Rwandan negotiators are in Bonn, Germany, as 196 countries meet to agree on the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), the new amount of funding which developed nations must mobilize every year starting in 2025 to support climate action in developing countries as floods, extreme rains, and brutal heat waves continue to ravage nations across the world.
ALSO READ: Rwanda faces $7 billion funding gap to implement climate action plan
In 2009, rich countries promised to provide $100 billion every year to developing countries to help them mitigate and adapt to climate change effects. But delays in achieving this goal eroded trust between developed and developing nations and have been a continual source of contention during annual climate negotiations.
A new report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said developed countries met the long-standing $100-billion-a-year promise in 2022.
However, 69 per cent of this was provided in the form of loans.
ALSO READ: For Rwanda to achieve its climate goals, finance is essential
At COP21, in Paris, countries agreed to set a new collective quantified goal before 2025, taking into account the needs and priorities of developing countries.
Now, rich countries are expected to raise more than $100 billion, with developing countries demanding trillions of dollars to tackle climate change.
In Bonn, countries are still trying to determine what should be counted as climate finance, how big the overall amount should be, who will pay for it and over how many years, and who will receive the money.
The ongoing discussions which end on June 13, in Bonn will lay the roadmap to what will be agreed later this year.
Faustin Munyazikwiye, the Deputy Director General of Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA), who is also a climate negotiator, told The New Times that the discussions in Bonn are linked to the upcoming 29th UN Climate Change Conference known as COP29 which will take place in in Baku, Azerbaijan, in November.
ALSO READ: Inside Rwanda’s climate finance deals
"The June meeting is like COP29 preparation. We are on the 11th day of discussions to draft proposals for COP29. We are also negotiating the goal of funding to replace the annual $100 billion target needed to help developing countries cope with climate change effects. We have to agree on standards to help measure how countries are building resilience to climate change effects. Countries must agree upon how to measure if we are really reducing greenhouse gases to limit global warming to 1.5-degree Celsius,” he explained.
Countries also discussed carbon market rules for developing countries. This market enables climate polluters to fund projects that reduce carbon emissions in other countries, and they can then include these emission reductions in their climate targets while still emitting greenhouse gases.
Marie Dalie Dukuze, another Rwandan climate negotiator, said that the new goal of funding to developing countries is expected to be agreed upon during COP29.
"That is why COP29 has been dubbed climate finance COP. As of now, developed countries and developing countries have not yet come up with a conclusion to the new goal in this Bonn conference. Developing countries want the money to come from rich countries while rich countries want to mobilise the funding from different sources such as rich nations, private sector, international organizations, and others,” she said.
Grace Ineza Umuhoza, another negotiator who is the founder of the Green Protector, said discussions are also looking at proposals for the ‘Loss and Damage Fund’ to help developing countries recover from climate change effects such as floods and drought.
"The fund operations will be assessed during COP29 based on data and needs provided by each vulnerable country,” she said. The fund was established during COP29 in Dubai, 2023.
Vulnerable and poor countries, which did little to cause the climate crisis, want to hold the biggest fossil fuel-polluting countries liable for the pain and suffering they are experiencing from climate breakdown.
Honorine Isingizwe is following negotiations on sustainable climate resilient agriculture that are centered on farmers and addressing food insecurity.
"In November during COP29 countries will agree upon the implementation road for what was previously concluded,” she said.
African group of negotiators
To get finance that enables developing countries to deal with the frequency of extreme weather events that leave the most vulnerable bearing the brunt of climate impacts, the Africa Group of Negotiators (AGN) are citing a figure of not less than $1.3 trillion per year by 2030.
They do not want climate financing in the form of loans as has happened in the past.
Ali Mohamed, the African Group of Negotiators Chair, said: "Our work as the AGN is to ensure that we get a progressive draft text that sends a signal that non debt inducing climate finance will flow to developing countries at the scale needed to drive non carbon intensive and climate resilient development.
"That trust can only be rebuilt if we come out of Bonn with a quantum that adequately covers the needs of the continent. The figure Africa is asking for from here as we head into COP29 is $1.3 trillion per year by 2030.”
Evans Njewa, the Chair of the Least Developed Countries Group, added: "We hope to agree that developed countries will provide climate financing that is based on science, is accessible and scaled up to meet the needs of developing countries.”
"At COP28 we got the establishment of a loss and damage fund which unlocked another phase of addressing the climate change shocks in Africa, and strengthening recovery for our communities. However, that is not enough. We hope developed countries agree to take responsibility in the mobilisation and provision of climate finance by prioritising the inclusion of loss and damage,” added Eva Peace, a member of the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition.