This year’s international climate talks are expected to be headlined by fraught negotiations over how Canada and other wealthy countries, who have contributed a disproportionate share of planet-warming emissions, should financially compensate other nations in their fight to tackle climate change.
Failure to achieve a new goal at the United Nation’s annual climate talks may undercut confidence in major international agreements and strike a blow against efforts to limit global warming, observers say.Here’s what you need to know about the climate finance negotiations – and Canada’s role in them – as the 29th annual United Nations climate conference, or COP29, kicks off in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku.
Naomi Johnson, co-chair of the Canadian Coalition on Climate Change and Development, or C4D, or called it a “down payment.”“That would have to be a lot more going forward in order to achieve climate goals and reach our commitments globally,” said Johnson. The current list of 23 contributor countries is more than 30 years old. Wealthier countries, including Canada, are now suggesting that China and some Gulf states, for example, should be required to contribute to the new climate finance goal since their emissions have increased significantly as their economies have grown.
Johnson, the C4D co-chair, suggested how countries deliver the new climate finance goal may be more important than the dollar figure. The coalition, along with developing countries, has been pushing for a greater share of climate finance to come in the form of government grants, rather than loans that can drive developing countries further into debt.
Complicating those discussions is the question of whether the goal should also include money to help pay for the losses and damages developing countries are already facing from climate change.