At the COP29 climate summit, the EU, the United States and other wealthy nations agreed to increase their offer of a global financial target.
At the COP29 climate summit, the European Union, the United States and other wealthy nations agreed to increase their offer of a global finance target of $300 billion a year by 2035, sources told Reuters on Saturday.
The summit was due to end on Friday but negotiators from nearly 200 countries – who must adopt the deal unanimously – tried to reach an agreement on the world’s climate funding plan for the next decade.
The situation has changed after a $250 billion proposal for the deal, drawn up by Azerbaijan’s COP29 presidency on Friday, has been humiliatingly low by developing countries.
It was not immediately clear whether developing countries at COP29 were informed of the improved position of rich countries, and whether that would be enough to win their support.
Five sources with knowledge of the closed-door discussions said the EU had agreed they could accept a higher number. The United States, Australia and Britain were also on board, two of the sources said.
A spokeswoman for the European Commission and a spokeswoman for the Australian government both declined to comment on the talks. The US delegation at COP29 and the UK Department of Energy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Delegates awaited a new draft text of the deal on climate finance on Saturday after negotiators worked through the night to bridge wide gaps in their positions.
The COP29 negotiations have highlighted the divide between tight domestic budgets and developing nations suffering from the rising costs of hurricanes, floods and droughts due to climate change.
The new goal is intended to replace a previous commitment by developed countries to provide $100 billion a year in climate finance for poor nations by 2020. That target was met two years late, in 2022, and expires in 2025.
details
Any deal would require an agreement on more than just the headline amount.
Negotiators are working throughout the two-week summit to address other critical questions on the target, including who is asked to contribute and how much funding is on a grant basis, rather than provided as a loan.
The roster of countries required to contribute — about two dozen industrialized countries, including the US, European nations and Canada — dates back to a list decided during UN climate talks in 1992.
European governments have sought to join the payments to others, including China, the world’s second-largest economy, and the oil-rich Gulf states.
The recent election of Donald Trump as US president, who has called climate change a hoax, has cast a cloud over the talks in Baku. Negotiators from other wealthy nations expect the world’s largest economy to default on climate finance goals during Trump’s four years in office.
A broad goal of raising $1.3 trillion annually by 2035 — which economists say matches the amount needed — was included in the draft deal published on Friday, and would include funding from all public and private sources.
All options on the table
Poor countries have warned that a weak finance deal at COP29 will cripple their ability to set more ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from climate change.
Sierra Leone’s Environment Minister Jivoh Abdulai told Reuters that as of Friday, an initial proposal for a target of $250 billion for 2035, accounting for inflation, would not see a real increase in support.
“We have spent three years negotiating these numbers. And with the end of three years we got nothing,” Abdulai said, adding that the deal needed stronger language to facilitate funding.
On Saturday, the least developed country group at the UN talks, of which Sierra Leone is a part, will present its red lines for a deal to the COP29 president.
Pulling out of the talks “should be on the table,” he told Reuters. “All options should be on the table.”