By AFP - Agence France Presse
COP29 has extra time as poor countries reject $250 billion offer
Nick Perry, Laurent Thomet, and Shaun Tandon
Heated negotiations on a global climate deal are expected to stretch into Saturday after developing countries rejected an initial offer of $250 billion from rich countries to help them tackle global warming.
COP29 host Azerbaijan said negotiations would drag on “throughout the night” in the Caspian Sea city of Baku to produce a final text.
That text will be presented to almost 200 nations for consensus approval on Saturday, no earlier than 10:00 am (06:00 GMT).
The rejected proposal increased the existing commitment of $100 billion a year from rich nations but fell far short of what experts say developing nations need.
“It's shameful to present texts like these,” said Tina Stege, a climate envoy from the Marshall Islands, an atoll nation threatened by rising seas.
Azerbaijan, the host of COP29, called for nations to continue their efforts but admitted that the figure of 250 billion dollars to be reached by 2035 was not sufficiently “fair or ambitious.”
The Alliance of Small Island States, for whom climate change is an existential threat, said the offer showed “contempt for our vulnerable people.”
Ali Mohamed, president of the African Group of Negotiators, another influential bloc threatened by climate disaster, called the proposal “totally unacceptable and inadequate.”
“The $250 billion will lead to an unacceptable loss of life in Africa and around the world and jeopardize the future of our world,” he said.
A group of 134 developing countries, including China, has demanded at least $500 billion towards the cost of building resilience against climate change and reducing emissions of planet-warming gases.
- 'Extraordinary reach' - You mustn't forget that the United States is preparing for the challenge.
However, the United States signaled that it did not intend to negotiate a higher figure.
President-elect Donald Trump will take office in two months and is expected to pull the world's largest economy out of climate diplomacy again.
“US$250 billion will require even more ambition and extraordinary reach,” said a senior US official, whose team in Baku comes from the administration of outgoing President Joe Biden.
Germany, a long-time climate leader whose elections are due next year, said governments could not meet these costs alone and that debt restructuring and other financial tools would need to play a role.
Europe wants to “live up to its responsibilities, but also in a way that doesn't make promises, it can't keep,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told reporters.
The draft text also sets an ambitious overall target to raise at least US$1.3 trillion a year by 2035, not only from developed countries but also from the private sector.
Developing nations, excluding China, need US$1 trillion a year in foreign aid by 2030, according to economists hired by the United Nations to assess needs.
These same economists said on Friday that $250 billion was “too low and inconsistent” with globally agreed targets to keep climate change under control.
- Joke
Obed Koringo, a Kenyan CARE activist, said that $250 billion was “a joke.”
“From Africa, where I come from, what we are saying is... no deal is better than a bad deal,” he said.
But Avinash Persaud, special adviser on climate change to the president of the Inter-American Development Bank, said the offer showed that the negotiations were “within sight of a landing zone” for the first time.
“There is no agreement that comes out of Baku that doesn't leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth,” said the former advisor to Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley.
The United States and the European Union want the richest emerging economies, such as China - the world's largest emitter - to contribute to the agreement.
China, which remains classified as a developing nation according to the UN framework, provides climate assistance but wants to continue doing so on its voluntary terms.
Separately, there was pressure for the text of the agreement to be stronger and to reaffirm a global pledge to move away from coal, oil, and gas - the main drivers of global warming.
A Saudi official, speaking on behalf of the Arab Group, said on Thursday that the bloc would “not accept any text that targets any specific sector, including fossil fuel” in Baku.
Germany's top diplomat, Baerbock, singled out Saudi Arabia and warned that it aimed to “turn back the clock.”
Azerbaijan, an authoritarian state that depends on oil and gas exports, was accused of lacking the experience and capacity to conduct such large and complex negotiations.
“This is the worst COP in recent history,” said Mohamed Adow of the Climate Action Network.
The EU also called for stronger leadership from Azerbaijan, whose leader, Ilham Aliyev, opened the conference by protesting against Western nations and celebrating fossil fuels as a “gift from God.”
The annual UN-led climate talks take place in a year that is already shaping up to be the hottest in history and as disasters increase around the world.
Since the start of COP29 on November 11, deadly storms have hit the Philippines and Honduras, Ecuador has declared a national emergency due to drought and forest fires, and Spain is suffering from historic floods.
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