anything concrete on reform at COP31 but watch for signs in what ends up dominating the headlines from Türkiye.
The post Editor’s Desk: COP reform is happening quietly, behind the headlines appeared first on Climate Home News.
Editor’s Desk: COP reform is happening quietly, behind the headlines
With the COP31 climate summit in Turkey looming, all eyes are on China to see what the country will push for in the negotiations.
At COP30 last year, China helped to secure a “dialogue” on climate-related “unilateral trade measures”, as well as a two-year “work programme” concerning climate finance.
The nation also championed south-south cooperation throughout the conference and co-led a summit on methane, alongside Brazil and the UK.
In a recent press conference, China’s environment vice-minister Li Gao noted the need to “uphold multilateralism” and send a “clear political signal” that the global community is united around climate action.