By Mattias Söderberg

As world leaders gather in Baku, Azerbaijan for the UN Climate Summit COP29, the focus is squarely on climate finance – the linchpin that could determine the success or failure of global climate action. For years, climate summits have produced ambitious agreements and initiatives, from tripling renewable energy to transitioning away from fossil fuels. However, these laudable goals remain largely aspirational without adequate funding to back them up. 

The urgent task at COP29 is to adopt a “New Collective Quantified Goal” on climate finance that is both ambitious and responsive to real-world needs. The current target of $100 billion per year is woefully inadequate, falling far short of what’s required to address the climate crisis effectively. But the new goal must be about more than just increasing the dollar amount. 

Equally crucial is ensuring that future climate finance is accessible and allocated fairly. This means providing sufficient funding across mitigation, adaptation, and loss and damage initiatives. It also requires implementing gender-sensitive approaches, respecting human rights, and empowering local communities with ownership and access to funds. 

Negotiations on future climate finance are challenging, with parties far apart in their positions. No one wants to foot the bill, but the harsh reality is that if responsibility isn’t taken, the cost will automatically fall on the world’s poorest and most vulnerable communities. This is fundamentally unjust. 

Instead, the future goal should be built on the “polluter pays” principle, ensuring that those most responsible for climate change bear the financial burden of addressing it. This approach not only aligns with ethical considerations but also provides a practical framework for mobilizing the necessary resources. 

The climate crisis is still manageable, but only if decisive action is taken immediately. The challenge lies in ensuring that all countries can participate in this global effort. Many nations in the Global South lack the capacity to implement necessary measures without access to climate finance. 

As negotiations unfold in Baku, the international community must recognize that climate finance is not just about numbers on a balance sheet. It’s about enabling a just transition, protecting vulnerable communities, and safeguarding our shared future. The decisions made at COP29 will ripple through generations to come. It’s time for world leaders to step up, break the deadlock, and commit to a climate finance goal that truly meets the moment. Our planet’s future hangs in the balance, and the clock is ticking. 

Mattias Söderberg is co-chair of the ACT Alliance Climate Justice Reference Group.

PHOTO: Albin Hillert/LWF

By Phillip Huggins

The importance of a successful COP29 can’t be overstated. We know the quality of unprecedented unity and action which needs to happen: 

• Nations must update their Nationally Determined Contributions [NDCs], as is called for by the guiding Paris Agreement. 

• These updates must be ambitious and transparent so as to give hope that we can still keep below 1.5 degrees warming. 

• Without honest and generous ambition, the drift will continue towards a catastrophic 3.1 degrees of warming. 

• The NDC’s must include clear commitments on mitigation and adaptation, and must address the kind of losses and damage many are already suffering, as Pacific leaders have poignantly conveyed. 

• All countries must prioritise the urgent phase-out of fossil fuels. 

COP29 is being held in Azerbaiijan, a country south of Russia and bordering Iran, which relies on oil and gas for 90 percent of its export income. Yet ambitious climate action is what is needed. This includes much in the area of ‘climate finance’ so those most in need have the capacity to mitigate the current effects of climate change and make sensible adaptations to what we know is coming. 

Crucially, cooperative climate action at COP29 is also action for peace. It would say, should it happen, that we prioritise our collective future over national rivalries, enmities and corporate interests. Crucial, because after 28 previous COPs, this one needs to do so much more than any before. Ambitious outcomes need to be agreed quickly so implementation is not delayed. There must be no more compromises, no more talk of magical geo-engineering solutions that prolong fossil fuel use. No unnecessary distractions like the idea of nuclear power plants here, already sufficiently critiqued as folly. 

Here in Australia, we are in a relatively safe place and with boundless opportunities to provide regional neighbours with encouragement by the pace and quality of our own transition to renewables. Many Australians are cooperating wonderfully. 

The desperate need is for intelligent bipartisan cooperation. The transition to a society that is net zero carbon emissions is so complex and the consequences of failure will be catastrophic. The clear need is for the quality of national cooperation we meet in other emergencies. Not politics that fans resentment, amplifies doubts and makes people more anxious in an already anxious time. It’s hard to know what else to do that will bring reality to our political discourse. 

We just have to persist …  An actor friend, who is also an expert on Dante, decided this week to sew a simple message on silk and stand with it outside a central city train station in Australia. His silk banner says simply: ‘Thank you for taking the train.’ 

In times of hate and fear, in times where the survival of planetary life depends on the decisions we make now, the best lives are those that respond with love. 

Bishop Phillip Huggins is the director of Ecumenical Studies at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture. An earlier version of this article appeared in Pearls and Irritations, John Menadue’s Public Policy Journal.