TThe year-long UN climate talks in Belem, Brazil, ended without a significant breakthrough. Final text agreement there was no deal to walk away from fossil fuelcritical funding was delayed, and the Muthiran decision did not provide a roadmap to stop and reverse deforestation. But the multilateral system survived at Cop30 when collapse seemed close. This should be a warning: next year's conference of the parties must strike a better deal between the rich and poor world.
Developing countries are far from united on some issues. About rare earth minerals China sees any move as aimed at its dominance, while Africa sees it as necessary for control.. Elsewhere petrostates did not support Colombia's call for a fossil fuel phaseout. However, the global South as a whole adheres to a simple principle: its countries must be prepared to survive a climate emergency they did not create. This means that the money for construction flood defense, making agricultural systems resilient, protecting coastlines and rebuilding after natural disasters. They also require up-front financing for the transition to clean, green economic growth.
But climate finance in the global north is a tough sell. Right-wing populists in the West are protesting against spending money on climate and foreigners. Any issue that combines the two becomes difficult political territory. There is also a broader geopolitics in which violent confrontations have become the norm. For some parts of the rich world, clean industrialization of the global south this is not a priority – this is economic threat.
Donald Trump did not send a team to Brazil, the first time since 1995 that America was not officially presented at the annual climate summit. Perhaps this was not entirely undesirable. The US, which has the largest climate debt in the world, blocked significant financial transactions for many years – and this rearrangement The agenda is designed to keep key industries at home. This is not entirely without logic: some analysts say China is proof that the West has reason to be wary of empowering poor countries too quickly.
But such a narrow worldview will only hinder progress. As Evans Njewa, Chair of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) Group, stated, stated Immediately after the end of Cop30, Belén lacked ambition. The world's most vulnerable countries came to him seeking protection; they left, postponing their promises. However, the disappointment felt today is an incentive for greater action tomorrow. LDCs hope Cop31 in Turkey and eventually Cop32 in Ethiopia will change minds.
UN this year adaptation report It couldn't be clearer: the scale of the task ahead is enormous. It estimates developing countries will need more than $310 billion a year by 2035, but received only $26 billion in 2023, down from $28 billion the year before. Needs are growing faster than finances. The UN warns that without a fundamental course correction, the poorest countries will remain unprotected heat waves, forest fires and floods.
The urgency of the crisis explains why African negotiators They insist so much that adaptation funding should be provided by the state, preferably in the form of grants. To think otherwise, they say, is delusional; Currently, private funding accounts for only 5% of adaptation funds, and most of this funding comes from philanthropy. Private capital will not build dams, restore mangroves, or protect subsistence farmers. Cop30 highlighted a simple reality: only by moving beyond symbolism and self-interest can the world secure its future.
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