The COP29 summit was held in Baku, Azerbaijan on November 24, with member countries adopting a $300 billion a year finance target to help poorer countries fight climate change. However, the countries that this deal was meant to help have come out and criticized its sufficiency. They claimed the Azerbaijani host was gavelling through the deal too quickly and didn’t give everyone a chance to speak. Some representatives even walked out in frustration before a deal was made. The deal has richer countries distributing $300 billion total to poorer countries every year until 2035. That money is to be spent fighting climate change, which was mainly caused by the industrialized countries who will be providing the money. There was a lack of talks about the transition to renewable energy pledged upon in the previous summit, and this was reportedly due to the Saudis trying to block any plan from being made.
What is going on? The developed countries are claiming that everything went well. Biden said that it was a significant step closer to negating climate change, but there were representatives that stormed out of the building in rage. Plus, apparently the Saudis were causing trouble when it came to talks about renewable energy. I understand that they need their oil industry to stay alive, but they aren’t alone. How about you find a new way to make money. It’d help in the long run. The UN is showing us once again that the world is like one big fractured family. Right around Thanksgiving, too.
This relates to class because Saudi Arabia deflected conversations about renewable energy because it conflicted with their national interest, which is a country’s norms, values, and beliefs. They value fossil fuels because it runs their economy. If the world were to transition to renewable energy, Saudi Arabia wouldn’t have a method to make money and their GDP would collapse. This makes their economic power short-term, which isn’t typical. All these countries trying to work together to solve a global issue is an example of the collective goods problem. These countries have a shared interest of fighting climate change, so they met to fight it. However, when the topic shifted to renewable energy, opinions started to conflict when it came to the Gulf States and the rest of the world.