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Large developing countries reject “$200 billion” climate finance figure
An amount of around $200-300 billion being discussed privately as the international government finance provision towards the new climate finance goal (NCQG) – the main outcome expected at COP29 – has been strongly rejected by large developing countries.
Speaking at a stocktaking plenary this Wednesday, Bolivian negotiator Diego Pacheco said on behalf of the Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDC) group – which includes big emerging economies like China and India – that the figure was unacceptable.
“We are unable to fathom this $200 billion to step up ambition in developing countries,” said Pacheco. “This is unfathomable. We cannot accept this.”
The Bolivian negotiator also reiterated a refusal by the group to open up the base of climate finance contributors – which developed countries have pushed for – to include China and wealthy Gulf states. “This is a super red line,” emphasised Pacheco.
With three days to go until COP29 officially ends, developed countries have yet to reveal publicly the amount of public international finance they will put on the negotiating table for the NCQG.
Chris Bowen, Australia’s environment minister who is jointly tasked with facilitating discussions on the NCQG, reported back to the plenary that the figures being discussed for government provision to an overall “mobilised” goal of $1.3 trillion included $440 billion, $600 billion and $900 billion – amounts that have been proposed by developing countries.
Co-chair Yasmine Fouad, Egypt’s environment minister, said discussions on the “structure” of the climate finance goal are “still hearing diverging views”. These refer to the different types of finance that can be counted towards the goal – controversially, including private investments.
Negotiators will now reconvene for further consultations until 5pm local time, and are tasked with producing new texts on finance and other issues by midnight today, the COP29 presidency said.
Stephen Cornelius, WWF’s deputy global climate and energy lead, said that with the COP29 “end game” fast approaching, “we are still missing urgency from the negotiations”.
“All the difficult issues – how much climate finance, who pays it and who can receive it, as well as mitigation and adaptation – remain unresolved. These issues need political guidance as well as more technical work,” he added, urging the COP29 presidency to exercise “authority and diplomacy” to find an ambitious common ground by Friday, when the summit is due to close.
Australia and New Zealand pledge loss and damage cash
Australia and New Zealand have made pledges to the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD), with Australian ministers saying the move showed they were “standing with Pacific partners”.
Australian climate minister Chris Bowen announced a contribution of AU$50 million ($32.5m) on Tuesday – the biggest donation to the fund this year after Sweden gave $18.4m last week.
“Australia is committed to supporting Pacific priorities and welcomes Pacific leadership to drive climate action, including on responding to loss and damage,” Bowen said in a government statement in which he and two other ministers all referenced the Pacific islands.
Australia is bidding to co-host the COP31 climate talks in two years’ time with a Pacific island nation or series of nations. But Turkiye is also trying to win the support of the UN’s “Western Europe and Others” group of nations, whose turn it is to choose the host country.
New Zealand’s climate minister Simon Watts announced a pledge of NZ$10m ($6m). “Addressing loss and damage from climate impacts that go beyond the limits of adaptation is a high priority for New Zealand and the Pacific as we need to support resilience in the region,” he said.
The new pledges bring the amounts donated to the FRLD to a total of $85m this year, on top of a first round of pledges adding up to $664m at last year’s COP28, meaning the fund has around $750m to spend when it gets up and running in 2026.
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COP29 Bulletin Day 9: Developing nations deride “$200bn” finance rumour
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Prepared by a coalition of nine Western Australian union, industry, conservation, and community organisations—including UnionsWA, the Conservation Council WA, and the Smart Energy Council—the WA Clean Energy, Jobs & Industry Plan provides a practical roadmap to transform Western Australia into a clean energy powerhouse while creating thousands of secure local jobs.
Western Australia stands at a pivotal crossroads: lead the global clean energy economy or watch investment, future industries, and secure jobs go elsewhere. The WA Clean Energy, Jobs & Industry Plan outlines a transformative blueprint to harness the state’s world-class solar and wind resources. Discover how legislated renewable targets, green iron manufacturing, and a dedicated regional training strategy can generate tens of thousands of local jobs, lower household bills, and build a resilient, net-zero future for all Western Australians.
WA needs a clear and forward-thinking plan if it is going to become a competitive renewable energy powerhouse and maintain its economic strength through the energy transition.
“Western Australians know a faster renewable energy transition will lower their household expenses and prevent harmful climate pollution. But the community also needs clear direction to ensure this transition will create jobs, lower costs and not cause undue environmental harm.
“Here, sectors representing a broad range of interests have laid the groundwork for those outcomes, clearly outlining what is needed to create a future for WA that is good for the environment, for the climate, for workers and for the economy.
Summary
The WA Clean Energy, Jobs & Industry Plan sets out a strategic roadmap to position Western Australia as a global clean energy superpower while creating thousands of secure local jobs.
The report establishes three overarching goals:
- Creating local employment.
- Maintaining industrial competitiveness.
- Lowering household energy costs
To realize this vision, the framework details actionable measures to follow on from the recent WA Government announcement of a 75% Renewable Energy Target by 2031 for the South West Interconnected System. This includes developing a statewide Renewable Energy Target, coordinating statewide workforce and training pipelines, strategically planning regional infrastructure to safeguard high-value biodiversity and cultural heritage, and ensuring equitable benefit-sharing through household electrification incentives and First Nations equity partnerships. Ultimately, the plan highlights that establishing clear policy and regulatory certainty will unlock lower energy bills, boost power reliability, and secure the state’s global competitiveness in emerging green commodity export markets.
