Outrage persists after massive global summit leaves continent in the dark: 'This is an insult'

COP29, the 29th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference, was recently held in Baku, Azerbaijan. There, the African bloc of government leaders hoped to secure $1.3 trillion in funding for developing countries to deal with the changing climate — a figure arrived at by independent experts during previous COPs.

Instead, they ended up with $300 billion in commitments, leading Kudakwashe Manjonjo of Power Shift Africa to declare that "COP29 failed Africa" in a piece written for The Conversation.

What's happening?

The wealthiest countries in the world are responsible for creating a hugely disproportionate amount of the air pollution that is overheating our planet, driving more frequent and more intense extreme weather events as well as causing crop failures. However, those impacts are being felt most acutely by countries that are not responsible for causing them.

It makes sense to many, therefore, for those countries to essentially pay developing countries damages, having destroyed their climates and made life much more difficult for their people.

Getting less than a quarter of their goal did not sit well with the leaders of the African countries and other developing nations — especially considering the fact that these agreements are not enforceable and often aren't even met anyway.

"The commitments made in Baku — the dollar amounts pledged and the emissions reductions promised — are not enough. They were never going to be enough," Ralph Regenvanu, climate envoy from the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, told Semafor. "And even then, based on our experience with such pledges in the past, we know they will not be fulfilled."

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Nigerian envoy Nkiruka Maduekwe put it even more simply, saying, "This is an insult."

What went wrong with COP29?

In recent years, the COP events have drawn criticism for having essentially been taken over by lobbyists for dirty energy companies — the last group that any reasonable person would want to be involved in discussions about how to deal with the climate crisis.

Over 1,700 coal, oil, and gas lobbyists attended COP29 this year, according to a report by The Guardian, well exceeding the reported 1,033 representatives from the 10 most climate-vulnerable nations.

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There is also the fact that COP29 was hosted by Azerbaijan, a country that is highly reliant on dirty energy production. Last year's COP28 was hosted by Saudi Arabia, which has the same problem.

What's being done about this issue?

The developing nations that are being the most impacted by dirty energy pollution don't have much recourse against the wealthier, more powerful nations that are doing the bulk of the polluting — but that doesn't mean they have none.

"Africa should withhold minerals such as copper, lithium, and graphite that are necessary for the energy transition if finance for climate adaptation is not forthcoming," Manjonjo argued.