MANILA, Philippines – The revised draft finance text released on Friday, November 22, at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, provoked strong words from civil society members, who called the $250-billion quantum a disgrace, a slap, and an insult.

The revised text said rich countries should pay $250 billion a year until 2035 to help developing countries deal with climate change and move away from fossil fuels.

This figure is significantly lower than what developing countries have been demanding for the new climate finance goal: trillions of dollars given as grants.

“The $250 billion a year is a cruel condemnation to death for the world’s vulnerable peoples,” said Gerry Arances of Philippine think tank Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development, on Friday at a press conference in Baku.

The Filipino climate advocate said the figure “barely begins to cover” what poor nations need to adapt to climate impacts and reduce emissions.

The draft negotiating text on the new collective quantified goal on climate finance does specify a $1.3-trillion figure, but this is expected to come from “all actors,” which may consist of developed and developing countries, financial institutions, and the private sector, among others. Both targets, according to the text, can come from all sources of funding in the public and private sectors.

But why are the members of civil society in Baku more focused on the $250 billion figure than the bigger $1.3 trillion fund that the text seemed to promise?

One of the primary tenets of the climate movement is that rich countries — the historic emitters that polluted the world — must pay for the damage they’ve caused.

“We are not begging,” Filipino climate activist Lidy Nacpil said in the same briefing.

“This climate finance is what is owed us, and we want our developing country governments to remember that. We cannot accept any more insults. We cannot accept this text,” Nacpil, coordinator of the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development, added.

What is owed? Between $5.036 to $6.876 trillion are needed to reduce national emissions by 2030, according to reports submitted to the United Nations by 98 countries.

Originally, parties set a $100 billion climate finance goal back in 2009. The world failed to meet this target in 2020, and only belatedly achieved this in 2022.

Ahead of the release of the final negotiating text, some are already calling for countries to walk away from the talks, saying “no deal is better than a bad deal.”

“Developed countries have a chance to either update the number or just back out,” said Indian activist Harjeet Singh from the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty initiative.

“And we must reject it and come back at some other time to come up with a deal that is commensurate to the needs on ground.” – Rappler.com