The European Union (EU), yesterday raised an offer by rich nations to help poor countries worst hit by climate change to $300 billion a year in a bid to salvage talks that the developing world warned were on the brink of collapse.
Negotiators worked through the night in a windowless sports stadium in the Caspian Sea city of Baku in a search for compromise as the two-week UN climate talks dragged into an extra day.
In a year set to be the hottest ever recorded, developing nations bearing the brunt of rising drought and disasters flatly rejected Friday an initial offer of $250 billion per year by 2035.
Two negotiators said the EU was urging that wealthy countries — whose ranks also include the United States, Britain and Japan — raise the sum to $300 billion.
But this came with conditions in other parts of the broader climate deal under discussion at the COP29 conference in Azerbaijan, the negotiators added.
The Europeans in particular want an annual review of global efforts to phase out fossil fuels, which are the main drivers of global warming.
This has run into opposition from Saudi Arabia, which has sought to water down a landmark pledge to transition away from oil, gas and coal made at COP-28 last year.
Chair of the African Group of Negotiators, Ali Mohamed, told AFP that there had been “good discussions” on finance after the initial $250 billion offer which he called “a big mockery”. According to him, developing nations had made clear that a lack of movement would “lead to a failure of COP”. “No deal is better than a bad deal”, he said.
Wealthy nations counter that it is politically unrealistic to expect more in direct government funding.
Experts commissioned by the United Nations to assess the needs of developing countries said $250 billion was “too low” and by 2035 rich nations should be providing at least $390 billion. This figure was taken up by Brazil, the host of next year’s COP-30, which says $390 billion should be the sole responsibility of wealthier countries.
The US and EU have wanted newly wealthy emerging economies like China – the world’s largest emitter – to chip in. China, which remains classified as a developing nation under the UN framework, provides climate assistance but wants to keep doing so on its voluntary terms.
While China has generally taken a low-key and cooperative stance in Baku, oil-rich Saudi Arabia has pushed hard for weaker language on fossil fuels and, like China, has fought against being obliged to provide aid, one veteran activist from a developing country said.
