COP29: Climate Change Agreement at UN Conference – “Important step” U.S. Says, “disappointed” France considers it

The agreement reached at the 29th UN Conference on COP29 sets the foundations on which to build, said the UN Secretary General, expressing mixed feelings about its content. “I was hoping for a more ambitious result,” Antonio Guterres said about the climate change agreement, “to address the great challenge we are facing,” calling on governments to continue efforts to address climate change. “The United Nations is with you. Our struggle continues and we will never give up,” he said. The European Union, the US and other rich countries participating in COP29 agreed to increase donations and loans to developing countries from $100 billion to “at least $300 billion ” annually by 2035. Money is intended to deal with flooding, heat and drought. But also to invest developing countries in low-carbon energy — rather than developing their economies by burning coal and oil, as Western countries have done for more than a century. U.S. outgoing president Joe Biden welcomed the agreement at the Baku conference, talking about “an important step” in trying to counter global warming, while committing that Washington will continue its action despite the skepticism expressed by its successor in the White House, Donald Trump. “Although some seek to deny or delay the ongoing revolution of green energy in America and around the world, no one can reverse it – no one,” Biden said. “Disappointment” and “below the challenges” described the agreement as France’s Minister of Ecological Transition Anies Panier-Rinasé. Despite the steps made – including the tripling of funding for the poorest areas in the world which are most threatened by the effects of climate change – the Baku conference was characterized by “a real disorganization and lack of leadership on the part of the Azerbaijani presidency,” the minister told the French News Agency (AFP). The agreement reached around 03:00 in the morning left a bitter taste to several of the participants, with the poorest countries in the world and island states of the Pacific, Caribbean and Africa asking for double, if not more, money. The representative of the 45 poorest countries in the world spoke of a ‘not ambitious enough’ agreement. “The amount proposed is desperately small. It is negligible,” argued Lila Nadan from India, while criticizing the Azerbaijani presidency of COP29.