Scot at COP29 says 'hours left to save planet' and prevent catastrophic climate talks 'flop'

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A Scot at the COP29 negotiations in Baku has warned there are just hours left to save the planet - and save the crucial UN climate summit from being a disastrous “flop”. Ben Wilson, of Scottish Catholic aid charity SCIAF, suggested the eco talks could collapse if a vital deal on climate finance for poorer nations isn’t secured.

It comes as a draft text from the climate conference was slammed for simply putting placeholder “X” where the agreed cash sum should be. And it follows a difficult first ten days at the summit in Azerbaijan marked by wrangling over cash and overshadowed by Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential race.

The G77+China group, which represents developing countries, wants £1trillion by 2030 from rich “Global North” nations - including the UK - to tackle the devastating effects of climate change and aid the energy transition. But there’s a row over whether wealthy countries like China and Saudi Arabia - rich in fossil fuels but still classed as “developing” - should contribute to climate finances.

The Saudi delegation and its allies have also been accused of trying to torpedo efforts to keep a global commitment to “transition away” from oil and gas in the final texts. Wilson, from Glasgow - an experienced delegate at COPs around the world and last year a member of the Vatican’s delegation - said the mood at this year’s conference was as low and tense as he could remember.

He told the Record: “The new texts that were shared in the early hours of Thursday are a signal of how far apart countries still are, especially on the issue of climate finance. There is a big blank space where a financial target should be… it’s really tense here and that’s no exaggeration.

“The Azerbaijani presidency, with some help from a few key countries including the UK, is trying, pretty much behind closed doors, to get all the key countries and the key ministers together to try to finally come up with a compromise. But to be honest, it still feels like countries are quite far away from that point, and yet, time is running out.”

Wilson, 36, added: “The big financial package is about implementing what was discussed at COP26 in Glasgow, it’s about implementing the Paris Agreement, it's about absolutely everything. The stakes couldn't be higher and we really need to see progress in the next few hours, in the next few days, if we're going to come out of here with a good deal.

“We’ve got a final few hours to save the planet - because it's only if we get a deal out of COP29 that we're going to stay on track towards our climate commitments.” It comes as the imminent return to power of climate-sceptic Trump in the US has sent shockwaves around the international community.

But Wilson insisted: “He's not the president yet. The US delegation is here, and this is a key moment to come up with this financial package, and they can still help make that happen over the next few days. And we hope that they do - because we know that if they were to come out of here with a flop, and then have to go to COP30 in Brazil and try to negotiate a big financial package, that Donald Trump is going to make it very, very difficult to get that agreed right.”

But on a note of reassurance, he added: “We have had Donald Trump presidency before, and he did not completely derail global efforts on climate change.” Wilson also praised the UK and Scottish governments for their international efforts on climate, with Keir Starmer one of the few major world leaders to attend in Baku.

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Starmer’s climate chief Ed Miliband has been a mainstay at COPs since 2009 when he was a junior minister in Gordon Brown’s government. Wilson said: “At the Copenagen COP in 2009… that COP collapsed - so [Miliband] has got that experience of how a COP can collapse, and hopefully he will be able to learn the lessons from the failings that year and make sure this one doesn’t.”

The SNP Holyrood government, meanwhile, has had a lower profile at this year’s COP than in previous years - with John Swinney opting not to attend in Baku, unlike predecessors Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf. The Scottish delegation has been led by Acting Net Zero Secretary Gillian Martin.

Under Sturgeon at COP26, the Scottish Government was widely credited with getting the issue of “loss and damage” cash for poorer nations onto the global agenda, helping to open up the wider debate about climate finance. Wilson said: “They’ve played their role well [this year] in terms of promoting the issue of loss and damage and making a lot of noise about that, and I think that’s been really well received here.”

But on Swinney, he added: “There’s a lot that he’s got to get done at home on climate change.” It comes after his Nats government formally ditched an “unachievable” 2030 emissions target earlier this year.

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