COP bridges the gap with new climate financing proposals from Europe and the US.

Developed countries should contribute $300 billion per year by 2035 to help the poorest countries in their climate action (reducing emissions, transitioning to a low-carbon economy and adapting to the impacts of climate change). This is indicated in the new draft agreement presented at the Azerbaijan Climate Summit.

COP29 seemed to be heading towards a climactic agreement on climate financing for developing countries, as the standoff between the conference’s key negotiators came to a close. Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister Biman Prasad indicated that he expected an agreement “tonight”.

The document, described as a draft decision (rather than a draft negotiating text like the two texts), notes that rich countries will commit “at least $300 per year by 2035” for climate action in developing countries. It has been decided to set a target of Rs. billion. The decision will have to be adopted by consensus in the plenary session.

The COP29 climate conference in the Azerbaijani capital Baku was due to end on Friday but was prolonged as negotiators from nearly 200 countries struggled to reach consensus on a climate finance plan for the next decade.

one step forward

EU climate chief Wopke Hoekstra told reporters that negotiators had taken “a step forward” but it was “too early” to know for sure. UN climate talks are based on consensus, forcing officials to find common ground between nearly 200 countries. Asked if any agreement was reached after the closed-door meeting, Maldives’ Minister of Climate Change, Environment and Energy Thorik Ibrahim smiled. “I think so,” he said.

Throughout Saturday, delegates worked in a tense and tense atmosphere while the conference escalated without any sign of any close agreement. The US and EU have proposed that developed nations increase climate finance commitments to $300 billion a year by 2035, when they had previously proposed $250 billion on the table.

That proposal was rejected as too little by poor countries, who warned that a weak agreement would hamper their ability to set more ambitious greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.

plead for a treaty

COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev urged country delegations at the conference this Saturday to step up their commitment to reach an agreement.

“I ask you to intensify your mutual commitment to close the gap that still exists,” he said as the plenary session began at 6 p.m. “We have all worked very hard over the past two weeks and I know that none of us wants to leave Baku without a good result on our main objective. “The eyes of the world are on us,” he said.

Marina Silva, Minister of Environment and Climate Change of Brazil, which hosts COP30, said, “After the difficult experience we are experiencing in Baku, we need to achieve some results, something that will address the emergency we face. be the minimum acceptable as per.” Next year.

The new target aims to replace a previous commitment by developed countries to provide $100 billion per year in climate finance for the poorest countries by 2020. This goal was accomplished two years later, in 2022, and expires in 2025.

bone of contention

The center of controversy is the amount of direct funding for climate aid. In recent hours rich countries have offered $300 billion annually, but a group of developing countries is demanding $500 billion.

The discussions sought to determine how China and Saudi Arabia and other emerging powers should contribute to the provision of climate finance to developing countries.

China revealed earlier this week that it would contribute to climate finance only on a voluntary basis.

The second draft called on all social actors to allocate at least $1.3 trillion (with a B) to developing countries by 2035 for climate action (reducing emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change).

And within this amount, developed nations will be obligated for those $300,000 million. This funding would be provided from “a variety of sources, public and private, bilateral and multilateral, including alternative sources” (multilateral development banks, taxes on fossil fuels, etc.).

The fear of developing countries is that they will opt for loans that could increase the debt of already poor countries, which is why they have asked to specify the figures that countries will provide as subsidies.

day of complaints and rudeness

Evidence of the unease was the decision by representatives of poor countries and small islands to leave the talks, frustrated by the lack of inclusion, and amid concerns that fossil fuel producing countries were trying to undermine aspects of the agreement. “There is an agreement to close and we are not being consulted. Samoa Minister Cedric Shuste, head of the island nation’s negotiating group, said in statements to the media, “We are here to negotiate, but we are leaving because at this time we do not feel that we are being heard.”

Some states in Latin America and the Caribbean, which try to mediate between less developed and richer countries, have refused to accept that this Baku summit will end without any agreement.

He declared, “If $1.3 trillion is needed annually to reverse the flow of wealth from the rich to the poor, 300,000 (the estimated amount of rich countries) are in pieces.”

“We cannot leave Baku in the same way as we leave Copenhagen,” Monterrey said, referring to the climate summit held in the Danish capital in 2009, a meeting that was considered a failure by the international climate community that failed to produce any agreement. But failed to reach.

Youth climate activist Greta Thunberg called that draft a “disaster.”

all eyes are on arab

All this comes as concerns are growing that Saudi Arabia, members of the Arab Group and other countries continue to reject the idea of ​​ratifying last year’s COP28 agreement in Dubai, which included a commitment to transition to fossil fuels. Was involved.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock expressed disappointment in an audio statement on WhatsApp. “We are in the middle of a geopolitical power play by some fossil fuel states,” he said. “They are playing behind the backs of the poorest and most vulnerable countries.”