By Bunmi Yekini
As COP29 prepares to kick off in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Monday, ActionAid International and climate advocates are calling for wealthy nations to commit to trillions of dollars in climate finance to aid frontline countries. These vulnerable nations are already bearing the brunt of climate impacts and require urgent funds to adapt and recover.
Teresa Anderson, ActionAid International’s Global Lead on Climate Justice, highlighted the injustice faced by nations that have contributed little to the climate crisis. “Frontline countries who have done almost nothing to cause the problem are being pushed deeper into debt by the climate crisis. Yet they are the ones getting stuck with an escalating climate bill as they bear the costs of recovering from disasters, preparing for future impacts, and transitioning to green technologies,” Anderson said, urging COP29 to set an ambitious climate finance goal. “COP29 is a test of wealthy countries’ commitment to securing a liveable planet. If we want to unleash climate action on a scale that can save our future, the countries that have caused the climate crisis must pay to fix the mess,” she added.
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Kelly Stone, Senior Policy Analyst at ActionAid USA, cautioned against substituting true financial support with market mechanisms. “Market mechanisms are not climate finance. These mechanisms promote offsetting, letting countries and companies pay to avoid cutting their own emissions, which the world cannot afford, and which does not fulfill developed countries’ climate finance obligations,” she said.
Farah Kabir, Country Director at ActionAid Bangladesh, emphasized the crisis unfolding in her home country. “2024 has been Bangladesh’s worst year yet…Communities in the Global South do not have the luxury of time. Time lost means more lives lost, greater destruction of property and livelihoods, and more severe food insecurity. We need climate finance now,” Kabir urged.
As the world awaits the start of COP29, expectations are high for a decisive commitment from developed nations to provide financial resources that can unlock resilience and climate action for the most affected communities.