Germany welcomes COP29 climate finance deal as win for multilateralism
German and EU politicians have welcomed a hard-fought and widely criticised deal on future support for developing countries to fight and adapt to climate change at the UN climate change conference COP29, emphasising that global cooperation was still possible.
“Those who have come here to prevent progress and prevent more climate justice and weaken our multilateral UN system altogether have failed,” said German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock. Achieving the deal “in these shaky times” was a success, she said.
European Commissioner for Climate Action Wopke Hoekstra said the climate conference “delivered an ambitious and realistic goal,” and heralded in a “new era on climate finance.”
Countries agreed to triple public climate finance to developing countries from the current target of 100 billion U.S. dollars annually to 300 billion dollars by 2035. Negotiations in Baku had run into overtime over crucial aspects such as the amount of annual climate finance and the question of who can or must pay in the future.
[Read more about the outcome of COP29 on Carbon Brief]
The 29th UN climate change conference has been dubbed the “finance COP”. Negotiators from around 200 countries met in Baku, Azerbaijan over the past two weeks to decide on a new international climate finance goal, outlining how wealthier economies will support developing countries in their efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
"Climate action and cooperation prevail" - NGO
COP29 took place against the backdrop of Donald Trump winning the U.S. election early November, making it likely that the United States will pull out of the Paris Agreement again and reduce climate finance to developing countries, according to researchers.
The new funding goal is a follow-up on rich countries' pledge to mobilise 100 billion U.S. dollars annually, which was set for the years until 2025. Governments from recipient countries and civil society organisations have repeatedly criticised the target, also because most of the money has come in the form of loans. Developed countries met the target two years too late, in 2022.
Civil society organisations heavily criticised the agreement in Baku as too little for what developing countries actually need.
“This is not a success,” said Jan Kowalzig, Senior Policy Adviser Climate Change at NGO Oxfam. “The target is too weak” and the needs in developing countries much higher. The climate finance expert said that a majority of the climate finance would come in the form of loans, which had to be paid back with interest – further straining the already precarious debt situation of poorer countries.
However, Christoph Bals of NGO Germanwatch said that while COP29 did not deliver what would have actually been needed, “it is towards the upper limit of what is possible in the current geopolitical situation.”
“Countries like Colombia, Kenya, the UK, Brazil and even Germany ensured that there is a clear signal in a world unsettled by the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president: Climate action and cooperation prevail,” said Bals.
The global community agreed for the first time to transition away from fossil fuels last year, which was the success story of COP28. At COP30, scheduled for November 2025 in Belém, Brazil, countries will come together again after presenting their new, more ambitious national climate plans, or Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Some countries have already presented their new plans, but many are expected to miss the deadline of February 2025.
Reactions from Germany
Government and politicians
Robert Habeck, German economy and climate minister
“We have initiated a paradigm shift in climate financing for developing countries: The private sector is now being given a stronger role in global climate protection, and countries from the Gulf region and China, for example, are now also under pressure to contribute financially. In view of the tense global situation, this is a success for international cooperation; the negotiations at UN level are working, even if there are still many unresolved issues that need to be discussed in the coming year.”
Svenja Schulze, German development minister
“The results from Baku are no reason to celebrate, the progress made is too small for that. But they are a reason to continue working hard on concrete climate solutions. In future, more people will take responsibility than before. This is because a commitment by a small group of traditional industrialised countries is now becoming a joint global task to which other countries are also contributing. This is an important signal: not only do we recognise our responsibility, but other now rich countries such as China or the Gulf States are now also called upon to participate.”
Steffi Lemke, German environment minister
“Unfortunately, the COP29 climate conference was disappointing in many respects. What we witnessed here was the defensive struggle of a fossil-fuelled world that does not want to accept that the age of fossil fuels is coming to an end. Because the rapid expansion of renewables can no longer be stopped. Neither is the realisation that the global environmental crises of our time, from species extinction to plastic pollution, can only be solved together and that an intact natural environment is our strongest bulwark and ally. The path to a clean future will only succeed if we put an end to the wasteful use of natural resources and swap yesterday's business models for sustainable, circular approaches.”
