World
Criticisms Trail $300bn Climate Finance Deal
By Adedapo Adesanya
After many delays and negotiations, richer countries agreed to take the lead on raising at least $300 billion per year by 2035 to support climate adaptation and emissions reduction projects in developing nations.
This came after two exhausting weeks of chaotic bargaining and sleepless nights at the Conference of Parties (COP29) held in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Other donors — including less wealthy countries, development banks, and private investors — were also invited to chip in. The agreement also called on all these parties to work, on a voluntary basis, toward the goal of $1.3 trillion.
The figures are far lower than what many in Baku had hoped for with delegates from countries like India, Kenya, and Vanuatu among others lamenting the agreed amount. Expectations were around $2.3 trillion.
“The amount that is proposed to be mobilised is abysmally poor. It’s a paltry sum,” said Indian delegate Chandni Raina.
“This document is little more than an optical illusion. This, in our opinion, will not address the enormity of the challenge we all face.”
“The commitments made in Baku — the Dollar amounts pledged and the emissions reductions promised — are not enough. They were never going to be enough,” said Ralph Regenvanu, climate envoy from the island nation Vanuatu. “And even then, based on our experience with such pledges in the past, we know they will not be fulfilled.”
“This COP has been a disaster for the developing world,” said Mohamed Adow, the Kenyan director of Power Shift Africa, a think tank.
“It’s a betrayal of both people and planet, by wealthy countries who claim to take climate change seriously.”
Nations struggled to reconcile long-standing divisions over how much rich nations most accountable for historic climate change should provide to poorer countries least responsible but most impacted by Earth’s rapid warming.
The climate envoy of the European Union, Wopke Hoekstra said COP29 would be remembered as “the start of a new era for climate finance”.
Despite repeating that no deal is better than a bad deal, this did not stand in the way of an agreement, despite it falling well short of what most of these delegates wanted.
The final deal commits developed nations to pay at least $300 billion a year by 2035 to help developed countries green their economies and prepare for worse disasters.
A group of 134 developing countries had pushed for at least $500 billion from rich governments to build resilience against climate change and cut emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases.
UN climate chief, Mr Simon Stiell acknowledged the deal was imperfect.
“No country got everything they wanted, and we leave Baku with a mountain of work still to do. So this is no time for victory laps,” he said in a statement.
The United States and EU have wanted newly wealthy emerging economies like China — the world’s largest emitter — to chip in.
The final deal encourages developing countries to make contributions on a voluntary basis, reflecting no change for China which already provides climate finance on its own terms.
The deal posits a larger overall target of $1.3 trillion per year to cope with rising temperatures and disasters, but most would come from private sources.
Wealthy countries and small island nations were also concerned by efforts led by Saudi Arabia to water down calls from last year’s summit in Dubai to phase out fossil fuels.
A number of countries also accused Azerbaijan, an authoritarian oil and gas exporter, of lacking the experience and will to meet the moment, as the planet again sets temperature records and faces rising deadly disasters.
The next COP will hold in Brazil in 2025.
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
Lukoil, Russia’s energy giant, has seriously lost its grounds across Africa, due to United States sanctions. Sanctions have complicated the company’s potential continuity in operating its largest oil field projects, grappling its investment particularly in Republic of Ghana, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Reports indicated the sanctions are further dismantling most of Lukoil’s operations, causing significant staff layoffs in its offices worldwide. For instance, Lukoil’s significant upstream operations in the Middle East include a 75% stake in Iraq’s West Qurna 2 oilfield and a 60% stake in Iraq’s Block 10 development. In Egypt, the company holds stakes in various oilfields alongside local partners.
Lukoil has until December 13, 2025, to negotiate the sale of most of its international assets, including those in Asia, Africa and Latin America. It has already terminated several important agreements that were signed with international partners due to difficulties in circumventing the sanctions.
Reports said calculated efforts to diversify exploration business relations is turning extremely complex, and current at the cross-roads, Lukoil will have to ultimately give up existing contracts and agreements it had signed with external countries.
Lukoil’s website reports also pointed to reasons for abandoning oil and gas exploration and drilling project that it began in Sierra Leone. According to those reports, Lukoil could withdraw from almost all of the projects in West Africa.
In addition to geopolitical sanctions, technical and geographical hitches, Lukoil noted on its website, an additional obstacles that “the African leadership and government policies always pose serious problems to operations in the region.” Similarly, the Kremlin-controlled Rosneft abandoned its interest in the southern Africa oil pipeline construction, negatively impacted on Angola, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
United States sanctions has hit Lukoil, one of the Russia’s biggest oil companies, like many other Russian companies, that has had a long history shuttling forth and back with declaration of business intentions or mere interests in tapping into oil and gas resources in Africa.
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
In New Delhi, President Vladimir Putin, alongside Editor-in-Chief of Russia Today, Margarita Simonyan, took part in the launch ceremony of the RT India TV channel. The TV channel will operate from a new studio complex in New Delhi, marking a new dimension in the bilateral media sphere.
Editor-in-Chief of Russia Today, Margarita Simonyan, indicated that the collaboration, naturally, points to India’s hospitality, affirming that this endeavour was not only worthwhile but long overdue.
Vladimir Putin, officially, launching the TV studio, also emphasized that the Russia Today channel in India, RT India, grants millions of Indian citizens clearer, more direct access into insights about contemporary Russia – the realities, aspirations, and perspectives. He reiterated the existing traditional friendship, and the ties between the Indian and Russian peoples go much deeper into the past; which rests on a solid historical foundation. And at the core of relationship lies mutual interest.
Russia Today is a source of truthful and reliable information, focused on serving the interests of its viewers and listeners. Its main mission is merely to promote Russia, its culture, and its positions on domestic and international issues. Above all, Russia Today strives to convey truthful information about the country and about what is happening in the world. This is the absolute value of Russia Today.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The government of Benin Republic says its armed forces has foiled a coup attempt on President Patrice Talon by a group of soldiers , who claimed on national television to have seized power on Sunday.
At least eight soldiers, holding weapons, went on state television on Sunday morning to announce that a military committee led by Colonel Tigri Pascal had taken over and was dissolving national institutions, suspending the constitution and closing air, land and maritime borders.
According to their statement, Lieutenant-Colonel Tigri Pascal will be leading a military transition council.
Some hours after, the Interior Minister, Mr Alassane Seidou, said the country’s armed forces had thwarted the attempted coup and called for calm.
“Therefore, the government urges the population to go about their business as usual,” he said.
According to reports, 14 people had been arrested in connection with the foiled attempt to stop democracy in the country.
Foreign Minister, Mr Olushegun Adjadi Bakari, had earlier told Reuters that “a small group” of soldiers had attempted to overthrow the government but that forces loyal to President Talon were working to restore order.
He said the coup plotters had only managed to take control of state television, which was cut after the soldiers read out their statement. It resumed broadcasting shortly afterwards, allowing the interior minister to read his statement saying the coup bid had been foiled.
The Economic Commission of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union (AU) condemned the coup attempt.
Benin experienced several military coups and coup attempts in the first decades of independence from France in 1960. But there has not been a power grab by force in the country since it held multi-party elections in 1991.
Coups have become common place in Africa since 2020: Mali, Guinea, Sudan, Burkina Faso, Niger, Gabon, Madagascar, and recently Guinea-Bissau have seen military takeover in the recent times. This has raised alarms about possibilities in other African states.
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