COP29 braces for new deal after poorer nations reject climate offer

Activists with banners and flags hold a gathering to demand that rich countries help developing nations tackle global warming, during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, on November 21, 2024. [AFP]

Fierce bargaining at UN climate talks in Azerbaijan dragged into Saturday after a $250 billion a year offer from rich nations was flatly refused by developing countries hardest hit by Earth's rapid warming.

Negotiators from nearly 200 nations spent another harried and sleepless night in a sports stadium trying to land a compromise figure for poorer countries facing rising seas, harsher droughts and worsening disasters.

At daybreak, the marathon back-and-forth overnight in the Caspian Sea city of Baku had yet to produce a final draft acceptable to all.

Azerbaijan, which is hosting the COP29 summit, had said it hoped to adopt a global deal by consensus at a closing session sometime after 10:00 am (0600 GMT).

On Friday, after negotiating for the better part of two weeks, wealthy countries proposed raising their commitment for climate action in poorer nations from $100 billion to $250 billion a year by 2035.

The offer was roundly spurned by countries that need enormous sums to shift their economies to clean energy and build resilience to climate shocks on their doorstep.

"It is shameful to put forward texts like these," said Tina Stege, climate envoy for the Marshall Islands, an atoll nation threatened by rising seas.

COP29 hosts Azerbaijan urged nations to keep striving but admitted the figure was not "fair or ambitious" enough.

The Alliance of Small Island States, for which climate change is an existential threat, said the offer showed "contempt for our vulnerable people".

Ali Mohamed, chair of the African Group of Negotiators, another influential bloc, called it "totally unacceptable and inadequate".

A group of developing countries had demanded at least $500 billion, and some said with inflation the figure proposed by rich nations would be much lower in reality.

'Extraordinary reach'

Experts commissioned by the United Nations assessed that developed nations should triple their $100 billion pledge by 2030.

This figure has been taken up by Brazil, the host of next year's COP30, which says $300 billion should be the responsibility of wealthier countries.

A senior US official signalled Washington was not looking to negotiate a higher figure, and that $250 billion would require "even more ambition and extraordinary reach".

President-elect Donald Trump takes office in two months and is expected to again pull the world's largest economy out of climate diplomacy.

Germany, a longtime leader on climate where elections are due next year, said governments could not meet these costs alone, and debt restructuring and other financial tools would need to play a part.

Europe wants to "live up to its responsibilities, but also in a way that it doesn't make promises it can't live up to", German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told reporters.

The draft text also sets an ambitious overall target to raise at least $1.3 trillion per year by 2035 from not only developed countries but the private sector.

'Joke'

Obed Koringo, a Kenyan activist from CARE, said $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 advisor on climate change to the president of the Inter-American Development Bank, said that the offer showed the talks were "within sight of a landing zone" for the first time.

"There is no deal to come out of Baku that will not leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth," said the former advisor to Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley.

The United States and European Union have wanted newly wealthy emerging economies like China -- the world's largest emitter -- to chip into the pot.

China, which remains classified as a developing nation under the UN framework, provides climate assistance but wants to keep doing so on its own voluntary terms.

Separately, there was a push for stronger language in the deal to reaffirm a global pledge on moving away from coal, oil and gas -- the main drivers of global warming.

A Saudi official speaking on behalf of the Arab Group said Thursday the bloc would "not accept any text that targets any specific sectors, including fossil fuel" in Baku.

Top German diplomat Baerbock singled out Saudi Arabia and warned that its goal was "turning back the clock".

Azerbaijan, an authoritarian state that relies on oil and gas exports, has been accused of lacking the experience and bandwidth to steer such large and complex negotiations.

The EU had also called for stronger leadership from Azerbaijan, whose leader, Ilham Aliyev, opened the conference by railing against Western nations and hailing fossil fuels as a "gift of God".

The annual UN-led climate talks come on what is already poised to be the hottest year in history and as disasters rise around the world.

Just since the start of COP29 on November 11, deadly storms have battered the Philippines and Honduras, while Ecuador has declared a national emergency due to drought and forest fires and Spain has been reeling after historic floods.