By Bunmi Yekini

Photo credit: actionaid
At the opening of COP29 on Monday, ActionAid, a global organization dedicated to social justice and human rights, urged wealthy, high-polluting countries to fulfill their long-promised obligations of climate finance to the Global South.
Speaking at a press briefing, Teresa Anderson, ActionAid’s Global Climate Justice Lead, underscored the urgent need for climate finance to unlock effective climate action in countries already facing extreme impacts from the climate crisis.
“COP29 is about the new climate finance goal to unlock climate action in the Global South,” Anderson stated. “Without finance, talk about climate action will remain just that, talk. They say there’s no such thing as a free lunch; well, there’s no such thing as a free climate target either. If we’re serious about climate action, we have to pay for it. Sticking the Global South with an escalating climate bill is not only unfair, it’s a recipe for certain planetary breakdown.”
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Anderson pointed to recent climate finance reports, highlighting a stark shortfall. Wealthy countries contributed just $28-35 billion in grants for climate action in 2022, a figure dwarfed by the $71 billion spent on ice cream that same year. For vulnerable countries like Bangladesh, where climate impacts are relentless, this gap has life-and-death implications. Mosammat Dulali, a community member from the Kalapara region in Southern Bangladesh, described the tragic losses her community endures with each new disaster.
“In my childhood, I didn’t witness disasters as severe as those in recent years,” Dulali shared. “Just this year alone, we’ve experienced four cyclones. My community is overwhelmed by various problems, houses collapsing, lands submerging, and loss of livelihoods, along with the deaths of livestock, women, and children. If it continues like this, we may not have a community left to talk about.”
The Global South, which bears the brunt of climate change but has contributed the least to the crisis, is particularly vulnerable. Nura Ahmed Mohamed, Country Program Manager with ActionAid Somaliland, painted a picture of the profound gendered impact of climate change in Somaliland, where women are often the first to respond, but also the hardest hit.
“In Somaliland, climate change is more than an environmental crisis, it’s a humanitarian disaster,” Mohamed explained. “Families in crisis often resort to harmful coping mechanisms, such as child marriage to survive. This has caused child marriage rates to surge, while girls are pulled out of school at alarming rates.”
The stakes are equally high in the Pacific, where low-lying islands are battling the existential threat of rising sea levels. Michelle Higelin, Executive Director of ActionAid Australia, urged Australia to turn words into action, particularly as the country holds a co-chair position in these COP negotiations.
“Australia often talks about supporting our Pacific neighbours to respond to the climate crisis—now is the time to put that solidarity into action,” Higelin stated. “The new climate finance goal is the most important agreement since the Paris Agreement and will decide the future of millions of women living on the frontlines of climate catastrophe. Wealthy countries must step up climate finance at this COP. They must commit to grant-based finance, not loans.”
ActionAid’s speakers called for the establishment of a new climate finance goal of at least $1 trillion annually, delivered in grants rather than loans. For countries on the frontlines, adequate climate financing is not just a matter of sustainability; it is, as Anderson emphasized, “a matter of survival.”
With COP29 positioned as a turning point in global climate finance, the world is watching to see if the richest, most polluting nations will finally meet the needs of the most affected communities. The question is not only about money but about justice, responsibility, and the future of a world shared by all.