After fears that the climate talks in Baku could collapse, the hammer was banged on a financial agreement in the early hours of the morning.
The Western world agreed to pay 300 billion dollars a year to finance the reduction of emissions and adaptation to climate change in the developing world from 2035, but developing countries, from Cuba to India, considered the agreement insufficient and late.
The deal was hammered out in the middle of the night, local time, after a tense few days of negotiations.
Climate-vulnerable countries walk out of financial meeting
It was a tumultuous two days, in which the possibility of the negotiations falling apart seemed close at times.
On Friday (22 November), the developing countries rejected as ‘a joke’ a proposal of 250 billion dollars a year, starting in 2035, put forward by the rich industrialised countries, including the EU, the US and Japan.
At around 3pm on Saturday, a revised proposal raised the offer to 300 billion dollars, according to civil society observers in the room.
The group of ‘least developed countries’ (LDCs) promptly declared that this proposal was unacceptable, before the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) joined them and left the room. They later clarified that they hadn’t given up entirely on the financial negotiations, but it was clear that their patience was wearing thin.
The G77+China group, which encompasses most of Latin America, Africa and Asia, had hinted that it would accept a global figure of 500 billion dollars for the ‘new collective quantified goal’ (NCQG) intended to replace the current annual funding target of 100 billion dollars. But this figure seems to have been exceeded by the richest Western nations.
The US climate envoy, John Podesta, was harassed as he left the meeting room following a walkout by groups representing the world’s least developed countries and small island states. Climate activists shouted ‘shame on you’ as they accused the Biden administration of reneging on rhetoric about paying a fair share.
US climate envoy John Podesta walks through the crowd at COP29. AP Photo/Peter Dejong
‘Of course it won’t be better with Trump, but it’s really shameful what they’re doing with Biden,’ said Victor Menotti, director of the International Forum on Globalisation, after Podesta was pushed out of a side door by security personnel with television crews in pursuit.
‘This is not the climate and environmental justice agenda for which he was elected,’ Menotti said.
The talks continued behind closed doors
A long period of relative calm followed, with the talks taking place behind closed doors.
‘We have all worked very hard over the last two weeks and I know that none of us wants to leave Baku without a good result,’ said COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev at a plenary session that began shortly after 8pm local time on Saturday.
‘The eyes of the world are very much focussed on us, but time is not on our side. I ask you to intensify your commitment to each other.’
The plenary meeting was marked by a series of procedural issues and even new rules for the global carbon credit markets, a second controversial topic of debate at what was dubbed the ‘COP of finance’.
Yalchin Rafiyev, Azerbaijan’s chief negotiator at COP29, left, talks to Mukhtar Babayev, President of COP29, before a plenary session. AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool
The second part of the plenary session began shortly after midnight. The session was quickly interrupted, causing great confusion in the room. Babayev returned to the microphone to tell the delegates that they needed 20 to 25 minutes to finalise the documents.
The financial agreement was finally approved in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Euronews
