The COP29 climate summit presidency has proposed in a draft finance deal that developed nations take the lead in providing $250 billion per year by 2035 to help poorer nations.
Proposal Has Attracted Criticism
The proposal has drawn criticism from all sides.
World governments represented at the summit in the Azerbaijan capital Baku are tasked with agreeing a sweeping funding plan to tackle climate change.
Division Between Wealthy Governments And Developing Nations
The two-week conference has been marked by division between wealthy governments resisting a costly outcome and developing nations pushing for more.
“I’m so mad. It’s ridiculous. Just ridiculous,” said Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, the Special Representative for Climate Change for Panama.
Proposed Amount is Too Low
Juan called the proposed amount too low.
“It feels that the developed world wants the planet to burn.”
Some Say That The Draft Deal Is Too Expensive
A European negotiator, meanwhile, told Reuters the new draft deal was too expensive and did not do enough to expand the number of countries contributing to the funding.
“No one is comfortable with the number, because it’s high and (there is) next to nothing on increasing contributor base,” the negotiator said.
The draft also set a broader goal to raise $1.3 trillion in climate finance annually by 2035.
This would include funding from all public and private sources.
That is in line with a recommendation from economists that developing countries have access to at least $1 trillion annually by the end of the decade.
Tricky To Fill The Gap Between Goverment And Private Pledges
But filling the gap between government pledges and private ones could be tricky, negotiators have warned.
The climate summit is scheduled to wrap up in the Caspian Sea city by the end of Friday.
But past COPs have traditionally run over time.
Li Shuo, director of the China Climate Hub at the Asia Society, a veteran observer of COP summits, said finding a “sweet spot” in talks soon was crucial.
“Anything other than that may require rescheduling flights.”
What Has The UN Secretary-General Said?
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres returned to Baku from a G20 meeting in Brazil on Thursday.
Antonio called for a major push to get a deal and warned that “failure is not an option”.
Daniel Lund, negotiator for Fiji, told Reuters there was a long way to go.
“It is a very low number in relation to the available evidence on the scale of the need that exists and understanding of how those needs will evolve,” he said.
