Tensions have risen at COP29 as the climate change cost climbs
Like the worst guests around the dinner table, nations at the COP29 climate summit keep arguing about who should foot the bill, as many world leaders look to increase eco spending goals to over $1 trillion each year going forward.
Argentinian representatives withdrew completely from the summit yesterday, and the French Minister of Ecological Transition, Energy, Climate and Risk also pulled out after a damning speech on Wednesday from the president of the host nation, Azerbaijan.
Burning issues
While tensions at the UN’s annual climate conference are nothing new, the prickly heat at this year’s COP summit feels slightly more intense, with some representatives — and many more experts beside — acknowledging the need for more funds to fight the global climate crisis. As the goal of keeping global warming at 1.5 degrees, set as part of the Paris Agreement in 2016, looks shaky by some measures, some notable climate experts have been questioning how fit for purpose the COP talks themselves actually are.
The core issue remains a classic tragedy of the commons. The expensive and time-consuming change required to meaningfully curb emissions at the individual country-level can be negated by almost any nation and it’s not easy to get world leaders to agree on where the easiest progress can be made. China, for example, is the world’s biggest polluter in aggregate emissions. But once you adjust for population, it’s not even close to the top of the polluting tables. Indeed, while CO2 emissions per capita have ticked down from their previous peaks in nations like Russia, the UK, and the US, they’ve been steadily rising in fast-growing economies like China and India, according to figures from Our World in Data.