By the Group of Least Developed Countries
BAKU, Azerbaijan | 24 November 2024 (IDN) — The Group of world’s Least Developed Countries (LDCs) on Climate Change is outraged and deeply hurt by the outcome of COP29.
“Once again, the countries most responsible for the climate crisis have failed us. We leave Baku without an ambitious climate finance goal, without concrete plans to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C, and without the comprehensive support desperately needed for adaptation and loss and damage.”
This is not just a failure; it is a betrayal.
Three years of relentless effort by the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) engaging in good faith, building solutions, and striving for justice have been casually dismissed. Powerful nations have shown no leadership, no ambition, and no regard for the lives of billions of people on the frontlines of the climate crisis.
The just ended UN Climate Change Conference, on 23 November, has proven what we feared: the voices of our 1.1 billion people have been ignored. Despite exhaustive efforts to collaborate with key players, our pleas were met with indifference. This outright dismissal erodes the fragile trust that underpins these negotiations and mocks the spirit of global solidarity.
The bulldozed New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) is a glaring symbol of this failure:
Ambition is absent: The NCQG falls woefully short of addressing the climate emergency’s scale and urgency.
The most vulnerable excluded: It ignores the needs of LDCs and SIDS, offering no minimum allocation for our groups.
Loss and Damage dismissed: The plan lacks meaningful support, leaving our communities to suffer without recourse.
Access denied: Weak and vague commitments fail to improve access to climate finance for the most vulnerable.
Undefined Climate Finance: A lack of clear definitions undermines transparency, leaving the door open for manipulation and inaction.
Established mechanisms sidelined: There are no guarantees of finance flowing through trusted entities under the Convention and Paris Agreement.
This outcome is a travesty. It sacrifices the needs of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable to protect the narrow interests of those who created this crisis. It prioritises profits and convenience over survival and justice.
The Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group is made up of 45 countries across Africa, the Asia-Pacific and the Caribbean, with a joint population of over one billion people. Incredibly vulnerable to environmental and economic shocks, and disproportionately affected by the climate crisis, our countries negotiate together as a bloc at UN climate talks to advance our shared interest in a fair and ambitious global response to climate change.
Evans Njewa is the current Chair of the Least Developed Countries Group, and the Head of Climate Change and UNFCCC Focal Point for the Government of Malawi. [IDN-InDepthNews]
Image source: LDC Climate Change
