By AFP - Agence France Presse
A new proposal is expected in Baku on the climate finance agreement
Nick Perry and Laurent Thomet
Host Azerbaijan is expected to present a new proposal for a potentially landmark climate finance deal on Friday, hoping to bridge gaps between rich and developing countries on the last official day of COP29 negotiations.
The two-week conference, held in a sports stadium in the Caspian Sea city of Baku, is almost certain to drag on, with important details for a deal yet to be released, let alone agreed.
The main priority of COP29 in Baku is to agree on a new target to replace the $100 billion a year that rich nations provide to poorer nations to reduce emissions and adapt to disasters.
Developing countries and China, an influential negotiating bloc, are pushing for $1.3 trillion by 2030 and want at least $500 billion from developed nations.
The main contributors, such as the European Union, have not accepted these demands and insist that money from the private sector must be counted towards the target.
The Azerbaijani COP29 presidency said in a statement that it was “encouraged on Thursday by the level of flexibility shown by the parties” and that it would release new texts on Friday.
The new draft is expected to offer financial figures after an earlier document released on Thursday said developing countries need at least “X trillion dollars” a year but omitted a concrete figure.
Ali Mohamed, president of the African Group of Negotiators, said the “elephant in the room” was the missing number.
“That's the reason we're here,” said Mohamed, who is also Kenya's climate envoy.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who flew back to Baku after attending the opening of COP29 last week, warned: “Failure is not an option.”
- Language on fossil fuels - don't forget that China is the world's biggest emitter.
China, the world's largest emitter, has said that the text is “not satisfactory” but has called for “all parties to meet each other halfway.”
Other major points of contention, including who contributes to climate finance and how the money is collected and delivered, were not resolved in the draft.
In addition to divisions over money, many nations said the text did not reflect any urgency to phase out coal, oil, and gas, the main drivers of global warming.
“We are, frankly, deeply concerned at this stage about what we see as a glaring imbalance in the text so far,” said US climate envoy John Podesta.
The sections of the text on reducing emissions that cause global warming are “absolutely unacceptable,” he added.
Last year's COP28 summit in Dubai, after lengthy negotiations, led to a historic call for the world to abandon fossil fuels.
A Saudi official, speaking on behalf of the Arab Group, tried to set a limit in Baku, saying that the bloc would “not accept any text that targets any specific sector, including fossil fuels.”
Australian climate minister Chris Bowen said countries had “hidden, reduced or minimized” references to fossil fuels, calling it “a major step backward.”
As time passes, the frustration in Baku has spilled over to the COP29 hosts.
“Can I please ask you to step up your leadership?” said EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra in pithy remarks.
“I'm not going to soften the situation. I'm sorry to say, but the text before us - in our opinion - is unbalanced, unworkable, and unacceptable.”
COP29 chief negotiator Yalchin Rafiyev called for “compromise and solidarity.”
“This is a moment when you need to put all your cards on the table,” he told delegates.
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Ireland's climate minister, Eamon Ryan, insisted that negotiations were “moving forward” behind the scenes and that the final text will be “radically different” from the draft.
“I think there is room for more agreement,” he told AFP.
Developed countries say it is politically unrealistic not to count private investment.
They also want to expand the list of donors - mainly to include China, which provides its aid but has no obligations as it remains classified as a developing country.
Currently, most climate finance is issued in the form of loans, which means that developing nations take on more debt as they build resilience against global warming.
Panama's negotiator, Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, said that envoys from developing countries might find it easier to reach outer space than to hear concrete funding figures from rich nations.
“Unfortunately, Mars is years away, and we only have hours to reach this decision,” he said.
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