Hello friend,

While the UK was battered by torrential rain and wind this weekend, over in Azerbaijan a different kind of storm was brewing.

The annual COP29 climate talks have just come to an end in dramatic style, with what can only be described as a devastatingly bad deal for lower-income countries.  

There’s no way to dress this up as good news. Climate justice groups and lower-income countries pushed hard for a meaningful agreement, demanding $1.3 trillion in climate finance to deal with the climate emergency. This ‘climate debt’ is what the countries most responsible for climate change owe those who have done next to nothing to cause this crisis – but are often the worst hit. 

It was coined as the ‘climate finance COP’, but what we got was a climate finance flop. Rich nations tried to dress up the final deal as providing $1.3 trillion to lower-income countries.

But rich countries are only on the hook for $300 billion of this and there are no commitments on how this money will be provided – and ZERO guarantee that it won’t be given as loans, forcing countries in crisis into even more debt.

On the first day of the climate talks, we launched a video with climate activist Vanessa Nakate to explain why debt justice is critical to climate justice. The two issues go hand in hand – adding to lower-income countries’ enormous debt burdens will make them even less prepared to deal with the impacts of the climate emergency. 

We’ve written about what happened in more detail in our blog. Please read and share the news to expose these climate talks for what they are – a pitiful excuse for action.