G20 leaders send strong political signal to COP29, pitch for its success on new climate finance goal

BAKU: With G20 leaders at the Rio Summit recognising the need to rapidly scale-up climate finance and reach a new goal at the COP29 in Baku, UN climate body chief Simon Stiell on Tuesday said the grouping’s member nations have sent a clear message to their representatives not leave the Azerbaijan capital without a successful fresh finance goal — a most critical component of negotiations at the climate conference that is scheduled to end Friday.

G20 leaders in their joint declaration in Brazil not only pledged their support to the COP29 presidency for successful negotiations leading to the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance, but also indicated enhancing the ambition by recognising the New Delhi declaration on the need for rapidly and substantially scaling up climate finance from "billions to trillions" from all sources.

"G20 leaders have sent a clear message to their negotiators at COP29: Do not leave Baku without a successful new finance goal. This is in every country’s clear interests," said Stiell while reacting to the declaration at Rio.

Since issues of climate finance, both its quantum and quality, are the most critical components of the negotiation here, the signal from the G20 will give new momentum to the process.

Though the G20 leaders did not give any figure for the post-2025 climate finance annual target, the intent to "cooperate and support the process" shows that they want the COP29 to conclude with a negotiated outcome which could be acceptable to all.

Besides, the G20 expressed intent to engage countries to ensure that "ultra-high-net-worth individuals are effectively taxed" - an important step forward in support of wealth tax - which, observers believe, could significantly scale up resources to help developing countries curb emissions and adapt themselves to deal with the impacts of climate change. Experts estimate that even a 2% wealth tax can mobilize $250 billion a year.

"Leaders of the world’s largest economies have also committed to driving forward financial reforms to put strong climate action within all countries’ reach. This is an essential signal, in a world plagued by debt crises and spiraling climate impacts, wrecking lives, slamming supply chains and fanning inflation in every economy," said Stiell while referring to the Rio G20 declaration.

He said, "G20 delegations now have their marching orders for here in Baku, where we urgently need all nations to bypass the posturing and move swiftly towards common ground, across all issues."

On climate and energy transition issues, the G20 leaders also reiterated their continued support to all key points of New Delhi declaration such as efforts to triple renewable energy capacity globally; double the global average annual rate of energy efficiency; phase-out and rationalize, over the medium term, inefficient fossil fuel subsidies; and mainstreaming Lifestyles for Sustainable Development (LiFE).

Though the experts in general welcomed the G20 summit outcome in the context of giving a strong political signal to the COP29 process here, they, at the same time, expressed their disappointment over ignoring the point on transitioning the world away from fossil fuels. “Despite sending positive signals on the energy transition and the need to scale up renewable energy and improve energy efficiency, it’s unfortunate that the G20 failed to reiterate the commitment to shift away from fossil fuels, which all countries agreed to at COP28 in Dubai," said Ani Dasgupta, President and CEO, World Resources Institute (WRI).

The G20, a group of developed countries and emerging economies including India, Brazil and China, hold 80% of the world's GDP and account for around 80% of the world's emissions of greenhouse gases.

Asked what kind of signals the negotiators here get from G20 leaders' declaration, Yalchin Rafiyev, COP29 lead negotiator, said, "There are two major issues that I would say we took as a positive signal. First, they placed their support and commitment to the successful negotiations here at COP29 paving the way for the adoption of the NCQG. The second is the leaders of G20 once again recommitting themselves to the UNFCCC process, and they have once again reiterated their support of multilateralism in general when it comes to the climate domain."

“We are encouraged that the G20 endorsed country platforms, which aim to tackle the fragmented delivery of climate finance and better allocate resources to high-impact projects. Critically, these platforms could help countries attract more and better finance to implement their NDCs, due in early 2025, by connecting national priority projects and national and international, public and private financial flows,” said Dasgupta.

Climate activists have, however, different views. "World leaders at the G20 Summit displayed a stark failure in leadership, neglecting to reaffirm their commitment to transitioning away from fossil fuels—a critical pivot for global climate action . Their rehashed rhetoric offers no solace for the fraught COP29 negotiations, where we continue to see a deadlock on climate finance,” said Harjeet Singh, Climate Activist and Global Engagement Director for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative.

He said, “Developed nations remain unmoved, failing to quantify the trillions needed or to ensure these funds are provided as grants—essential for achieving climate justice. Without decisive progress on finance at COP29, we are steering towards a catastrophic temperature scenario, where the most vulnerable will bear the gravest consequences."