Ryan Bachoo
Lead Editor-Newsgathering
ryan.bachoo@cnc3.co.tt
As thousands of people across parts of Trinidad, Grenada and Belize continue to clean up in the aftermath of devastating floods over the last week, the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) says those people feel abandoned in the face of delicate negotiations regarding climate finance at COP29 taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The United Nations Climate Change Conference entered its final week with negotiators still grappling over what the outcome of climate finance will look like come Friday.
Addressing the media yesterday, AOSIS’ senior adviser for Finance, Michai Robertson, said, “It’s interesting because we do feel abandoned. I’m thinking about all the loss and damage that you are talking about and you have basically all the developed countries saying that we cannot even include in the scope of this goal financing to address that loss and damage so that’s a really tough pill to swallow.”
Robertson also responded to suggestions that SIDS should join the contributor base when it comes to climate financing. He labelled it as “very dangerous.”
When pressed further by Guardian Media on this development, Robertson added, “That’s an absolute no. It’s an affront to all the principles that we have here that the two groups, and SIDS being one of them, to pay for climate financing for emerging economies is absolutely unacceptable. They’re diffusing the responsibility of those who they consider to be the most vulnerable; there’s a lot of hypocritical behaviour going on here in this COP setting, and I really hope that they have an about-face and they come with a credible goal that can keep the Paris Agreement alive.”
When asked about the progression of talks as it pertains to grants versus loans and debt relief, Robertson said, “We have a weird kind of positioning from quite a few developed countries that are saying because the $100 billion was made of an assumption of this vague accounting, it would be hard for them because they have come in with a number in mind based on that vague accounting. Their argument is that because it’s based on that vague accounting if there are any changes to the accounting rules, they’ll have to reduce the number. That’s the type of discussions that are sadly being had.”
He went further in saying that “it’s a bit sad” that there isn’t general solidarity around the room for looking for two sets of countries that “no way” can absorb $1.3 trillion in climate financing.
“It was promised to us. It was promised to us in the Paris Agreement. It was promised to us by the international community when we talked about the SIDS outcome document that we had. It talks about minimum allocation in the context of climate finance, so it’s really disheartening to see that there is a lack of solidarity in the multilateral space as it currently stands for our key ask.”
Robertson said one of the startling issues the AOSIS negotiators have faced in their bilateral meetings with different countries has been the pushback they’ve been getting for the minimum allocation floors.
He stated, “As SIDS and Least Developed Countries, we are actually being asked to do things like give it up completely because it’s making countries feel uncomfortable as it relates to what that may cause for the bigger pie and their share, so there is a lack of understanding of our specific circumstances and smaller economies.”
The concerns of an incoming Donald Trump administration in the United States were also raised during the media huddle in which Robertson said it was a matter for the American electorate to consider the changes in their administrations pulling out of the Paris Agreement and then rejoining as the potential for the Trump administration pulling out for a second time lurks.
