New finance target in COP29 outcome could help developing countries set stronger targets: Grace Fu

SINGAPORE – The new climate finance target agreed upon at the UN climate conference COP29 will provide developing countries with capital to implement their green plans, and could help them set more ambitious emissions-cutting goals when new targets are due in 2025.

“For Singapore, we are very focused on (achieving our climate targets),” said Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu. “We are very focused on implementation, but we also like to see the rest of the world equally committed to their targets.”

She was speaking on ST’s Green Pulse podcast, in an episode aired on Dec 2 – about a week after COP29 concluded on Nov 24 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

“COP29 was a critical COP because for many years, developing countries have been asking, ‘where is the money? I have all these targets that you want us to achieve, but how do I get the means of implementation, how do I get the technology?’”, Ms Fu said, when asked about the significance of the summit’s outcomes for the region. 

The outcome of COP29 – which included an agreement from developed countries to channel more money to developing nations – was important because it will likely affect the next round of nationally determined contribution submissions, Ms Fu added. 

“Implementation of targets hinges on the availability of finance and technology,” she said. 

Ms Fu was referring to the next set of climate change targets that countries must submit to the UN in 2025.

Under the Paris Agreement, countries must submit new national climate action plans – dubbed the nationally determined contributions – every five years, with each plan more ambitious than the previous one.

The next round of submissions, which detail climate targets for 2035, are due in February 2025. 

At COP29, developed nations agreed to channel at least US$300billion (S$401 billion) a year to developing countries by 2035 to support their efforts to tackle climate change.

This figure is an increase from the previous US$100 billion per year target. 

But developing countries were still disappointed with the figure, saying that developed countries – which have been growing their economies at the expense of the environment – should contribute more to the trillions of dollars needed by the poorer countries to reduce their emissions and cope with escalating climate impacts.

Negotiators at the COP29 summit also agreed on a call to raise US$1.3 trillion each year from a wider range of sources, including private investment, by 2035. 

“I think if the world has a higher number to work with, it gives us more confidence,” said Ms Fu, when asked if the COP29 outcome would affect climate action in South-east Asia, which is a bloc of developing countries. “But I think US$300 billion is a good place to start from.”

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