Researchers and think tanks
Ottmar Edenhofer, director of the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC)
“The climate summit in Baku was not a success, but at best the averting of a diplomatic disaster. It is now abundantly clear that we need additional negotiation formats for the global fight against the climate crisis. For progress to be made, not all of the almost 200 signatory states to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change necessarily have to sit around the same table.”
Jule Könneke, SWP
“China's role at COP29 was interesting. At the start of the negotiations, Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang announced that China had provided 24.5 billion US dollars in climate finance since 2016. [...] The fact that China announced for the first time how much money it is putting into climate finance is an important signal. [...] China's announcement should also be seen against the backdrop of Donald Trump's election in the USA.
This shifts the geopolitical balance in international climate policy. The bilateral cooperation between the US and China to date has not only frequently enabled compromises to be reached at climate conferences, but has also curbed the systemic competition between the two superpowers in the negotiations. China appears to be endeavouring to fill the resulting power vacuum and claim the narrative leadership role in international climate policy for itself.
This trend will continue and could become a real acid test for the EU's claim to leadership in climate protection. The EU is at risk of becoming increasingly isolated due to China's ambitions to claim the narrative of global climate leadership and the ever louder criticism of measures such as the carbon border adjustment mechanism. This not only restricts its room for manoeuvre in climate diplomacy, but could also weaken the EU as a whole in terms of foreign policy.”
Industry and business
Thilo Brodtmann, managing director of VDMA
“The conclusion of the chapter on a global carbon markets is a milestone. It has the potential to accelerate the global use of particularly efficient technologies to avoid emissions. The remaining open issues must be resolved by the next climate conference in Brazil.”
Civil society
Sabine Minninger, Brot für die Welt
“It was more important to the most vulnerable states that the multilateral process continue than to insist on their demands for fair support. They have supported an outcome that does not meet their needs at all.
Countries need prioritised access to climate finance and must be supported in dealing with the climate crisis through grants - not loans. It is disastrous that the poorest countries have dropped their demand for financing climate damage due to pressure from industrialised countries. As a result, they run the risk of continuing to run up massive debts to cover the high costs of damage.”
Martin Kaiser, Executive Director of Greenpeace Germany
“After Baku, there is a shamefully wide gap between the promised support for the most vulnerable countries and their urgent needs,” said Kaiser in a statement, continuing that “the disappointing outcome of this conference is a mission for Germany. The perpetrators of the climate crisis must no longer shirk their responsibility. This also applies to oil and gas companies as well as the super-rich - they must be made to contribute to financing the costs in the future. The next German government should lead the way together with its EU partners. Brazil's G20 initiative for a billionaires' tax points in the right direction.” Looking at next year’s COP in Brazil, “Germany and the EU must manage to establish enough climate cooperation with Brazil, China and India by then in order to counter the climate crisis denier Trump, who will already be in office.”
Cosima Cassel, Head of the Climate Diplomacy Programme at think tank E3G Berlin
“The pioneering role of developing countries such as Brazil, Colombia and Kenya was crucial in driving this agreement forward. But the outcome falls far short of what is needed to reduce emissions and protect communities at the pace needed. Brazil will assume the presidency of COP30 in 2025 and needs to develop a credible roadmap for more climate finance, accelerated decarbonisation and regional action now. With NDC updates due next year, Brazil's leadership will be critical to keeping 1.5°C within reach.”
Luisa Neubauer, spokesperson for Fridays for Future Germany
“COP29 represents every reason for people to become activists. Fossil voices and fossil states are counting on the resignation of climate-conscious societies and governments – that shouldn’t happen. Germany and the EU must now take the lead in the global North and prove that they will not let a weak COP stop them from pushing ahead with international climate action. And especially as international climate negotiations become more complex, it is all the more important that countries like Germany stay on the ball, defend climate targets and set an example for transformation.”
Viviane Raddatz, Climate Director at WWF Germany
“The promised funds are nothing more than a sip of water before dying of thirst. The new financial target does not do justice to either the past or the future: the industrialised countries have been the main cause of the climate crisis and must pay for it. And all countries in the world will only be able to operate successfully in the future if they consistently focus on climate protection - and are financially able to do so. Not investing the necessary funds now will also significantly limit the economic performance of rich nations. Every euro not invested today will cost many times more tomorrow.”
