Climate experts who attended the UN climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan have said they fell well short of what was needed by people living on the front line of the climate crisis.
Practical Action staff from Nepal, Bangladesh and the UK attended the COP 29 talks to showcase examples of how people are adapting to new weather patterns, which could be taken to scale.
Despite making some progress on some issues, overall the delegation felt the final agreement has let the people most vulnerable to climate change down.
Colin McQuistan, thematic lead for climate resilience at Practical Action said:
“The annual UN climate change summits present a key opportunity to shape global climate goals. Adequate funding is essential to help communities adapt, and to fund the losses and damages that people are already suffering.
“However, despite the fact greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and losses and damages as a result of climate disasters are increasing, global leaders were still not able to invest enough into finding and scaling up solutions which can enable people to adapt.”
Developing countries estimated that they would need at least US$1.3 trillion annually (based on their existing climate plans). But the new climate finance target of US$300 billion agreed in Baku falls far short of this figure.
It also failed to include the quality assurances needed to ensure this is used to fund the activities and reach the communities where it is needed the most.
