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AMY GOODMAN: We’re broadcasting from the U.N. climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan. Today, Friday, is the final official day of COP29, but it’s unclear if a final deal will be agreed upon by the deadline. Negotiations are expected to extend into the weekend.
Climate justice activists are outraged at how little money is being offered here at this, what’s called the finance COP, by the most polluting nations to the most severely affected by climate change. Azerbaijan’s delegation to the COP29 United Nations climate summit has released the latest draft of a climate financing deal, calling for the delivery of $1.3 trillion per year by 2035. But the text only calls on wealthier nations, more polluting countries, to pay $250 billion per year to poorer nations bearing the brunt of the crisis. The group War on Want called the latest draft an “insult,” adding it’s, quote, “nowhere near the public, grant-based climate finance the planet and people urgently need,” unquote.
As the talks continue, we begin our coverage with climate justice activists and members of civil society who held a protest here calling for rich nations to pay up for climate finance. It was just before we went to broadcast. Democracy Now! was there.
ARNOLD JASON DEL ROSARIO: We are not demanding aid. We are not demanding charity. We are here to demand justice. And this justice comes through climate finance. How much do we want, comrades?
PROTESTERS: Trillions, not billions! Trillions, not billions!
ARNOLD JASON DEL ROSARIO: My friends, the text that they are talking about is clearly lacking in the demands of the Global South. And now to tell us further about the intersection of the climate crisis and the effects of the ongoing war and genocide all over the world, let me call on our comrade Haneen.
PROTESTERS: Build the loss and damage fund now! Build the loss and damage fund now!
HANEEN SHAHEEN: Now it’s only our fair share of equity. It’s our fair share of equality. This is what we are asking for. This is what we want. Pay up now!
PROTESTERS: Pay up now!
HANEEN SHAHEEN: Pay up now!
PROTESTERS: Pay up now!
HANEEN SHAHEEN: Pay up now!
PROTESTERS: Pay up now!
HANEEN SHAHEEN: It’s our money. You’ve been taking it for so long, hundreds of years, hundreds of years taking our resources, hundreds of years taking our land, occupying us, mixing wars with all your development, mixing war with private businesses. And you don’t want us to get our money back. Give us our land back. Give us our share.
ARNOLD JASON DEL ROSARIO: I call in now Collin from OCI.
COLLIN REES: Pay up! Pay up!
PROTESTERS: Pay up for climate finance! Pay up! Pay up! Pay up for climate finance! Pay up! Pay up!
COLLIN REES: We are here to demand trillions of dollars of public finance. This is not charity. This is a debt, an obligation that the Global North owes to the Global South. It is a legal obligation, and we will not stop fighting until that obligation is met. We are demanding that this finance be public and high quality. This finance must be based on grants and grant-based equivalents, not on loans, not on things that further in-debt the Global South and continue this dangerous, deadly cycle. This finance must be high quality. It must also not be from the private sector, because the private sector are the ones who have helped to drive this climate crisis, who have helped get us into this mess. We cannot rely on the same corporations, on the same rapacious banks who have driven the climate crisis, who are driven by profit, not by human rights and by justice.
ARNOLD JASON DEL ROSARIO: What we are asking for is not unreasonable. They pour money into the fossil fuel industry. We know where the money is. We know where financing lies. And now to discuss further, I call on our comrade Rimsha.
RIMSHA REHAN: No more debt! No more loans! No more false solutions!
PROTESTERS: No more debt! No more loans! No more false solutions!
RIMSHA REHAN: My dear friends, I come here from a country where there is a lockdown going on. It’s not COVID anymore, but my children, my women and my youth are having a lockdown because of the air pollution that has been caused. And who is financing this climate crisis? It’s all the Global North countries who are financing this. And we are still begging them for more loans to support our economic growth. They owe us. We don’t owe them. They owe us!
PROTESTERS: They owe us! We don’t owe them! They owe us! We don’t owe them!
ARNOLD JASON DEL ROSARIO: We’ve been told to keep it down, as if we aren’t being piped down enough. Are we being loud?
PROTESTERS: No!
ARNOLD JASON DEL ROSARIO: Are we being loud enough?
PROTESTERS: No!
ARNOLD JASON DEL ROSARIO: Maybe we can give it one more chant, my comrades. Trillions, not billions!
PROTESTERS: Trillions, not billions! Trillions, not billions! Trillions, not billions! Trillions, not billions!
AMY GOODMAN: Just a few of the voices calling for rich nations to pay up for climate finance, here at COP29.
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