India calls out lack of progress at COP29, flags climate vulnerability

The statement came as negotiations on the new collective quantified goal (NCQG) for climate finance remain deadlocked, with the latest draft still showing a vast gap between proposed funding amounts – from $100 billion to $2 trillion annually.

The talks have been further complicated by developed nations’ push to frame it as an “investment goal” that would include private financing.

India accused wealthy nations of shifting goalposts and consuming a “highly disproportionate share of the global carbon budget” while demanding increased climate action from developing countries.

“For the past week in this finance COP, we have been frustrated by an unwillingness to engage on this issue by our developed country partners. If there are no means of implementation, there can be no climate action,” the negotiator emphasised.

The Like Minded Developing Countries (LMDC) group, representing about 24 nations including India, expressed particular concern about pressure to accept higher mitigation targets without corresponding financial support.

Bolivia, speaking for the LMDC, pushed back against being labelled as “blockers” in mitigation discussions, calling it “deeply disrespectful, untrue and not in good faith.”

“There is still only a ZERO in the NCQG discussions, no number, no ambition,” said Diego Pacheco, LMDC spokesperson, highlighting that developed nations have failed to achieve their own targets. “The projected total GHG emissions of Annex I Parties in 2030 are expected to be 0.5 per cent higher than in 2020. I repeat, higher,” he noted.

These criticisms come as independent experts suggest the Baku talks should deliver commitments for far higher funding.

A recent report by the Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance, led by economists Amar Bhattacharya, Vera Songwe and Nicholas Stern, recommends mobilising $1 trillion annually by 2030, scaling to $1.3 trillion by 2035 for developing countries excluding China.

The contentious discussions unfold against a backdrop of broader challenges to global climate cooperation. Argentina’s withdrawal from the COP29 delegation and uncertainty about future U.S. participation under a potential Trump presidency have raised concerns about the stability of international climate commitments.

As the talks enter their final week, the gap between developing nations’ needs and developed countries’ offers remains stark.

But some experts also indicated that this often par for the course at this stage of a climate conference. “Member states have not moved and parties have not moved as expeditiously as they need to do,” said United Nations Environment Programme executive director Inger Andersen, according to news agency AP. “This is causing frustration. I understand that. So the answer is to push and push more and ensure that we land where we need to land.”

Andersen said it’s not smart to judge where countries will end up after just one week. Things change. It’s the nature of how negotiations are designed, experts said.

“COP works on brinkmanship,” said Avinash Persaud, a special climate adviser at the Inter-American Development Bank, according to AP. “COP works on the fear of us not reaching agreement in the end, which makes the process appear chaotic from the outside.”

Ministers will also be consulting with their bosses half a world away and seven hours behind at the Group of 20 countries — the G20 — in Brazil from Monday. The G20 is comprised of the world’s richest nations, who are also responsible for 77% of planet-heating gases being spewed.

Simon Stiell, executive secretary, UNFCCC said on Saturday: “Here in Baku negotiators are working around the clock on a new climate finance goal. There is a long way to go, but everyone is very aware of the stakes, at the halfway point in the COP. Climate finance progress outside of our process is equally crucial, and the G20’s role is mission-critical. Next week’s Summit must send crystal clear global signals. That more grant and concessional finance will be available. That further reform of multilateral development banks is a top priority, and G20 governments – as their shareholders and taskmasters – will keep pushing for more reforms.”

India has previously called for at least $1.3 trillion annually until 2030, while the African Group has emphasised this funding should be “through grants, concessional finance and non-debt-inducing support.”

Methane from tropical wetlands surge

Researchers who track methane emissions, a key greenhouse gas that is unaccounted for by national emissions plans and undercounted in scientific models, said on Sunday the world’s tropical wetlands are releasing more of the gas than ever before, an alarming sign that the world’s climate goals are slipping further out of reach.

“Methane concentrations are not just rising, but rising faster in the last five years than any time in the instrument record,” said Stanford University environmental scientist Rob Jackson, who chairs the group that publishes the five-year Global Methane Budget, last released in September, according to news agency Reuters.

Wetlands hold huge stores of carbon in the form of dead plant matter that is slowly broken down by soil microbes. Rising temperatures speed up the process, accelerating the biological interactions that produce methane. Heavy rains, meanwhile, trigger flooding that causes wetlands to expand.

Scientists had long projected wetland methane emissions would rise as the climate warmed, but from 2020 to 2022, air samples showed the highest methane concentrations in the atmosphere since reliable measurements began in the 1980s.

Four studies published in recent months say that tropical wetlands are the likeliest culprit for the spike, with tropical regions contributing more than 7 million tonnes to the methane surge over the last few years.

“Developed nations in the G20 cannot turn their backs on the reality of their historical emissions and the responsibility that comes with it. To confront the escalating costs of climate action in developing countries, they must commit to trillions in public finance. This G20 Summit is a critical moment—a chance to unlock the gridlock impeding COP29 and to set a bold, ambitious climate finance target that delivers real climate justice,” Harjeet Singh, Climate Activist and Global Engagement Director for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative.