World leaders at the UN climate change conference COP29 in Baku must respond boldly to another year of record temperatures and rising emissions by agreeing a robust new finance goal to support desperately needed climate action in developing countries.

Greenpeace has issued a call for action and outlined what it expects the conference which begins this month to achieve.

“Another year of record-setting temperatures, heated oceans and widespread extreme weather impacts underscore the urgency of climate action,” it said. “The UN Climate Conference, now into its 29th year but a critical year, must agree on a new climate finance package.

“Finance is a cornerstone of global cooperation on climate change, and at the heart of the grand bargain underpinning the Paris Agreement. World political leaders at COP29 will yet again be tasked with taking effective, concerted and transformative action for people and planet.

“We face twin climate and biodiversity crises and accelerated and ambitious climate action in combination with finance is urgently needed. Governments must commit to an ambitious new finance goal to support developing countries, and action to make the fossil fuel industry and other major polluters pay.

“In the face of blockbuster profits, rising emissions and vast human suffering linked to climate induced extreme weather, the moral, economic and environmental case for making the fossil fuel industry and other high emitting sectors pay for the damage and destruction their products cause has never been stronger.”

Jasper Inventor, head of Delegation for Greenpeace International, added: “As the climate records keep crashing – from skyrocketing emissions to rising temperatures and worsening impacts – we’ve reached a reckoning point. For too long, demands for rapid and bold action have been met with meek responses from too many global leaders. This must change!

“People are dying as cities are being smashed by storms and floods, but the lifeblood of hope is in climate action. But action relies on climate finance and on holding polluters accountable. Fossil fuel companies and big polluters must finally pay for the loss and damage they’ve caused. Leaders have the power to enforce this justice and they must act now.

“The rescue plan is the COP28 decision to transition away from fossil fuels – a pathway that must yield ambitious 2035 climate action plans to phase out coal, oil and gas. Our climate is on life support and political leaders need to step up and take the urgent action needed.”

At COP29, Greenpeace is calling for:

• An ambitious finance goal, the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), that commits to significantly scaled-up public finance to developing countries for adaptation, mitigation and loss and damage and makes the fossil fuel industry and other major polluters pay.
• Implementation of the COP28 agreement to transition away from fossil fuels, including how countries will align their 2030 and 2035 climate action plans with the 1.5°C goal.
• Prevention of a poor outcome on offsets and carbon markets to protect and restore high integrity carbon-dense ecosystems.

Tracy Carty, climate politics expert at Greenpeace International, said: “The NCQG is expected to set the terms determining who pays for the burgeoning costs of climate action over the next decade and beyond and whether countries and communities least responsible for causing the climate crisis get the support they urgently need and are entitled to.

“As the human costs of inaction mount, the trillions in subsidies the fossil fuel industry receives and the profits it makes overshadows climate finance to developing countries. The NCQG must rectify this injustice and make polluters pay for the harm and damage they’ve caused.

“Trillions of dollars are needed for the climate action plans of developing countries. The headline outcome of the NCQG needs to be an unambiguous commitment from rich developed countries to significantly increase public finance to support developing countries to respond to escalating climate impacts and transition to renewables.”