The Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice (DCJ)

For Immediate Release

COP29 delivers death sentence for millions amidst “stage managed” Global North takedown of trust, collaboration, and protocol

BAKU, AZERBAIJAN, 24 NOV 24 –  COP29 has been less of a COP and more of a carefully manipulated cop-out by Global North governments that have used the Baku climate talks to sideline the core principles of a party-driven process to finalise their decades-long Great Escape and to rip apart the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement, lighting fire to a just global response to the climate crisis.

For the past two weeks, the Baku stadium has become a place of unprecedented broken trust, departure from established precedent, empty promises, and political bullying where Global North governments– led by the United States, European Union and United Kingdom– have bullied their way out of moral and legal responsibility for addressing the climate crisis and paying their climate debt. This escapist agenda has been enabled by a UNFCCC and COP29 presidency that has repeatedly departed from established protocol on multiple occasions to pave the way for this agenda, including in the closing plenary where the decision on the New Collective Quantified Goal on Finance (NCQG) was gavelled through by the presidency, and celebrated by the Executive Secretary, without consensus by Parties and multiple governments objecting. 

When so much is on the line, COP29 has forced through a deal that condemns those across the Global South, withholding the finance, collaboration, and technology needed to prevent a total climate collapse. These Global North governments have made it clear that they have no intention of being partners in global climate action, as communities across the Global South and the world grapple with a deadly and devastating crisis that is wreaking havoc on billions of lives around the world. 

When so many lives are at stake, no deal is better than a bad deal, which is why DCJ adamantly rejects this deal, alongside multiple Global South governments that have also rejected the deal–including Cuba, India, Bolivia, and Nigeria. The outcomes of COP29–which include rules that will scale up risky and ineffective carbon markets on one hand, and massively underdelivering on the Global North’s climate debt on the other– are not even close to delivering the public climate finance and real solutions owed to the Global South by the Global North. We will not back down from demanding the climate justice, real solutions, and the public climate finance we need to achieve a just and equitable transition off fossil fuels. 

COP29 has failed to take into account our lived realities, and has weighed our lives and livelihoods as wanting and unnecessary, instead pushing our communities into further devastation by offering only false solutions like debt swaps, carbon markets, loans and green bonds.

The NCQG decision that was adopted by the presidency without any opportunity for parties to stop the decision:

1. is too far from the needs of developing countries as calculated in numerous surveys to be in the trillions, offering only $300 billion with no guarantee of any public provision of funding that does not put Global South countries into deeper debt.
2. excludes Loss and Damage in the goal, a glaring oversight.
3. backs the US-led argument that the finance should come not from the governments responsible for the climate crisis, but from development banks and private investors, thereby, allowing developed countries to exit their obligations to provide finance.

DCJ, cannot and will not accept today’s outcome at Baku, which has failed the world, particularly communities in the Global South. The days of climate impunity and climate obstruction must end. Climate justice now!

Quotes by DCJ members

“The outcome of COP29 is an outrageous insult to the people of the Global South. The pennies that have been thrown our way not only fall short of the trillions we are owed, this paltry amount will be delivered in the form of private finance and loans that will deepen the debts of already impoverished countries. COP29 will always be remembered as the COP where Global North governments permanently exited from their climate finance obligations, with the United States leading the way. From killing the Kyoto Protocol in 2012 to now selling out the Global South to the private sector, the US has always been the biggest blocker of climate action. By protecting their own interests and sabotaging COP29, the US and the rest of the Global North have condemned the world to climate catastrophe.” Lidy Nacpil, Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development

“The finalisation of the COP29 outcome was through a process that was unfair as the decision was gavelled without hearing objections from the parties. Developed countries once again escaped their obligations to commit to the provision of significant public resources to developing countries. They agreed only to mobilise financial resources without a firm commitment on what quantum they will provide in climate finance. They were wrangling with developing countries, behaving as if they were in a fish market, haggling over what they can offer, without a clear finance commitment. They expect developing countries to show greater ambition on mitigation and adaptation without the commensurate ambition on finance. This is not just a joke but a serious insult to developing countries, as they pretend with slogans to keep the 1.5 degree C alive, abdicating their responsibilities under the Paris Agreement and risking lives of the poor and wrecking the planet. “ Meena Raman, Third World Network 

“The forced gavelling of a sham COP29 decision over the fierce opposition of developing countries is nothing short of an authoritarian insult to the principles of equity and justice enshrined in the climate process, convention, and the Paris Agreement. This decision, imposed without consensus, denies the Global South the climate finance needed for urgent climate action. Finance is not charity—it is reparations for the historical emissions and continued exploitation by developed nations.

