South Africa pushes for stronger climate finance at COP29

South Africa expects more climate finance pledges at the United Nations' upcoming global climate conference, the country's Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Dion George, said on Monday.

George made the remarks at national stakeholder consultations on the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP29), set to take place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from November 11 to 22.

According to George, the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance will be established during the conference, a critical issue for developing economies like South Africa.

He noted that current climate financing mechanisms are insufficient in both scale and effectiveness, underscoring the need for a new financing model.

"COP29 presents an opportunity to advocate for innovative and improved financial frameworks that can mobilize substantial resources more efficiently," George said. "Such a model must ensure predictable, accessible and adequate funding, address the shortcomings of existing systems, and empower countries like South Africa to implement ambitious climate actions."

He explained that South Africa hopes COP29 will accelerate the provision of financial, technical and capacity-building resources, enabling developing countries to meet the conditional targets outlined in their nationally determined contributions and national adaptation plans.

George emphasized that South Africa and other developing economies require resources to mitigate climate risks, enhance resilience, and pursue inclusive and sustainable development.

"Access to finance must be significantly scaled up to offer new, additional and predictable funding that is fit for purpose. Specifically, we need grants and highly concessional financing that can be effectively allocated to create enabling environments for rapid investments," the minister said. "By de-risking investments and creating new asset classes for clean technologies, we can unlock and leverage greater amounts of public and private finance."

(Cover via CFP)