COP29's Climate Finance Deal has been labelled a "betrayal" to countries in the global south by Oxfam Ireland.

Delegates at COP29, a global climate conference, reached a deal yesterday to provide developing countries with $300 billion a year to cope with the effects of extreme weather caused by climate change.

Oxfam Ireland, however, has said that this finance deal will not help people who are experiencing the worst effects of climate change in the global south.

Oxfam Ireland CEO Jim Clarken described the deal as a "betrayal" to some of the world's poorest countries.

"I've just come back from Zambia and Zimbabwe where I've seen the worst of the impacts of the climate crisis on the poorest people in the world," he said.

"Those people who had no part to play in creating this climate crisis, but they're suffering from extreme drought, hunger and just barely surviving right now."

Mr Clarken said these conditions are "likely to get worse" in the coming months as the seasons progress.

He said the COP29's Climate Finance Deal is a "long way short" of what people in the global south need.

In a statement released following the deal, Mr Clarken said the number of fossil fuel lobbyists at the summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, "eclipsed delegations from the most climate-vulnerable nations".

“At this COP, rich countries were allowed to evade their responsibility for causing climate change over the past century and for profiteering from planetary destruction," he said.

Mr Clarken said Oxfam Ireland will continue to stand with the global south to "demand" a fairer climate deal for everyone.

Feature image: COP29 Information Center. Baku, Azerbaijan, Alamy.