ActionAid: Mutirão decision finally holds rich countries to account

The Presidency’s draft of the “mutirão decision,” made public on the morning of November 18, presents a menu of options on many of the stickiest issues under negotiation at COP30. Finance is one of the most notable of these.  

On the finance aspects of the November 18 mutirão draft, Brandon Wu, Policy Director of ActionAid USA, said: 

“It’s good to see text options that don’t let rich polluting countries off the hook to provide finance for developing countries to cope with climate impacts, and transition to greener pathways. Rich countries’ failure to provide real grant-based finance at scale has been perhaps the single thing most responsible for holding up progress throughout the entire global climate regime. 

“Thanks to decades of Global North inaction, every country in the world - even those least responsible for the climate crisis - must reduce emissions, adapt to future impacts, and respond to current impacts as a matter of survival. It is unreasonable and unjust to expect most developing countries to be able to do this at the necessary scale without international climate finance. For COP30 to have a chance at bending the emissions curve downwards and ensuring frontline communities have the support they need, its outcome must include strong demands on rich countries to pay their fair share.” 

ENDS 

Note to editors 

ActionAid strongly welcomes the parts of the draft text that reiterate the responsibility of developed countries to provide finance for mitigation, adaptation, and loss & damage. This includes, for example, paragraph 51 referencing Article 9.1 of the Paris Agreement, and paragraph 26 highlighting the woeful shortfall in contributions to multilateral funds like the Green Climate Fund and the Fund for Responding to Loss & Damage. 

Brandon is available for media interviews in Belem. Contact the ActionAid Press Office on media-enquiries@actionaid.org