Press release | First published: here | November 21, 2024
Reacting to this morning’s release of several draft decision texts at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, Ann Harrison, Amnesty International’s Climate Justice Advisor, said:
“One of COP29’s top priorities was to secure an agreement on the provision of climate finance to the countries and communities on the frontlines of climate change. The draft text on the new climate finance goal – only released on the penultimate day of the summit – is an ominous sign that lengthy negotiations in Baku may fail to advance this critical objective. Even at this late stage, the text does not specify a minimum annual climate finance target, and it also allows for loans which risk deepening the debt crisis in low-income countries. It is an affront to human rights.
At COP29, representatives of frontline communities have been sharing stories of displacement, food insecurity, air pollution, and disappearing coastlines. The response from high-income countries so far has been shamefully inadequate. As negotiators go back to the drawing board, we reiterate our call for high-income countries to commit to provide at least USD 1 trillion in grant-equivalent finance per year. They have a responsibility to help lower–income countries adapt to the harmful effects of climate change, recover from unavoidable harms, and make economy-wide just transitions away from fossil fuels.”
Amnesty International also said that a draft text on gender and climate change is not fit for purpose, and called on states to ensure that previously agreed commitments to protect the rights of women and girls are not abandoned. There has also been a worrying lack of progress on fossil fuel phase-out.
Carine Thibaut, Director of Amnesty Belgium’s Francophone section, said:
“At COP28, parties finally named the elephant in the room by agreeing on an historic commitment to transition away from fossil fuels. It is outrageous that it took 28 COPs to do this. Now, parties are once again ignoring the fossil fuel elephant – well represented at COP29 by the more than 1,700 fossil fuel lobbyists in attendance – by failing to build on last year’s decision or even to repeat the same commitment.
As unnatural disasters proliferate around the world, delegates are arguing about process and hobnobbing with industry in the halls of COP29. They are thumbing their noses at the courageous human rights defenders and climate activists demanding urgent action to address escalating climate harms. If negotiators and the COP presidency work to produce ambitious revisions of the draft plans and decisions released this morning, we can still leave this COP with a positive outcome: one that provides adequate grants-based finance to low-income countries, affirms the rights of women and girls in all their diversity, and sends a strong signal recalling the COP28 agreement that the transition away from fossil fuels is imperative and urgent.”