Rich countries step up COP29 climate funding as developing countries strain By Reuters

By Kate Abnett, Valerie Volcovici and Nailia Bagirova

BAKU (Reuters) – The European Union, the U.S. and other wealthy nations at the COP29 summit agreed to increase their climate funding proposal to $300 billion a year by 2035 to help developing countries deal with climate change, sources said. to Reuters on Saturday, after an earlier proposal was dismissed as contemptuously low.

The summit was due to end on Friday but has been delayed as negotiators from nearly 200 countries – which must adopt the agreement by consensus – try to reach an agreement on a climate finance plan for the next decade.

The 250 billion dollar proposal for the agreement, which was prepared by Azerbaijan’s COP29 presidency on Friday, was considered woefully inadequate by developing countries.

It is not yet clear whether the revised position of rich countries has been officially passed on to developing countries at the meeting in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, and whether it will be enough to win their support.

The COP29 talks revealed a divide between wealthy governments due to tight domestic budgets and developing countries that are burdened by the rising costs of hurricanes, floods and droughts caused by climate change.

Past failures to meet climate finance commitments have made developing countries distrustful of new pledges.

The new goal is intended to replace a previous commitment by developed countries to provide $100 billion in climate finance to poor countries by 2020. That goal was reached two years late, in 2022, and expires in 2025.

Five sources with knowledge of the closed-door talks said the EU had agreed to accept a maximum of $300 billion a year. Two sources said the United States, Australia and Britain were also on board.

A spokesperson for the European Commission and a spokesperson for the Australian government both declined to comment on the discussions. The US delegation to COP29 and the UK Department of Energy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Since there has been no official review of the draft agreement from the COP29 presidency, the situation has been tense between the negotiating parties.

“There is no clarity on the way forward. There is no clarity on the political will we need to get out of this,” said Panama’s leading negotiator, Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez.

Three interviewees described the mood in the room as angry.

Sierra Leone’s Environment Minister, Abdulai Jiwoh, declined to comment on the $300 billion figure, saying: “We are still working on the figure with other groups.”

PUSHES $390 BILLION

Marina Silva, Brazil’s environment and climate change minister, said on Friday that the Amazon rainforest country (NASDAQ: ) – which is due to host next year’s COP30 summit – wants $390 billion annually from developed countries by 2035.

“We cannot leave Baku without a decision that agrees with the challenge we are facing,” he said through a translator. “We need to reach $300 billion by 2030, and then reach $390 billion by 2035 to reach this goal.”

Delegates were awaiting a new draft of the agreement after negotiators worked through the night to fill wide gaps in their positions. Any agreement may require an agreement on more than just the subject matter.

Negotiators worked throughout the two-week conference to address other important questions about the target, including who is being asked to contribute and how much money is based on a grant, rather than provided as a loan.

The list of countries required to contribute – about two industrialized countries, including the US, European countries and Canada – goes back to the list decided during the UN climate talks in 1992.

European governments want others to join them in paying, including China, the world’s second-largest economy, and the oil-rich Gulf states.

Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election this month cast a cloud over the talks in Baku. Trump, who takes office in January, has promised to withdraw the United States from international climate cooperation, so negotiators from other rich countries expect that under his administration the world’s largest economy will not pay for climate finance.

A broad goal of raising $1.3 billion in climate finance annually by 2035 — which would include funding from all public and private sources and which economists say is in line with the amount needed — is included in a draft agreement published on Friday.

Poor countries have warned that a fragile financial deal at COP29 will undermine their ability to set ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.