Associated Press Finance

At UN climate talks, nations blast draft of vague deal on climate cash for developing countries

  • At UN climate talks, nations blast draft of vague deal on climate cash for developing countries
  • At UN climate talks, nations blast draft of vague deal on climate cash for developing countries
  • At UN climate talks, nations blast draft of vague deal on climate cash for developing countries
  • At UN climate talks, nations blast draft of vague deal on climate cash for developing countries
  • At UN climate talks, nations blast draft of vague deal on climate cash for developing countries
  • At UN climate talks, nations blast draft of vague deal on climate cash for developing countries
  • At UN climate talks, nations blast draft of vague deal on climate cash for developing countries
  • At UN climate talks, nations blast draft of vague deal on climate cash for developing countries
  • At UN climate talks, nations blast draft of vague deal on climate cash for developing countries
  • At UN climate talks, nations blast draft of vague deal on climate cash for developing countries
  • At UN climate talks, nations blast draft of vague deal on climate cash for developing countries
SETH BORENSTEIN, SIBI ARASU and MICHAEL PHILLIS
Updated 6 min read

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Countries of the world took turns rejecting a new but vague draft text released early Thursday which attempts to form the spine of any deal reached at United Nations climate talks on money for developing countries to transition to clean energy and adapt to climate change.

The draft left out a crucial sticking point: how much wealthy nations will pay poor countries. A key option for the lowest amount donors are willing to pay was just a placeholder “X.” Part of that is because rich nations have yet to make an offer in negotiations.

So the host Azerbaijan presidency with its dawn-released package of proposals did manage to unite a fractured world on climate change, but it was only in their unease and outright distaste for the plan. Negotiators at the talks — known as COP29 — in Baku, are trying to close the gap between the $1.3 trillion the developing world says is needed in climate finance and the few hundred billion that negotiators say richer nations have been prepared to give.

No figure for climate cash leaves many disappointed

Independent experts say that at least $1 trillion is needed in finance to help transition away from planet-warming fossil fuels and toward clean energy like solar and wind, better adapt to the effects of climate change and pay for losses and damages caused by extreme weather.

Colombia's environment minister Susana Mohamed said without a figure offered by developed nations, “we are negotiating on nothing.”

Panama's Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez called the “lack of commitment transparency feels like a slap in the face to the most vulnerable."

"It is just utter disrespect to those countries that are bearing the brunt of this crisis,” he said. “Developed countries must stop playing games with our life and put a serious quantified financial proposal on the table.”

Gomez listed places where negotiators worked on the issue: South Africa, Germany, the Philippines, Egypt, Austria, Switzerland, Dubai, Colombia and a few times here in Baku, asking “For God’s sakes, what’s the next stop? Mars? Do we need to go to outer space to get a quantitative number from our developed countries to be able to start negotiating here?”

Esa Ainuu, from the small Pacific island of Niue also blasted the lack of a number in the draft deal.

“For us in the Pacific, this is critical for us,” Ainuu said. “We can’t escape to the desert. We can’t escape somewhere else. This is reality for us. If finance is not bringing any positive, (then) why’re we coming to COP?”

Mohamed Adow, director of the think tank Power Shift Africa, also expressed disappointment at the lack of a figure. “We need a cheque but all we have right now is a blank piece of paper,” he said.

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