By Chuks Oyema-Aziken (Baku, Azerbaijan)
Director and founder of Climate and Energy think tank, Power Shift Africa, Mohamed Adow has warned that slow negotiations at COP29 could jeopardise the outcome of the ongoing climate talks.
In a statement on Saturday, he said this has been the worst first week of a COP in his 15 years attending these summits.
Adow said there has been limited progress on finance, the rules around carbon markets, cut in emissions and what is been done to track progress on previous commitments.
He said the slow negotiations are causing frustration especially among the developing country groups at this COP.
“The presidency isn’t giving any hope for how the world will strike the right compromises,” he stated.
“To fill this vacuum, it is now up to ministers from the UK, Australia, Japan, Canada and the EU to start working together in a constructive way to resolve the stalemate and deliver some meaningful solutions.
“The world expects a clear signal on the financing of climate action and we can’t afford to fail at this task here in Baku.
Some people are starting to question the multilateral process, but COPs are like Winston Churchill’s description of democracy; they are the worst way of doing it except for all the other ways.
“This is the only meeting where every nation – rich and poor – gets a seat at the table.
Lack of clarity on finance negotiations
On the big issue of finance, the fundamentals have not changed over the past week.
“There is no clarity on the finance goal, the quality of the finance or how it’s going to be made accessible to vulnerable countries.
The cloud hovering over these talks is the known unknown around the election of Donald Trump. The rich world can’t hide behind that.”
