Ahead of COP29, EU Fails to Signal a Stepping Up of Climate Finance Support

Brussels, 8th October 2024 EU Finance Ministers met today in Brussels to finalise the EU’s international climate finance priorities ahead of COP29. CAN Europe welcomes the recognition from Ministers that international public finance should be at the core of the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG). It is problematic though, that the EU’s emphasis in the NCQG is now on the role of developed countries’ own domestic resources in addressing climate change. This twists the very foundation of the goal, which is supposed to focus on financial support flowing from developed to developing nations.

The EU calling for the inclusion of additional countries as a prerequisite in the NCQG is both counterproductive and risks creating bigger hurdles to reach an agreement at COP29. This is especially the case since many developed countries have yet to make substantive indications on the level of public financial support they are ready to contribute. For CAN Europe it is important that a debate regarding other countries increasing climate finance contributions takes place, but this discussion should be in addition to significantly increased finance from developed countries.

‘Today’s Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) conclusions do not even indicate a recommendation for a collective increase from developed countries, leaving developing countries very much in the dark as to whether rich countries will simply continue with current financing levels’ said Emilia Runeberg, Climate and Development Policy Officer at CAN Europe. ‘International climate finance needs are soaring. The quicker we act, the more manageable the costs will be. We must provide the necessary means for all countries to actually implement their climate plans and cope with unavoidable climate impacts’.

CAN Europe recognises that the ECOFIN conclusions today call for “all climate finance contributors to ensure that provision and mobilisation of climate finance must not be used for fossil fuel related activities”. On this, the EU should start by getting its own house in order and more rapidly phase out fossil fuel subsidies and investments that still dwarf EU countries’ international climate finance contributions. CAN Europe is also disappointed that the Foreign Affairs Council conclusions on Green Diplomacy, that demand that climate finance should come from fossil fuels and other high emitting sectors, have not been reflected in today’s ECOFIN conclusions.

‘We need the EU to walk the talk when it comes to rapidly phasing out fossil fuel subsidies and investments and shifting these funding flows toward climate action,” said Chiara Martinelli, Director at CAN Europe. ‘With less than five weeks to go before COP29 begins, we expect the EU to start being more specific with regards to revenues from fossil fuels being used for climate finance, in line with the polluter pays principle’.

‘While it is positive that EU finance ministers recognise that public climate finance remains critical to support vulnerable countries and communities, the EU’s overall strategy seems to rely on hoping that the private sector will chip in and take care of the mounting finance needs in developing countries’ continued Chiara Martinelli. ‘Lessons learned from the previous climate finance goal set in 2009, to mobilise USD 100 billion a year, is that private finance does not find its way to developing countries and communities most in need. Many developing countries are also facing the worst debt crises since records began. Accepting climate finance in the form of expensive private loans simply is not an alternative’.

ENDS

Notes to the editor:

• CAN Europe’s Recommendations for ECOFIN Conclusions on International Climate Finance
• CAN Europe’s Recommendations for the Environment Council Conclusions on Preparations for COP29 
• Recorded Press Briefing: The New International Climate Finance Goal: Where does the EU stand?