Responding to the COP29 climate finance agreement, in which rich countries agree to mobilize $300 billion a year to help Global South countries cope with warming temperatures and switch to renewable energy, Oxfam International’s Climate Change Policy Lead, Nafkote Dabi, said:
“The terrible verdict from the Baku climate talks shows that rich countries view the Global South as ultimately expendable, like pawns on a chessboard. The $300 billion so-called ‘deal’ that poorer countries have been bullied into accepting is unserious and dangerous —a soulless triumph for the rich, but a genuine disaster for our planet and communities who are being flooded, starved, and displaced today by climate breakdown. And as for promises of future funding? They’re just as hollow as the deal itself.”
Oxfam Aotearoa’s Climate Justice Lead Nick Henry said: “The failure to meet the global need for climate finance is a failure of empathy from the leaders of rich countries.”
“New Zealand’s climate grants are an essential lifeline for our Pacific region and a positive example of public grants, not debt. Our government needs to continue ramping up this finance to at least meet our fair share of the new global goal.”
Oxfam International’s Climate Change Policy Lead, Nafkote Dabi continues, “The money on the table is not only a pittance in comparison to what’s really needed –it’s not even real “money”, by and large. Rather, it’s a motley mix of loans and privatized investment –a global Ponzi scheme that the private equity vultures and public relations people will now exploit. The destruction of our planet is avoidable, but not with this shabby and dishonorable deal. The richest polluters need to wise up —and pay up.”
Contact information
Rachel Schaevitz in Auckland, NZ | Rachel.schaevitz@oxfam.org.nz | 027 959 5555
Jeshua Hope in Suva, Fiji | jhope@oxfampacific.org | +679 7500889
