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As the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting closed this weekend, leaders of the 56 countries at the summit—representing 2.7 billion people across the world—reaffirmed their commitment to climate action, including transitioning away from fossil fuels and emphasising the importance of reaching a climate finance goal at the upcoming COP29 in Baku. 

The communique backed by heads of state, released as the meeting closed, saw countries “recommitted to urgent, ambitious and collective climate action and mitigation under the Paris Agreement.”

“Climate action drives Commonwealth cooperation, and 56 leaders have now underscored what resilience truly means: ambitious NDCs focused on transitioning away from fossil fuels, ramping up renewables, and maximising energy efficiency,” said Alex Scott, the senior diplomacy advisor at ECCO. “They’ve injected momentum into COP29 climate finance negotiations, uniting developed and developing countries around a shared aim to agree [to] a goal that strengthens confidence for high ambition climate action.”

The communique also recommitted countries to transitioning off fossil fuel subsidies “that do not address energy poverty or just transitions as soon as possible,” reiterated the need to triple renewable energy capacity worldwide by the end of the decade, and encouraged member countries to submit aggressive new emissions reductions targets by the deadline set under the Paris Agreement early next year. Commonwealth nations also adopted their first ocean declaration, which included protections for national boundaries amid ongoing sea level rise. 

The conversation around reparations and how ex-colonial powers like Britain could pay for its role in perpetuating the global slave trade took up much of the mainstream media coverage of the Commonwealth meeting. The legacy of colonialism and how it has shaped the warming planet will also be taking up the spotlight in upcoming discussions around climate finance—especially given the specific climate threats facing many members of the Commonwealth. (This year’s meeting, which took place in Samoa, marked the first time the summit has been held in a Pacific Islands Small Developing State.) Last week, Pacific Islands nations at the summit criticised Australia, the UK, and Canada for their continued reliance on fossil fuels. 

At COP, the countries of the Commonwealth—which span across 25 climate vulnerable small island states, fossil fuel exporters such as Canada, Nigeria and Australia and major economies like India, South Africa and the UK—will be involved in discussions around how to increase funding for developing countries, and how much wealthier countries can pay to support climate action. 

In discussing the new climate finance goal at Baku, countries will debate who should provide funding, how much money the new goal should provide, and what the sources of financing should be. In 2022, developed countries agreed—two years behind schedule—to provide more than $100 billion each year. But current projections show that investments in climate action must increase by at least $1 trillion annually by 2030 for developing countries to meet their energy transition needs.

“It is a death sentence…for us, Tuvalu, if larger nations continue to increase their emission levels,” His Excellency the Prime Minister of Tuvalu, Feleti Teo said at a press conference in Samoa on the 24th October. “We must confront this crisis collectively as a Commonwealth family, we have a moral responsibility to uphold the commitments that we made under the Paris Agreement. The wealthiest Commonwealth countries have historically benefited disproportionately from fossil fuel  development. It is their duty, in my respectful view, to take the lead in financing a just and equitable global energy transition.”

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Image: Feleti Teo, Prime Minister of Tuvalu, addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s seventy-ninth session, UN Photo/Loey Felipe