BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 17. At a virtual event hosted by the Brookings Institution ahead of the COP29 Climate Conference in Baku, Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change, emphasized the urgent need for all governments to agree on a new goal for international climate finance, TurkicWorld reports.
This, he said, must address the critical needs of developing countries and scale up funding to match the ever-growing climate challenges.
"COP29 must be the stand-and-deliver COP, recognizing that climate finance is core business to save the global economy and billions of lives from rampaging climate impacts," Stiell stated. He warned that while significant steps have been made, the current levels of climate financing remain far below what is needed to safeguard the world from devastating environmental crises.
The executive secretary emphasized that public finance must be at the heart of any new climate funding goals, with much of it in the form of grants or concessional funding to ensure accessibility for those most vulnerable. He noted that while it isn’t his role to dictate the specifics of this new financial goal, the overarching aim is clear: to make climate cash count by leveraging private finance and steering global financial markets toward green investments.
"The vital business of who pays and how much can be agreed in Baku," he noted, adding that COP29 should not be seen as an opportunity to renegotiate the Paris Agreement but rather as a platform to make concrete financial commitments. Mechanisms to track and ensure the delivery of promised funds are essential to maintaining global trust in the climate process.
Stiell also highlighted the need to rapidly increase funding for climate adaptation and to activate international carbon markets to benefit all countries. Additionally, he stressed the importance of supporting a new generation of national climate plans that align with global goals, transforming promises made at previous climate summits into real-world actions.
In the wake of COP28’s UAE Consensus, which called for a tripling of renewable energy, doubling energy efficiency, and transitioning away from fossil fuels, Stiell made it clear that COP29 must convert these pledges into tangible results.
"We must get the Loss and Damage Fund working fully, dispersing money to those who need it most," he said, referencing the critical role of this fund in assisting nations severely impacted by climate change.
Finally, Stiell warned against the growing divide between nations and the rising temptation to adopt an insular mindset in the face of global challenges. "If we go down this path, it will soon be game over in the world's climate fight," he concluded.
