About 200 countries approved the allocation of at least $300 billion a year to poor countries to combat global warming, chairman of the 2024 UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Azerbaijan's capital Baku Mukhtar Babayev said at the final plenary session of the conference.
The New Collective Quantified on Climate Finance (NCQG) provides a mechanism for allocating funds for efforts to limit global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, the lower limit of the 2015 Paris Agreement. It also assumes that rich historical polluters compensate the expenditures of the poor, reports said.
The NCQG would replace the current mechanism for such funding, agreed upon in 2009, under which developed countries pledged $100 billion annually to developing countries.
"The Baku Finance Goal represents the best possible deal we could reach, and we have pushed the donor countries as far as possible. We have forever changed the global financial architecture and taken a significant step towards delivering the means to deliver a pathway to 1.5C. The years ahead will not be easy. The science shows that the challenges will only grow. Our ability to work together will be tested. The Baku Breakthrough will help us weather the coming storms," Babayev emphasized.
The UN should push for more transparent and inclusive climate finance, especially in developing countries, UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen said in a statement.
"We therefore need to see more transparent, inclusive progress on finance, on mitigation and on adaptation. The UN Environment Program (UNEP) will continue to work with all parties and stakeholders to ensure that climate finance is mobilized in the most effective way, with maximum impact on the ground for communities that need it the most," she noted.