Various African civil societies have expressed disappointment with the outcomes of the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance that was unveiled yesterday at CoP29, citing insufficient ambition to address the continent’s pressing climate needs.

According to them, while the text acknowledges the scale of required funding estimated, at $5 to 6.8 trillion until 2030, it lacks concrete mechanisms and desired political commitment to deliver financing.

“The latest NCQG document is a missed opportunity to decisively make polluters pay for the destruction they have caused and falls short of expectations from developed countries. While the principle of ‘polluter pays’ is mentioned, there are no enforceable mechanisms to ensure that fossil fuel corporations contribute to climate action,” said Fred Njehu, the Pan-African political strategist at Greenpeace Africa.

He said the NCQG highlights the need for grant-based climate finance and acknowledges systemic barriers to access, including debt burdens and high capital costs.

However, the scale of commitments remains unclear, leaving vulnerable communities at risk. Njehu echoed the need for immediate revision of the NCQG text to include stronger commitments on fossil fuel phase-out, concrete polluter-pay mechanisms and guaranteed climate finance.

Big joke
Stephen Cornelius, WWF Deputy Global Climate and Energy Lead said that the lack of a finance target in the draft is a worrying sign that the most challenging decisions are being left to the last minute.

Despite being slimmed down, two vastly different options for the design of the NCQG remain in the text, leaving the final outcome uncertain.

“This agreement will decide the climate finance landscape for years to come. We simply can’t afford to get this wrong. Without adequate finance for climate solutions, we won’t be able to prevent catastrophic climate impacts. It is essential we get an outcome here capable of unleashing climate action at speed and scale around the world,” says Cornelius.

Commenting on the new text Mohamed Adow, director of Power Shift Africa said that having a text without figures is like giving a blank cheque, asking developed countries to put actual figures on the table.

According to him, it is only by putting specific numbers to the goal that negotiations at CoP29 will move forward smoothly.

“The new text rightly diagnoses the climate problem, including the required finance for adaptation and energy transition, but glaringly omits what the rich countries will actually provide to developing countries. The elephant in the room is the lack of specific numbers in the text right now what we have is a blank piece of paper,” said Adow.

According to Ambassador Ali Mohamed, Chair of the Africa Group of Negotiators on Climate Change, developing countries are demanding a minimum of $1.3 trillion annually in climate finance from the developed world to effectively address the escalating impacts of climate change. Any figure below this benchmark is a gross underestimation of the financial needs of vulnerable nations, terming it “a big joke.”