The trillions we demand are essential to address the climate induced destruction. Yet, instead of honouring their obligations, wealthy nations have pushed a fraudulent outcome built on inadequate pledges, speculative private funds, and the unconscionable idea of making the Global South pay for a crisis it did not cause.

We the Global South categorically reject this illegitimate outcome. We will not accept the erasure of equity, nor will we allow the historical responsibility of polluters to be diluted under the guise of voluntary commitments and privatised finance. Our nations may have been sidelined in the COP halls, but we will carry this fight into every space, every movement, and every avenue for climate justice. This is not an end—it is the start of a stronger, unified resistance against climate colonialism and for the survival and dignity of our people.” Rachitaa Gupta, Global Coordinator, Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice

“It is infuriating to hear rich countries claim there is no money to repay the climate debt owed to the South whilst pouring billions into the genocide in Palestine. More than empty promises and expressions of solidarity, we need accountability and action to deliver both climate justice and justice for Palestinians.” Abeer Butmeh, PENGON / Friends of the Earth Palestine

“Without sufficient financial commitment from developed countries, we guarantee the disappearance of South American forests, the degradation of our key ecosystems to sustain the climate balance. In other words, we condemn the Paris Agreement to failure and the NDCs to non-compliance. COP29 leaves a void that will be very difficult to overcome at COP30 in Brazil.” Antonio Zambrano Allende, Movimiento Ciudadano frente al Cambio Climático – MOCICC/Perú

“The UK and other Global North countries have bullied, stalled, manipulated & now stage managed the outcome of  the UN Climate Summit COP29, to try to escape their responsibility for causing the climate crisis. Rich countries have ignored the combined call from climate justice groups and Global South countries to bulldoze through this unjust deal. $300 billion is inadequate—it’s nowhere near enough to cut emissions fast enough, adapt to the impacts of climate breakdown, or support Global South countries in growing cleanly. It’s not the public finance needed. The message now is clear: only by building our collective power as people can we deliver a just and equitable transition to a future where everyone can live with dignity, in harmony with the planet.” Asad Rehman, War on Want

“We came here at COP29 to serve an invoice to the global North for the long overdue climate debt they owe to the global South but what we got instead are false solutions. Not only are rich polluters refusing to pay up; they are also seeking to profit off of the sufferings of impacted communities by peddling loans, carbon markets, green bonds, debt swaps, and other market-based distractions that turn the obligatory character of the climate finance we demand around. What was dubbed to be a finance COP has been exposed to be a false-solutions COP, swarmed with fossil fuel lobbyists, subverted by rich polluters, rigged to fail. The fight for accountability, reparations, and climate justice continues as we exit COP29 and go back to our communities.” Ivan Enrile, Climate Justice Programme Lead, IBON International

“Once again, in Baku, the climate negotiations reflect the core of the capitalist and colonialist model that is at the root of the planetary crisis. Rich countries, which for centuries have violated the territories of the global South, and have caused serious losses and damages due to climate change, refuse to commit financing to face the crisis and impose false solutions that increase the vulnerability and dependence of our countries.” Eduardo Giesen, DCJ Regional Coordinator, Latin America and the Caribbean 

“At COP29, developed nations once again coerced developing countries into accepting a financial deal woefully inadequate to address the gravity of our global climate crisis. The deal fails to provide the critical support required for developing countries to transition swiftly from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy systems, or to prepare for the devastating impacts of the climate crisis, leaving them severely under-resourced. The outcome offers false hope to those already bearing the brunt of climate disasters and abandons vulnerable communities and nations, leaving them to face these immense challenges alone. We must persist in our fight, demanding a significant increase in financing and holding developed countries to account for delivering real, impactful actions.” Harjeet Singh, Global Engagement Director, Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative

“Blame Baku’s disastrous deal on US bullying with its “my way, or the highway” brand of climate diplomacy. US State Department officials demanded more mitigation from developing countries but refused to deliver any financing developing countries are requesting, all while expanding its own fossil fuels production to set a world record for oil output. US attempts to diminish their legal obligations to provide finance proved successful, leaving a shameful legacy of global climate injustice by the Biden Presidency. As champions of their own rules-based-order, what we saw was, “We make the rules, so follow our orders,” where the US flouts the rules when it suits them.”  But the world wouldn’t fall for it in Baku since the injustices imposed by climate change are so severe, with many, many countries vociferously opposing the gaveling through of the decision. Victor Menotti, US Coordinator, Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice

“The supposed ‘COP of climate finance’ has turned into the ‘COP of false solutions’. The same rich countries that have been pouring billions into the genocide in Gaza, shirked their historical responsibilities at COP29 with a terrible deal that destroys the notion of equity, provides only pennies to the Global South, and pushes private debt creating finance. This is an insult to developing countries and the climate debt that they are owed. Further, the one thing that COP29 did achieve is the operationalisation of fraudulent, failed, and harmful carbon markets, continuing to provide a get out of jail free card to Big Polluters whilst devastating communities and ecosystems around the world.” Lise Masson, Friends of the Earth International

