Hello!
Today marks the end of the first week of COP29 talks in Baku, Azerbaijan. So, what has been accomplished thus far?
Countries at the summit tried to make progress on how to raise up to $1 trillion in climate finance for the world's most vulnerable. The previous annual finance goal of $100 billion expires this year. But wealthy countries only met the pledge in full starting in 2022.
So how is it going? Well, there's been little progress made on agreeing a new target for how much money will be provided to help developing countries adapt to climate change and recover from destructive weather.
In fact, the talks are going so slowly that some delegates have signed a letter asking for a drastic revamp of the whole process.
Friday's letter, signed by more than 20 experts, former leaders and scientists, including former U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change boss Christiana Figueres and former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said the COP process had achieved much, but now needed an overhaul.
"We need a shift from negotiation to implementation, enabling the COP to deliver on agreed commitments and ensure the urgent energy transition and phase-out of fossil energy," the letter said.
A $7 trillion question
Aside from stalled talks on climate financing, Friday marks COP29's thematic day focusing on 'energy, peace, relief and recovery.
On the topic of energy, discussions are ongoing over reducing distortions and inefficiencies created by subsidies.
According to the International Energy Agency and the International Monetary Fund, removing inefficient fossil fuel subsidies could have a positive impact on energy markets, government budgets and efforts to tackle climate change.
Once the sum of undercharging for environmental costs and forgone tax revenues is taken into account, explicit subsidies – or money spent by governments on undercharging for supply costs – amounted to $7 trillion in 2022, or 7.1% of global GDP.
War and extreme weather
As for discussions around peace, relief and recovery, a group of conflict-affected countries is pushing to double financial aid to more than $20 billion a year to combat the natural disaster and security crises facing their populations.
In a letter seen by Reuters, the group says its members have struggled to access private investment, as they are seen as too risky.
That means U.N. funds are even more critical to their populations, many of which have been displaced by war and extreme weather.
In response, the COP29 Azerbaijan Presidency launched a new 'Network of Climate-vulnerable Countries', including a number of countries that belong to the g7+, an intergovernmental group of fragile countries, which first sent the appeal.
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