COP29 must deliver the money, Philippine civil society organizations say

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he 29th Conference of Parties, or COP29, is already underway in Baku, Azerbaijan, where world leaders are meeting and negotiating to agree on many things, chief of which is the new finance goal that will help developing countries cope with the climate crisis and support their climate action.

Called the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), the amount, which is based on a needs-assessment report of developing and the most vulnerable countries including the Philippines, is reportedly running up into trillions.

Previously, under the Paris Agreement of 2015, developed nations agreed to deliver an annual $100B by 2020, after which they will need to replace the amount by 2025. That means parties will need to agree on a new amount this year.  

At the press conference of Philippine Civic Society Organizations on Thursday, Greenpeace Southeast Asia Executive director and former Climate Change Commissioner Yeb Saño leaned on the battery of storms the country is currently facing and said, “We cannot leave Baku without clarity of scale, quantum, structure and scope of finance.” 

Saying it is "imperative" for world leaders to recognize the dire nature of the climate crisis and the urgency by which the world needs to act, Saño said money is the key that will unlock mitigation and adaptation measures, as well as the ability to respond to loss and damage.

The Philippines is host to the board of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD), which was operationalized earlier this week. For Saño, all that will only be “lip service if we can’t fight for the actual amount that will come into the fund.”

“Hindi lang itulak sa board [Not just to push to the board] but to ensure that in the NCQG, Loss and Damage won’t drop off the table.”

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or Ian C. Rivera of the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development, COP29 should deliver public financing. “It’s not just to address energy transition but also to address loss and damage, adaptation, and just transition, particularly for developing countries,” he said.

“We don’t only need climate finance for energy transition, we need it for the rapid shift to clean renewables and to phase out fossil fuels,” Rivera said, adding, “Patuloy pa rin ang pagpapatayo ng mga fossil fuel structures.”

(The putting up of fossil fuel structures continues.)

Developing countries have put forward US$1.3 trillion in public finance but Rivera emphasized this is not enough. “The global campaign to demand climate justice, we are calling for $5 trillion so that itong mga dapat matugunan na results ng climate crisis, ay matugunan [the results of the climate crisis are addressed],” he said.

“Sana the Philippine government will hold the line and will not give in to the divide and conquer tactics of the northern governments,” he added.

Echoing Rivera and pointing out the newly passed bill on natural gas development, Avril De Torres, deputy executive director of CEED, said among the group's demands at COP29 should also be the participation of Northern and East Asian firms “that have historically contributed to fossil fuel dependencies in our region” to help Southeast Asia in its mitigation and adaptation efforts and that reparations for loss and damage be paid.

CEED earlier released a report that showed Southeast Asia as very ambitious when it comes to renewable energy expansion. “As a region we are very ambitious and we have political will to advance it but when we look at who’s developing and who is advancing, it’s domestic players,” De Torres said., emphasizing the absence of foreign firms

“Any success here should translate into the flowing of renewable energy and related infrastructures,” she said.

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hile Tebtebba Foundation’s Helen Magata supports the increased targets for climate finance, she also voiced out the importance of looking at the quality of finance, as well.

Pointing out how the UNFCCC says there is an increasing flow of climate finance to developing countries, she said Indigenous Peoples (IP) have been “lost in aggregates.” 

“Where is the money going? How is it disbursed? What is direct access?” she asked, pointing out how financial mechanisms “continue to be very restrictive, complicated, insufficient, and project based and short term” for IPs.

Considering that significant remaining biodiversity is being stewarded by IPs, “We think that is not responding to climate justice,” she said.

“IPs need direct access to money,” Magata emphasized. 

“This is what we’re calling for in the NCQG,” she said.

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eanwhile, Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Toni Yulo-Loyzaga told GMA News Online that she remains hopeful.

“I’m always hopeful but we have to be realistic and understand what’s really going on in terms of the amount that is really needed and where it has gotten us in the number of years we’ve been talking about the quantum,” she said.

“The recent estimates as far as what developing countries, the vulnerable need are already in the trillions annually,” she said. “So here’s where we really need to buckle down and decide what’s going to be the coverage in terms of the scope of the fund and who’s going to be able to contribute and who should contribute.” 

“I have faith that our delegation will be able to put forward what the Philippines really needs. How the others will position themselves, this is what we will have to wait and see.”

Department of Energy (DOE) Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella meanwhile has a firmer stance saying “kailangan talaga aggressive tayo (We have to be aggressive)."

“The aggressiveness should be there because you have—vulnerable tayo. May pinanggagalingan. Tayo ang nababaon sa land slide, tayo ang sea wall ng Asia. (We are vulnerable. We are coming from somewhere. We are the ones buried in land slides, we are the sea wall of Asia) So we really have to be aggressive.” 

Recalling the efforts of developing countries in Paris back in 2015, meanwhile Rivera highlighted the importance of guarding the process of the NCQG. 

"Nalala natin nuong COP 2015 in Paris, ang developing countries ang nagpanday sa usaping 1.5C. Kung wala tayo duon, we will end up with a very [dangerous] 2C na alam natin hindi tayo mag-su-survive," he said.

[We remember COP 2015 in Paris, it was the developing countries that steered 1.5C into the table. If we weren't there, we would have ended up with a very dangerous 2C, which we know we will not survive.]

"It should be national Interest should protect us," he said. "And I hope the Philippine government and the Parties representing developing countries will assert the national interests.] 

— GMA Integrated News

This story was produced as part of the COP29 Climate Change Media Partnership, a journalism fellowship organized by Internews' Earth Journalism Network and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security.