At COP29 on Saturday, the European Union, the US, and other affluent nations raised their climate funding offer for developing countries to $300 billion annually. This move aims to break the deadlock in negotiations, which had already gone into overtime, a day beyond the summit’s scheduled conclusion.
According to a report by Pak Observer on Saturday, the UN climate summit, initially set to end on Friday, extended into extra hours as nearly 200 countries worked toward a consensus on a climate finance plan for the next decade.
While it remains uncertain whether the revised offer will lead to a deal, negotiators from developing and island nations expressed frustration with the process, which they deemed exclusionary. Some briefly walked out of the talks. The $250 billion proposal drafted by Azerbaijan’s COP29 presidency on Friday was rejected as inadequate by developing nations, who are grappling with the mounting costs of climate-related disasters like storms, floods, and droughts.
The summit has highlighted the divide between wealthier nations, facing tight domestic budgets, and developing countries, who remain distrustful due to past failures to fulfill climate finance promises.
The new funding target aims to replace the former commitment of $100 billion per year from developed nations to poorer countries, which was due by 2020 but was only met in 2022, and expires in 2025. Sources close to the talks revealed that the EU agreed to accept the $300 billion annual target, with the US, Australia, and the UK reportedly supporting the proposal as well.
However, both the European Commission and the Australian government declined to comment, while the US and UK delegations did not respond to inquiries. With no official updates on the draft agreement, tensions remained high among the negotiating parties.
“There is no clarity on the way forward. There is no clarity on the political will that we need to get out of this,” said Panama’s lead negotiator, Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez.
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