G20 urges progress at stalled COP29 talks

G20 leaders concluded their summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with words of encouragement for the stalled COP29 climate negotiations in Baku, Azerbaijan, but without a clear commitment to unblock the talks there.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and UN Secretary-General António Guterres took to the stage on the second and final day of the meeting of the world’s largest economies to call for commitments to ensure a successful conclusion to the negotiations in Baku, where climate finance targets are being decided.

However, the closing statement only hoped for a “successful” outcome at COP29 and the G20 leaders did not give their representatives a mandate to break the deadlock in the negotiations, which are due to end.

“We are determined to lead bold, timely and structural actions in our national economies and in the international financial system with a view to accelerating and scaling up climate action,” the document said without going into specifics.

Developing countries are calling for a new climate finance target of 1.3 trillion dollars a year, which would be used to decarbonize their economies, adapt their territories to climate impacts, and cope with loss and damage from natural disasters.

However, developed countries have yet to come up with a figure.

Moreover, the contribution of the United States is in doubt after the victory of Republican Donald Trump, a climate change skeptic who will return to the White House on 20 Jan. 2025.

Lula, the summit’s host, has urged negotiators in Baku not to postpone an agreement on a climate finance target until their next annual meeting (COP30) in the Brazilian city of Belém.

The progressive Brazilian leader also called for “stronger climate governance” because “there is no point in negotiating new commitments” if there is no “effective” mechanism to accelerate the implementation of the Paris Agreement, “whose results are far from what is needed”.

The UN secretary-general warned G20 countries that failure at the Baku talks is “not an option” and could have “devastating impacts.”