Just concluded on 24 November was the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29), this year’s UN Climate Change Conference where members of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change met once again to push efforts at effecting the transition to a climate-neutral world, that is, to refine and implement the decisions made at the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Signatories, including the Philippines, which ratified the Agreement in March 2017 envision a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by mid-century, achieving the 1.5°C climate threshold. They agreed the planet must not be allowed to heat up by more than that compared to pre-industrial levels because the consequences would no longer be manageable.

The COP venue rotates among five UN regional groups — Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Western Europe and Others (including North America and Australia), and Eastern Europe.

It was the latter’s turn this year, and COP29 was hosted by — ironically — Baku, the rich-in-culture-and-history capital city of authoritarian, oil-producing Azerbaijan.

At COP28, transitioning away from fossil fuels and funding for loss and damage were on top of the agenda. At this year’s COP29, the most anticipated outcome was increased commitments to climate finance, with the G77 bloc comprised of developing countries along with China calling for $1.3 trillion by 2035 from historic greenhouse gas emitters such as the US and the EU.

An economic study has estimated the actual need for climate change funding at $6.3-6.7 trillion per year by 2030, with developing countries needing at least $2.3–$2.5 trillion. But developed nations at COP29 balked and the final New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance provides for only $300 billion to be mobilized per year by 2035 for developing countries and a call for nations to work towards reaching a $1.3-trillion climate financing goal by that year.

The new goal, while grossly falling short of target, is actually triple the funding commitments made previously.

Still, as the negotiators got ready to fly back home, there was clear consensus among developing nations at COP29 that the amount — $300 billion per year by 2035 — was a “joke.”

However grossly inadequate the sums pledged may have been, they were better than seeing COP29 end without any accord, that is, with no increase to climate finance for developing nations.

Countries that pledged funds included Sweden and Australia, 200 million Kronor ($19 million) and $50 million AUD ($12 million), respectively, for the loss and damage fund that had been decided at COP28, while the UN Adaptation Fund intended for resilience building against extreme weather and rising seas was able to secure only $61 million against a target of $300 million.

Overall, this year’s UN Climate Summit was unable to hit projected targets and satisfy expectations, with no agreement reached on how COP28’s results, particularly transitioning from fossil fuels, should be taken forward. That matter has been passed on to next year’s COP in Belem, Brazil.

Dismally, the COP29 negotiations were overshadowed by the reelection of Donald Trump, who has vowed to roll back climate action and once again remove the US —historically the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter — from the Paris Agreement. To recall, Trump withdrew the US from the Agreement during his first term in 2016.

Some negotiators from developed nations did acknowledge the inadequacy of the sums pledged. But they explained that a host of issues, including inflation, the Ukraine war, and Trump’s re-ascension to power, among other political and economic concerns, did not favor their committing to larger funding amounts.

There, likewise, is the perception that the billions committed by wealthy nations for critically climate-vulnerable developing countries may be categorized as charity. True, portions of the funds from the developed world will be used to protect people in vulnerable countries from extreme climate crisis, but the finance facilitated will actually be spent largely on transitioning to green energy sources like wind turbines and solar farms.

Such a shift to renewable energy is crucial to tempering global temperature rise that could very well wreak havoc on the economies and lives of people in the developed world. Says UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres: “Finance is not a handout; it’s an investment against the devastation that unchecked climate will inflict on us all.”

Climate negotiators, specifically from developing countries, hope for better results in COP30 to be hosted next year by Brazil. There better be, because as things stand, many climate scientists view the goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels already beyond reach and even if every country on earth complies with existing pledges, the world is estimated to warm up by some 2.7 degrees.

Warned award-winning British environmental journalist Fiona Harvey, who covered COP29 in Baku: “If countries are not seriously committed to keeping global temperature rise below 1.5 in Belem (COP30), it will be too late. We will be toast.”