CRAP 29 Host Azerbaijan Asks Oil/Gas Majors For (Dr. Evil Voice) One Billion Dollars Climate Aid For Poor Nations

Yeah, that'll turn things right around.

Fossil-fuel producing countries and companies are being asked to pay into a new international fund to help poor countries cope with the effects of the climate crisis. The climate investment fund is being set up by the Azerbaijan government, host country of the Cop29 UN climate summit in November. The Climate Finance Action Fund will take financial contributions from fossil-fuel-producing countries and companies and use the money to invest in projects in the developing world that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help build resilience to the impacts of extreme weather.

Yalchin Rafiyev, the chief negotiator for the Cop29 presidency, said: “Traditional funding methods have proven to be inadequate to the challenges of the climate crisis, so we have decided on a different approach. The fund will be capitalised with contributions from fossil-fuel countries and companies and will catalyse the private sector. Any developing country will be eligible [to receive money from] the fund.”

But contributions to the fund will be voluntary and no mechanism is proposed to force the countries and companies most responsible for greenhouse gas emissions to pay into it. This falls well short of the levy on fossil fuels that some campaigners have been calling for. Bronwen Tucker, the public finance lead at the campaign group Oil Change International, said: “This is a dangerous distraction from the strong new climate finance goal and national plans that Cop29 must ensure for a fair, full and fast fossil fuel phase-out.”

EDIT

Azerbaijan is seeking at least $1bn from at least 10 countries and big companies to capitalise the fund. The fund will be headquartered in Baku, the Azerbaijan capital, and its overseeing board will be made up of representatives from the contributors, and will be independent of existing multilateral development banks, including the World Bank.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/20/cop29-host-azerbaijan-seeks-1bn-from-fossil-fuel-producers-for-climate-fund