Minister of the Environment Kai Mykkänen (NCP) attended a question-time debate in the Parliament House in Helsinki on 7 November 2024. Mykkänen on Sunday indicated to Helsingin Sanomat that he is relieved by what was admittedly a “watered down” deal reached at Cop-29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, especially because there was a genuine risk that the climate summit could conclude without any deal at all due to the actions of the host country. (Markku Ulander – Lehtikuva)
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MINISTER of the Environment Kai Mykkänen (NCP) has expressed both disappointment and relief with the deal struck last weekend at Cop-29, the UN Climate Change Conference, in Baku, Azerbaijan.
“To all of us who were advocating for common action to withdraw from fossil fuels, this isn’t what we were after, but it’s better than nothing,” he summed up his feelings in the immediate aftermath of the conference, in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat on Sunday.
The conference concluded more than a day behind schedule, after being on the verge of falling through completely on Saturday. Mykkänen blamed Azerbaijan for much of the chaos witnessed in the dying moments, saying the host country was listening too keenly to the concerns of oil-producing countries – perhaps not surprisingly, given that oil and gas account for about 90 per cent of exports and 50 per cent of gross domestic product for the authoritarian country.
“We were undeniably at the edge of a cliff yesterday evening, especially because Azerbaijan kept dropping the ball,” he described.
The participants nonetheless managed to agree to provide developing countries with a minimum of 300 billion dollars a year by 2035 to support the adoption of more climate-friendly energy solutions and efforts to adapt to the climate crisis. While the amount of climate financing marks a threefold increase from the current annual target – which, despite being set in 2009 was not reached for the first time until 2022 – it falls well short of what was considered necessary by developing countries, 1.3 trillion dollars a year.
Mykkänen told Helsingin Sanomat that the World Bank and other multilateral development banks will provide a larger-than-earlier share of the financing. China and other new economic forces, meanwhile, will provide climate financing to less advanced parts of the world on a voluntary basis.
“Our key demand was that the world stop pretending that the line between rich and poor countries is still where it was drawn 30 years ago,” he said, referring to the ‘developing’ status granted to the likes of China in the 1990s.
Neither Finland nor any other participant made a euro-denominated pledge toward the financing, according to Mykkänen.
He stated that the next step will be to devise a forecast for the contributions of emerging economic powers, the inflation-adjusted contributions of advanced economies and the finance provided by the World Bank in 2025.
“The premise is that if the three aforementioned elements behave predictably, we can reach 300 billion without any dramatic changes to the current level when measured in today’s money,” he said.
Also many advanced economies were left wanting more from Cop-29. The participants, for example, failed to agree on how the transition away from fossil fuels – a goal set at Cop-28 in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, in 2023 – will be carried out. The EU was advocating for strong language on reducing emissions and transitioning to clean forms of energy.
The failure to even begin discussions on emission reductions was a disappointment for both environmental and business advocacies in Finland, according to YLE.
“It was depressing that there are still countries and groups of countries that are opposed to the talks,” Berndt Nordman, the head of climate programme at WWF Finland, stated to the public broadcasting company on Sunday.
“In general [it was] a bit of a disappointment,” echoed Janne Peljo, a climate expert at the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK). “A decision to transition away from fossil fuels was made last year in Dubai. And that means an increase in demand for green technologies. If we had now received re-affirmation for [the transition], the growth push would’ve been greater.”
Mykkänen reiterated to Helsingin Sanomat that a watered-down deal is better than a big fight, as the latter could have jeopardised the ability to agree on emission reductions at Cop-30 in Brazil in November 2025.
“Compared to this meeting fizzling out without a deal, which was completely possible 12 hours ago, this is clearly the safer path also toward emission reductions,” he said. “And [a non-deal] could’ve also threatened the likes of China making their own emission reduction pledges next spring, as it has promised.
Also Finland received some negative publicity at Cop-29.
Climate Action Network
Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
