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When this year’s UN Climate Summit, COP29, started in Azerbaijan on November 11th, we knew world leaders had to deliver one clear and crucial task: to agree on an ambitious “New Collective Quantified Goal” – NCQG if you like COP acronyms, or a new climate finance goal if you prefer more accessible language. Simply put, what this means is that rich and polluting global North countries need to put forward financing for a quick and just energy transition around the world. 

The negotiations were tense. Hours before the conference ended, delegations from Small Island States (AOSIS) and the Least Developed Countries (LDC) walked out of a meeting with the host, saying Azerbaijani presidency was ignoring their interests. And when the final text was finally presented, it was really below expectations:

 

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Vulnerable countries had no choice but to accept a bad deal. The US$ 300 billion goal is an improvement on the previous US$100 billion set 15 years ago, but it still falls extremely short of the amount needed to support vulnerable nations in adapting to climate impacts, transitioning to renewable energy, and ensuring a just and equitable response to the climate crisis.

 

What’s good and enough climate finance?

Developed countries committed to only “at least $300 billion per year”, and what’s worse: it includes financing from both public and private money. This risks deepening the debt burden for vulnerable nations who are already paying the price of the climate crisis. Our movement asks for at least US$1 trillion per year by 2030 in good quality funding. Anything less than this won’t deliver climate justice or meet the needs of those hit hardest by the crisis. What we demand is climate finance that delivers:

• Grants, not loans with high interest rates. Climate justice demands that finance prioritizes grants over loans to avoid deepening debt in vulnerable countries, and that public funds take precedence over private investments that put profits over people.
• Funding agreements that are transparent and accountable. Climate finance must move quickly, transparently, and with full accountability. Everyone impacted, especially local communities, need to have fair and easy access to relevant information.
• Local leadership. Meaningful change needs to be grounded in local contexts and needs. Locals must have direct stake, ownership and decision-making power at all stages.
• Money going to real solutions. Any solutions that extend the lifespan of fossil fuel energy or have high social risks are not aligned with the rapid and just transition to renewables. 

We know the money to make this possible exists, it just needs to go in the right direction: stopping investments and subsidies in dirty fossil fuels and taxing the ultra-rich could raise trillions annually, unlocking critical funds for climate finance, bolstering public services, and driving healthier, more equitable, and sustainable communities.

We’re not backing down 

Despite the underwhelming results of COP29, we’re not backing down. During COP29 we have shown our power – in Azerbaijan and around the world:

• We showed – once again – we’re strong and mighty. During COP29, millions of people around the world people mobilized to build pressure for ambitious climate commitments and for rich countries to pay up what they owe.⁠
• We made our voices heard in the corridors of power. We organized and joined several press conferences and protests in Baku, and called out major players like the UAE andBrazil to set better climate goals for renewable energy and cutting out fossil fuels. 
• We called for energy justice.We launched “Energy of the People” – a community-led campaign for clean, reliable energy in the Brazilian Amazon showing that a just transition is not just about energy, it’s also about human rights, inclusion, and systemic change to enable communities to make their own decisions about their energy choices.
• We made it clear billionaires should pay for climate finance. We launched the Tax Their Billions dossier, proving that a wealth tax on the super-rich governments could not only raise the trillions needed to act on the climate crisis – but  also help reduce wealth inequality between the richest and poorest.
• We called for the right people to be at the leadership of COPs. While fossil fuels lobbyists vastly outnumbered civil society at COP29, we fiercely supported Indigenous Leadership rising as a chance to change the balance of power. We are collaborating with the call for Indigenous Peoples, our planet’s original guardians, to lead global climate talks in Brazil and Australia and with the Brazilian indigenous movement’s campaign “The Answer Is Us”, demanding the co-presidency of COP30 in Brazil.

 

Climate finance is not charity: it’s a debt rich polluting nations have with the rest of the world, and an investment in our future – and we won’t accept any half payments.

We are ready for climate justice. The renewables revolution is unstoppable and we’re making it happen. Next year, we’ll double down on our efforts to build strength within our communities.Alongside partners, we are campaigning to deliver community-centered renewable energy solutions, and to implement a global wealth tax targeting billionaires and polluters to pay for it.

In April, we’ll gather more than 200 activists for a climate leaders training in Brazil – to unleash a new wave of campaigns and mobilizations focused on powering up solutions to the climate crisis. And at next year’s UN Climate Summit, COP30 in the Brazilian Amazon, we’ll make sure the right people are sitting on the leadership table: not fossil fuels lobbyists, but Indigenous peoples, Small Island Developing States, Global South communities, and the international climate movement.

Countries can still deliver on ambition

We need to ensure that the fight to limit global heating to 1.5°C remains front and center – and that means we need more ambition! Countries still have a chance to show up for climate action and leadership – proposing bolder plans through updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which are each countries’ national climate action plans.

By early 2025, countries are expected to submit new NDCs for the period 2025 – 2035. These new climate action plans are so important because they will guide us in what may be our last window of opportunity to secure a livable planet for all. Now all eyes are on Brazil — the host of the next UN climate talks, COP30. As host, they can push other countries to adopt ambitious climate plans before the next climate conference. 

“After three years of UN climate talks being hosted in petro-states, it’s time to correct the course. Next year’s COP in the Brazilian Amazon offers a unique opportunity to put people, climate solutions and affordable renewable energy front and center. Indigenous people in Brazil are leading the way but we need the Brazilian government to follow suit. ”

– Ilan Zugman, Director for Latin America and the Caribbean at 350.org, 

Brazil needs to start showing climate leadership now, ensuring the fight for climate justice, human rights, and robust international cooperation are at the forefront of all the roads that will lead us to COP30. Brazil needs to steps up as the climate leader we need, and call on countries to raise their game and meet the challenge. Now is the time to push our governments to show more climate ambition!

We’ll not back down.

 

DEMAND CLIMATE AMBITION