COP29: ‘We’re made to come here and almost beg to survive’

As the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) wraps up in Baku, the Pacific delegation navigates a familiar mix of hope and disappointment.

Central to the negotiations is the issue of climate finance, a primary focus for this year’s COP.

Dr Sala George Carter, the first Pacific representative on the COP Presidency Scientific Council, highlighted that negotiations were stalled in this critical area.

“While we’re asking for $3.8 billion, some parties are asking for $6.8 trillion for a global goal,” he told PMN News.

“We don't want any finance that's based around loans. We want more finance that's based around grants.”

For Niue’s Climate Change Minister Mona Ainuu, the slow pace of negotiations has been a significant disappointment.

“I swore last year that if nothing happened, I wouldn't come back to COP, " she told PMN News.

"We're wasting resources, we're made to come here and almost beg to survive, we're just basically talking, and I feel that we are really talking into thin air.

“I'm speaking to people from these parts of the world, journalists from Saudi Arabia. Their understanding is that we're still better off than them."

Mona Ainu'u. Photo/Pacific Island Forum Facebook

Ainuu confirmed her support for Papua New Guinea, which announced that it would boycott this year’s COP due to frustration with the global community’s lack of action.

“I don't have a position for Niue as such, but if it was up to me as a Minister and a mother who's trying to advocate for women and children and trying to do good by trying to come up with all these amazing solutions for us in Niue, I would say I think there has to be another conversation by the Pacific in regards to representation at these conversations.”

Despite the backing of powerful allies like the European Union and the United States, Ainuu emphasised the need for concrete outcomes.

“It’s not going to mean anything to us unless we see physical evidence of financial support.

“If I’m not here, who’s going to have my interest, my 13-year-old’s interest, and my women and Pacific families?”​

Carter delivered a clear message to negotiators regarding the future of COP and the role the Pacific plays.

“I've worked with these negotiations for more than 10 years now, and I've seen the same challenges that countries have yearly.

“It's this continuing where they picked off from last year people or there are people who have negotiated on behalf of specific countries.

“Some would move on to new jobs, some would be elevated to other positions or move on to other work or other reasons."

Dr George Carter (Sala Dr George Carter) Senior Fellow, Director - ANU Pacific Institute. Photo/Australia National University

“We want to encourage the same calibre, so there's no skipping the momentum.

“This year, we have Kiribati very active, but then next year, that person has left.

“How do we keep that momentum?

“So one of them is looking at ways at building those capacities. And we have programmes in the Pacific that's run through various different regional organisations that have supported the current cohort, but we need to see an investment in terms of bringing back old negotiators who have left.”

Many Pacific leaders have expressed frustration over the lack of progress in negotiations.

Carter said leaders met with the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, recently.

“While he remained firm in terms of the negotiations and what's happening. He was also quite frank in saying that the views were quite different, buried. We're still nowhere near consensus.

“And something that he used was a decision that was just that we could say is climate justice.

“We are still nowhere near that in terms of the state of negotiations last night, according to him.”

As a few hours remain until COP29 wraps up, hope still remains for final negotiations.

“I'm hoping that I receive some good news if there has been any changes to the outcomes,” said Ainuu.

“As I reflect on where we have been in the last couple of hours. Disappointing, absolutely, because there's a lot to be gained from these dialogues, but unfortunately it's not up to us as such, and I'm not really optimistic right now.

“We haven't heard any of the good news, but certainly and, I want to congratulate the negotiators especially from the Pacific because it's not an easy task to get there and to go through and try to convince people that what we need is to have a collaboration, have a one voice.”

Watch UN Secretary-General António Guterres at the AOSIS Coordination meeting at COP29.