Baku, Azerbaijan — 22nd November 2024 | We are deeply concerned with the text released this afternoon on the New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance. It dilutes the existing commitments of the developed countries and does not reflect the ambition needed for global climate action. Our Group is disappointed to note that our three years of hard work is not reflected in the proposed draft text.

The text is weak on many issues: it does not take into account the issues of most vulnerable countries, particularly LDCs and SIDS, the quantum is far less than needed, it offers no guarantee of minimum allocation for our groups. Support for Loss and Damage remains conspicuously absent in the new goal. There is also no minimum share of the goal flowing through operating entities and the funds established under the Convention and serving the Paris Agreement.

The language on access is weak and lacks concrete commitments to improve access by the most vulnerable. Similarly, the definition of climate finance is missing, leaving ambiguity in accounting.

The text on implementation of the Global Stocktake outcome, that we all collectively agreed in Dubai last year, requires more work. We must ensure there is a clear follow-up on implementation of all the Global Stocktake outcomes, which now includes just as an option in the text. We must implement what we all collectively agreed and ensure there is provision for the means of implementation.

We need to ensure that our ambition to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C remains front and center, otherwise our survival is threatened. That means a strong call for raising ambition through updated NDCs, and to ensure support for the NDC implementation. Right now, all of these features are missing from the text.

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For further information, please contact the LDC Group Press Office:
Mathews Malata: +265999646114 | Yohane Chideya: +265884021207 Email: media@ldc-climate.org| Website: https://www.ldc-climate.org, X:https://x.com/LDCChairUNFCCC

Notes to the editor:
The Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group is made up of 45 countries across Africa, the Asia-Pacific and the Caribbean, with a joint population of over one billion people. Incredibly vulnerable to environmental and economic shocks, and disproportionately affected by the climate crisis, our countries negotiate together as a bloc at UN climate talks to advance our shared interest in a fair and ambitious global response to climate change.
For more information on the LDC Group’s positions, see the 2024 Lilongwe Declaration on Climate Change by Ministers of the Least Developed Countries.
Evans Njewa is the current Chair of the Least Developed Countries Group, and the Head of Climate Change and UNFCCC Focal Point for the Government of Malawi.