Key Findings
- Statewide Renewable Energy Target and Emissions Reduction Targets: The report calls for a statewide RET and 1.5°C aligned emission reduction targets to remove policy risk, lower capital costs, and attract clean energy investment.
- Transformative Job Creation: Accelerating the transition offers massive employment prospects, including up to 8,800 solar and battery jobs by 2050, as well as 24,000 ongoing and 11,000 construction jobs in a commercial green iron industry.
- Industrial Electrification & Competitiveness: Requiring large gas users to adopt binding electrification timetables and providing concessional financing will protect existing energy-intensive manufacturers from rising energy costs and impending domestic gas shortfalls.
- Green Commodity Export Leadership: Western Australia can build new export markets in green iron, green ammonia, and offshore oil/gas decommissioning by constructing shared common-user infrastructure and setting dedicated Green Commodity Export Targets.
- Coordinated Workforce & Training Pipeline: To address critical skill shortages the plan recommends establishing a WA Clean Energy Jobs Plan 2050, three regional training hubs, and dedicated pathways for female and under-represented apprentices.
- Environmental Safeguards & Community Benefits: Fast-tracked development must be paired with State Planning Policies that avoid high-biodiversity and cultural heritage lands, mandate new data centres to run on additional renewable power, and deliver household electrification rebates and First Nations equity partnerships.
What you can do
WA has an opportunity to lead on sustainable, clean energy and associated industries. You can help by:
- Sending an email to Environment Minister Murray Watt and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, calling on them to reject Browse.
- Sharing this story to help more Australians understand what’s at stake.
- Encouraging your friends and family to take action.
Countries have completed the first “global review” of their progress towards reversing nature loss by 2030 at the COP17 biodiversity talks in Yerevan, Armenia.
The review “notes with deep concern” that, unless action is “rapidly accelerated”, the goal to reverse nature loss and meet a set of 23 targets by 2030 “will not be achieved”.
It “urges” countries to accelerate action, including by “increased ambition in addressing the gaps”.
Much of the discussions in Yerevan focused on how to raise the necessary funds to help developing countries protect nature.
Some major economies pushed to expand the range of nations that are expected to provide finance, with countries agreeing at the end of the two weeks of talks that non-donors that want to contribute can “signal interest” before COP18.
This came after developed countries failed to meet a target to significantly ramp up nature finance over the last few years.
It also came as a landmark fund agreed at COP16 in Colombia to pay communities for the genetic resources derived from nature stands nearly empty two years on.
The Yerevan talks marked the halfway point of the “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework” (GBF), the “Paris Agreement for nature” first made in 2022 and due to be achieved by 2030.
During the nearly 12-hour-long final plenary, countries voted for Quito, Ecuador, to host the COP18 nature talks, which will be held in 2028.
Countries managed to sign off on all the major negotiation texts, marking a stark contrast to COP16, which ran so far over time that the Colombian presidency lost “quorum”, forcing talks to resume in Rome months later.
Below, Carbon Brief has detailed analysis of all of the key outcomes from COP17.
Formal negotiations
Finance
Finance, predictably, was at the heart of the discord and deadlock at the Yerevan talks.
At COP17, discussions on finance had to achieve several outcomes.
The first part – to take stock of biodiversity finance mobilised so far to meet the nature deal’s goals – fell under the global review.
As the global report noted, developed countries failed to meet their commitments to raise “at least $20bn a year by 2025” for nature. Delegates pointed to falling aid levels and a sharp 27% decline in environmental funding for the 2026-30 period.
The second part was to agree on how to mobilise resources for the next four years, to meet the GBF’s goals and targets.
Calls to “broaden the contributor base” of who pays to protect nature – and whether that should include emerging economies – became the most fraught element of the talks.
Eventually, countries agreed on what Switzerland described as a “super, mega-delicate” text. It hinged on major “political compromises”, with “no major winner or loser”, according to Kenya.
Per the decision, countries that want to be included on a list of developed country donors can “signal interest” through bilateral, confidential consultations before COP18 and every alternate COP after.
Finally, countries also agreed on criteria to shape and resource a new, permanent financial mechanism to protect nature after 2030.
However, this did not immediately take the form of a new fund under the COP that biodiverse countries have demanded since 2022, deferring the mechanism’s institutional structure to COP18.
Resource mobilisation discussions at the GBF’s halfway mark were supposed to agree on how to close the “biodiversity finance gap” and to “increase resources from all sources” to “at least” $200bn per year by 2030, as set out in target 19 of the GBF.
The talks were largely dominated by a push, led by the JUSCANZ bloc of developed countries, to “broaden the contributor base”. This could see emerging economies, such as Qatar, China, Saudi Arabia and India, being added to the list of countries that pay to protect nature.
Article 20 of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) states that developed countries “shall provide new and additional financial resources” to developing countries to meet the costs of implementing measures to protect nature.
The text states that other countries – including emerging economies – may “voluntarily assume” these obligations to pay. However, it adds that this list of developed countries “shall” be reviewed periodically and amended “if necessary”.
The list was last amended in 2006.
(See this “jargon buster” which explains the specific meaning and legal weight of various terms and verbs used in UN formal documents.)
Discussions around this fraught subject had reached a dead end at intersessional talks this year, but resurfaced in Yerevan.