Following another year of record-high global heat and extreme weather events, UN climate chief Simon Stiell told negotiators at COP29 in Baku that setting an ambitious new climate finance target is crucial for the well-being of all nations, including the wealthiest and most powerful.
"Let's dispense with any idea that climate finance is charity;" runaway climate change is impacting "every single individual in the world one way or another," Mr. Stiell said on Monday.
His strong call to action kicked off the latest round of UN climate talks, which will run in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku from today through next Friday, 22 November.
Officially the 29th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ), COP29 will see countries seek to establish a new annual climate financing target to replace the $100 billion pledge set in 2009, which expires at the end of the year and which many say is far less than what is required to cope with fast-rising air and sea temperatures.
Mr. Stiell underscored that the UNFCCC process "is the only place where we can address the rampant climate crisis, and to credibly hold each other to account to act on it. And we know this process is working. Because without it, humanity would be headed towards five degrees of global warming."
