The following is a statement from UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell from COP29 in response to the G20 Rio de Janeiro Leaders' Declaration on Tuesday 19 November 2024.
G20 Leaders have sent a clear message to their negotiators at COP29: do not leave Baku without a successful new finance goal. This is in every country's clear interests.
Leaders of the world's largest economies have also committed to driving forward financial reforms to put strong climate action within all countries' reach. This is an essential signal, in a world plagued by debt crises and spiraling climate impacts, wrecking lives, slamming supply chains and fanning inflation in every economy.
Leaders have reinforced that global cooperation is utterly essential, and COP29 must show how's it done, with an ambitious new finance goal, as the central pillar of a balanced package.
Stronger new national climate plans are also essential, as the G20 leaders note, to move much faster to a clean-energy and climate-resilient global economy right now.
G20 delegations now have their marching orders for here in Baku, where we urgently need all nations to bypass the posturing and move swiftly towards common ground, across all issues.
