A proposed deal on climate cash at UN summit highlights split between rich and poor nations

Associated Press

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — A new draft of a deal on money to curb and adapt to climate change released Friday afternoon at the United Nations climate summit pledged $250 billion by 2035 from wealthy countries to poorer ones. The amount pleases the countries who will be doling out the money but not those in need.

The amount is more than double the previous goal of $100 billion a year set 15 years ago, but it’s less than a quarter of the number requested by developing nations struck hardest by extreme weather. The number is about the limit of what rich nations say they can do, promoting a figure in this range as realistic and a stretch for democracies back home to stomach.

It struck a sour note for developing countries, which see conferences like this one as their biggest hope to pressure rich nations because they are absent at meetings of the world’s biggest economies.

“Our expectations were low, but this is a slap in the face,” said Mohamed Adow, from Power Shift Africa. “No developing country will fall for this. They have angered and offended the developing world.”

“The EU and the U.S. and other developed countries cannot claim to be committed to the Paris Agreement while putting forward such amounts,” Iskander Erzini Vernoit, director of Moroccan climate think-tank Imal Initiative for Climate and Development said. Countries reached the Paris Agreement in 2015, pledging to keep warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times.

The proposal came down from the top, the presidency of U.N. climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan, called COP29. Delegations from numerous countries, analysts and advocates were kept in the dark about the draft until it dropped more than a half a day later than promised, prompting grumblings about how this conference was being run.

“These texts form a balanced and streamlined package for COP29,” The Presidency said in a statement. “The COP29 Presidency urges Parties to study this text intently, to pave the way towards consensus, on the few options remaining.”

From the start, COP29 has been about climate finance — money that wealthy nations are obligated to pay to developing countries to cover damages resulting from extreme weather, help those nations adapt to a warming planet and wean themselves from fossil fuels. Experts put the need $1.3 trillion or more of outside money, with more generated by each country internally.

Rich nations and analysts say this amount — often considered a “core” — will then be mobilized or leveraged for greater spending on helping poor nations deal with climate. But much of that means loans for countries drowning in debt.

Switzerland Environment Minister Albert Rösti said it was important that the climate finance number is realistic.

“I think a deal with a high number that will never be realistic, that will never be paid… will be much worse than no deal,” he said. “The disappointment will arrive more soon that we can imagine.”

Earlier Friday, observers were vocal in their frustration at the talks so far.

“No deal is better than a bad deal,” said Harjeet Singh of the climate advocacy group, Fossil Fuel Non Proliferation Treaty. “It’s negotiation in bad faith by developed countries.”

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Associated Press journalist Ahmed Hatem contributed to this report.

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