Hegemony in the green space

Developed nations' transnational corporations have exploited the climate crisis and international agreements to secure their economic dominance, diminishing the power of sovereign states and transforming climate negotiations into economic battles. However, emerging players like China are now redefining the global landscape

- Views expressed are personal

Concerns about the possibility of worsening debt burdens in the Global South. It may be recalled that last year, the COP28 climate talks in Dubai began with a new fund to address the increasingly severe losses and damage vulnerable countries face from climate impacts and concluded with the first international agreement to tackle climate change's main driver: fossil fuels. COP28 concluded with a final consensus that laid out an ambitious response to the Global Stocktake and put forward a plan to close the gaps by 2030. It called on Parties to transition away from fossil fuels to reach net-zero, encouraged them to submit economy-wide Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), included a new specific target to triple renewables and double energy efficiency by 2030, and aimed to build momentum behind a new architecture for climate finance.

However, in COP29, countries failed to reach a consensus on how or whether to acknowledge the outcome from last year's climate summit, which called for nations to transition away from fossil fuels. The issue was ultimately kicked to future negotiating sessions.