'We won't accept pennies': Cop29 protests demand climate funding

Activists transform seats at Baku Stadium venue into 'pay up' message on finance talks

Climate change activists increased pressure on a UN summit on Thursday to put up the trillions of dollars they say are needed to protect the planet.

Rows of protesters spelt out the message “pay up” from the upper tier of the football stadium in Baku, Azerbaijan, where Cop29 is taking place. On a day of demonstrations, people rallied near the summit entrance for causes including climate reparations, plant-based food, anti-nuclear power and Palestine.

The message of the Baku Stadium stunt was that “there's enough money available from the historical polluters, from the developed countries,” German climate activist Line Niedeggen told The National. “They finally have to stop delaying and pretending like it’s somebody else’s responsibility”.

Negotiations are in full swing at Cop29 on a pledge potentially worth more than $1 trillion for developing countries to fight climate change. The sum is not the only point of contention, with the US pushing for rising economic powers to chip in, while others such as Brazil are unwilling to widen the donor base.

One banner held up in Baku told rich countries: “You owe us”. Others urged them to cut military spending or pay into a “loss and damage” fund for dealing with climate disasters. A mocked-up receipt asked developed nations to pay as much as $5 trillion towards the world's green efforts.

“We are fighting so that we can get a deal that is meaningful because we will not accept any deal that is less than the trillions that are needed,” said Lidy Nacpil, an activist from the Philippines representing the Asian Peoples' Movement on Debt and Development.

“We are not willing to accept pennies in this Cop,” she told The National. “We are going to pressure and we are going to fight hard. If they don't succeed in this Cop we will continue to fight until the next.”

Some protesters wore a black-and-white keffiyeh as a symbol of pro-Palestine solidarity and held up slogans of “liberation” or “defund genocide”. A Gaza protest was held on day one of the summit as campaigners sought to portray Palestine and climate change as two sides of the same struggle against injustice.

Tensions surfaced between Azerbaijan and two European countries on Thursday after the host country's President Ilham Aliyev used a speech to small island states to allege breaches by France and the Netherlands in their overseas territories, remnants of colonial empires.

French Climate Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher cancelled a trip to Cop29 over Mr Aliyev's remarks, which the EUon Thursday called “most regrettable”. Azerbaijan's top negotiator Yalchin Rafiyev said the host country's “doors are still open”.