The European Union, the United States and other rich countries raised their climate finance proposals to developing countries to $300 billion a year at COP29 on Saturday in a bid to unwind increasingly tense negotiations that have been working an extra day.
The U.N. climate summit was due to end on Friday, but extra time was added as negotiators from nearly 200 countries – which must pass the deal by consensus – tried to agree on a financing plan for the next decade.
It was unclear whether the revised proposal would be enough to reach a deal, but negotiators from developing and island nations on Saturday expressed frustration with what they said was an uninclusive process and temporarily withdrew from talks.
A $250 billion proposal drafted by Azerbaijan during its COP29 presidency on Friday was rejected as woefully underfunded by developing countries as costs soared from storms, floods and droughts caused by climate change.
COP29 exposed divisions between wealthy governments constrained by tight domestic budgets and developing countries, while past failures to meet climate finance obligations have left developing countries distrustful of new commitments.
The new target is intended to replace a previous commitment by developed countries to provide $100 billion in annual climate finance to poorer countries by 2020.
Five sources with knowledge of the closed-door discussions said the EU had agreed to accept a higher sum of $300 billion a year. The United States, Australia and Britain are also involved, two sources said.
Spokespeople for the European Commission and the Australian government both declined to comment on the negotiations. The U.S. delegation to COP29 and the U.K. Department of Energy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The atmosphere among negotiating groups is tense as the COP29 presidency has yet to formally update the draft agreement.
“The path forward is not clear. Neither is the political will we need to get out of this mess,” said Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, Panama’s chief negotiator.
Representatives from the group of least developed countries and small island states walked out of the negotiating room frustrated but said they remained committed to reaching a deal.
Evans Njewa, chairman of the Least Developed Countries Group, posted on
The Alliance of Small Island States issued a statement confirming that it was also temporarily withdrawing from negotiations. “We just want to remain engaged, but the process must be inclusive,” the statement read.
U.S. climate envoy John Podesta said he expected talks to progress toward a deal.
“Hopefully this is the storm before it calms down,” he said.
Fighting for $39 billion Brazil’s Environment and Climate Change Minister Marina Silva said on Friday that the Amazon rainforest nation will seek $390 billion a year in funding from developed countries by 2035.
“We cannot leave Baku without taking decisions that address the challenges we face,” she said through a translator.
During the two-week summit, negotiators have been grappling with other key questions about the financial targets, including who is being asked to contribute and how much of the money is on a grant basis rather than being provided as a loan.
The list of countries in need of contributions – about two dozen industrialized nations, including the United States, European countries and Canada – dates back to 1992, when the list was established during United Nations climate talks.
European governments have asked other countries to join in, including China, the world’s second-largest economy, and oil-rich Gulf states.
Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election this month has cast a pall over the Baku negotiations. Negotiators from other rich countries expect Trump, who took office in January, to once again exclude the United States from international climate cooperation, expects the world’s largest economy to pay no price for climate financing targets under his administration.
The draft deal released on Friday contains a broader goal of raising $1.3 trillion in climate finance annually by 2035, including from all public and private sources, which economists say is on par with the amount needed. match.
Poorer countries have warned that a weak financing deal at COP29 will undermine their ability to set more ambitious targets to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases that drive climate change.
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