Australia urged to do more on climate crisis as activists rue trillion-dollar Cop29 funding gap

The influence of fossil fuel lobbies remains a significant obstacle that must be addressed ahead of COP30 if it is to deliver meaningful progress,

said David King, chair of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group

There's a lot more financing to be done on the basis of this agreement,

said Eliot Whittington, chief systems change officer at Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership

We are leaving with a small portion of the funding climate-vulnerable countries urgently need. It isn’t nearly enough, but it’s a start,

said Tina Stege, Marshall Islands climate envoy

I regret to say that this document is nothing more than an optical illusion,

Indian delegation representative Chandni Raina told the closing session of the summit, minutes after the deal was gavelled in

While there is still substantial work ahead of us to achieve our climate goals, today’s outcome puts us one significant step closer. On behalf of the American people and future generations, we must continue to accelerate our work to keep a cleaner, safer, healthier planet within our grasp,

Biden said in a statement

There's a challenge in getting greater ambition when you're negotiating with the Saudis,

said US climate adviser John Podesta

As a wealthy nation, and a huge fossil fuel exporter, the Australian government notably failed to drive bigger ambition. This is about realism. Getting better financial arrangements is key to getting global support for rapid fossil-fuel phase-out globally.”

She added

Australia must also honour the spirit of [last year’s] commitment to transition away from fossil fuels and replace its exports of coal and gas with renewable energy,

she said

Now we need to get on with action to build the renewables, implement the transition and turn our complete attention to developing 2035 emission reduction targets due next year,

he said

While some may seek to deny or delay the clean energy revolution that’s under way in America and around the world, nobody can reverse it - nobody,

he said

The rich world staged a great escape in Baku,

said Mohamed Adow, the Kenyan director of Power Shift Africa, a think tank

The new rules are a start, but the risk of abuse still remains alive and well,

said Injy Johnstone, a research fellow at the University of Oxford

International carbon markets have crashed twice in two decades. This was due to an erosion of credibility. At Baku, the operationalisation of international carbon trading under Paris can prevent a third meltdown that could be fatal,

said Axel Michaelowa, a carbon markets expert at the University of Zurich

The idea to grow the carbon market is to get climate financing to the right places. A London taxpayer is not going to give thousands of dollars to developing countries to reduce the emissions, especially if you’re not sure about those developing countries’ commitment. We’re all in the same bucket, whether it’s Mali, Saudi Arabia or China; that’s where the idea of where carbon markets came about,

she added

We have to learn the lessons of past mistakes and watch for new ones this system could create, otherwise we risk the Paris agreement becoming a market failure,

she said

We’ve invested in millions of dollars for no guarantee of any return [in the new rainforest carbon credit methodology]. It’s all done at risk,

she said

They are a powerful tool to accelerate the diffusion of low-carbon technology around the world. The Paris carbon market is now ready to roll out in 2025. It can accelerate mitigation and thus help close the gaping emissions gap that separates us from achieving the 1.5C target,

he said

The available evidence suggests that many carbon credits are not backed by any actual emission reductions. If these quality issues continue under article 6, this could undermine our efforts to achieve our climate targets. It is critical that we fix the integrity issue of the market,

he said

We currently see proposals on the table that would credit the natural absorption of carbon dioxide by forests. But these removals occur anyways and not because of any human intervention. If these credits are used by buyers to emit more, this would result in more carbon added up to the atmosphere. And the potential for issuing such credits is very large,

he said

We have all been working very hard over the past two weeks and I know that none of us want to leave Baku without a good outcome,

COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev told a plenary session which kicked off just after 8 pm local time on Saturday