“COP29 delivered not climate action, not climate debt, not climate justice, but a climate crisis on steroids. Ramping up carbon markets— which do not reduce emissions—and offering way too little public climate finance far too late means the legacy of COP29 will still be millions of lives that never needed to be lost. Global North governments like the United States, European Union, and United Kingdom will deploy their manipulative PR machines to celebrate themselves and blame others for kicking the can down the road, but these are the world’s largest historical polluters with the deepest fossil-fueled pockets, and they are the ones who are to blame. These governments will continue to spend trillions on the war machines that fuel genocide in Palestine and violence around the world, while coming to Baku offering nothing but bad deals that are worse than no deals. COP29 was a COP for and by Big Polluters–look no further than the nearly 1800 fossil fuel lobbyists that infiltrated these talks in Baku. We will not be silent while inaction continues to condemn people and the planet. We need real solutions, Real Zero, real climate finance–now.” Rachel Rose Jackson, Corporate Accountability

“Rich countries have completely failed to make a credible offer to pay up on climate finance: pull back the layers of proposals and it’s a recipe for spiralling debt and deepening destruction in the global south. Today’s outcome is a damning indictment of the rich world’s priorities. This must be a wake-up call. Rich governments including the UK must take their role in finding innovative forms of finance seriously. That means taking on the fossil fuel industry and the super-rich through permanent polluters’ taxes and wealth taxes, not leaving it to financial engineering in the City of London. Power and resources must be shifted from the corporations profiting at our collective expense to countries in the global south, suffering the worst impacts of a problem they have done the least to cause.” Izzie McIntosh, Climate Campaign Manager, Global Justice Now

“The COP29 finance package is a glaring example of misplaced priorities and broken promises. The entire process has been deeply flawed—excluding key voices, disregarding historical emissions and sidelining the principles of equity and justice. Once again, world leaders have failed to step up, choosing to ignore the urgent need for transformative funding. While $2.6 trillion continues to support harmful subsidies that drive pollution, deforestation and fossil fuel expansion, an opportunity to redirect these resources to the very communities that sustain our planet’s biodiversity and resilience has been squandered. These frontline communities, who hold the key to our planet’s survival, are left behind, while destructive industries like factory farming are allowed to flourish. Kelly Dent, Director of External Engagement & Media, World Animal Protection 

“Colonial thinking and a desire to continue business-as-usual from developed countries has dominated this COP, with vulnerable countries forced once again to fight for their lives and ultimately be ignored. Rich countries, who hold the responsibility for the climate crisis, have failed to deliver the finance needed to support communities facing the worst impacts. They should be ashamed of their greed, as it has once again led to a failed COP.” Dylan Hamilton, Alliance of Non-Governmental Radical Youth (ANGRY)

“The $300 billion climate finance offer at Baku is a scam — nowhere near what’s needed and not debt-free. Rich countries  are planning for fossil fuel phaseout failure and dodging responsibilities by forcing developing countries and the private sector to cover the bill. This creates a debt trap for those most vulnerable to the climate crisis. If rich countries put their hoarded trillions on the table instead of making excuses, we’d see real progress on fossil fuel phase-out. The US, EU, and UK show sickening indifference while millions pay with their lives. We will not give up.” Laurie van der Burg, Oil Change International Global Public Finance Manager

“COP29 got off to a very bad start by perpetuating the colonial model and human rights violations, and by opening the floodgates to geoengineering through the adoption of Article 6.4 on carbon markets. Unfortunately, it has ended as badly as it began; the lack of ambition and finance by developed countries and the promotion of false solutions to address climate change will be mostly suffered by those who have contributed the least to this crisis” Coraina de la Plaza, Global Coordinator, Hands Off Mother Earth Alliance

Quotes in Spanish:

“Una vez más, en Bakú, las negociaciones climáticas reflejan el fondo del modelo capitalista y colonialista que está en el origen de la crisis planetaria. Los países ricos, que por siglos han vulnerado los territorios del Sur global, y han provocado graves pérdidas y daños por el cambio climático, se niegan a comprometer el financiamiento para enfrentar la crisis e imponen falsas soluciones que aumentan la vulnerabilidad y dependencia de nuestros países. “ Eduardo Giesen, coordinador regional de DCJ para Latinoamérica y el Caribe 

Contact Us: 

Esthappen S, DCJ, +91-9820918910, [email protected], 

Julian, DCJ, +306941437285, [email protected]

X: @gcdcj