The Conference of the Parties’ 29th summit to address pressing climate change issues began on Monday in Baku, Azerbaijan as Washington’s top climate envoy assured of continued climate action despite a Trump win. From climate-denialism and certain sections opposing climate advocacy, to financialisation of issues that need community and governance initiatives, we have reached tipping points where the price of delay is paid by human lives.
Least contributors to increasing emissions, countries like India have struggled with impacts of climate change. Vulnerable communities are affected due to heat stress, floods, torrential rains, forest fires etc. Now, issues of loss and damages are knocking the developed world’s doors—from hurricanes Helene and Milton to floods in Florida and Spain.
COPs have been meeting for close to 30 years. In the Paris Agreement 2015, nations zeroed in on a stretch target—to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 degree Celsius, a target increasingly looking difficult as 2024 is on track to be the warmest year on record.
Climate change has especially impacted communities in direct contact with nature-facing sectors. In India, states such as Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, with a large indigenous population, remain the most vulnerable.
Despite concerns, on November 11, when the talks opened, governments approved new UN standards for international carbon markets. Nearly 200 countries agreed on several crucial ground rules for setting up a UN-backed international market in motion.
Erika Lennon, senior attorney at Center for International Law, called the process for adoption “fundamentally unfair.” Lennon said this was hardly a “win” for the people or the planet.
“Kicking off COP29 with a back-door deal on Art 6.4 Supervisory Body recommendations sets a poor precedent for transparency and proper governance. Adopting these rules on highly sensitive and contentious issues during the plenary on day 1 reduces crucial time for countries and observers to debate the issues,” added Isa Mulder, a policy expert at Carbon Market Watch.
Souparna Lahiri of the Global Forest Coalition said this exposed the nexus of big oil, polluting corporates and their complete domination of UN spaces.
Among key criticisms of the markets is one on methodologies. These markets have suffered from problems of additionality and leakage. Countries and private players have been able to bend the rules in their own favour, with some ending up as sacrifice zones to be used as ground to accumulate credits even as polluters keep emitting carbon dioxide and other harmful gases without benefits percolating to communities.
In 2023, an investigation by three publications revealed that over 90 percent of the rainforest offset credits that Verra, a registry, had verified did not represent genuine carbon reductions.
This has made watching how the parties set the New Collective Quantified Goal especially important. This is the new annual climate financing target, meant to be operational when the current $100 billion pledge expires at the end of the year. The G77 and allies of developing countries have rejected the first draft of the climate finance text.
Developing countries have increasingly mistrusted developed countries when it comes to climate financing targets, as these nations have rarely met them since 2020. As these targets are set to be fixed at higher amounts, developed nations are gearing up for complex financial mechanisms and instruments that will encourage private capital to invest in these targets instead of directly contributing.
What does the finalisation of this target mean?
“There is merit in the demands around finance and responsibility of national governments, including India. However, the same principles need to apply to in-country processes and projects designed to deliver development and address climate change,” Kanchi Kohli, a legal policy researcher, told me. The demand for global climate finance should translate into debt-free distribution at all scales. Climate finance should learn its lessons from the histories of debt-driven development.
This is also what makes processes like loss and damage as significant as achieving net zero emissions. The loss and damage fund, set up in 2022 after a 30-year struggle, was a major win for developing nations.
“Climate finance from rich countries to developing ones is needed urgently, and in enormous amounts. The New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance cannot leave room for carbon markets used for offsetting to be counted as climate finance.” Khaled Diab of Carbon Market Watch noted.
Adaptation still remains an important but neglected issue and as per COP28 experiences. Assessment and planning needs to be completed by 2025, while monitoring and evaluation needs to be done by 2030.
Apart from direct impacts, these discussions will also have covert impacts, such as that on India’s coal mining exploration. On the lines of Indonesia, India has talked about co-firing coal plants with biomass, delaying their retirement, Lahiri pointed out.
India has a great opportunity to lead a democratic, diverse and inclusive model to address climate change both within the country and globally... Being part of a process of decision-making can not just make a significant difference to outcomes but also how solutions are designed and how rights are perceived, adds Kohli.
(Views are personal)
Sushmita Verma | Independent journalist based in Mumbai
