Rich countries support increasing COP29 climate deal to $300 billion by 2035

• Australia, EU and United States agree on increased climate finance.
• EU countries want China and the Gulf states to join them.
• Weak funding will affect their ability to reduce greenhouse emissions.
  

BAKU: The European Union, the United States and other rich countries at the COP29 climate summit have agreed to increase their bid for a global finance target to $300 billion a year by 2035, sources said.

The summit, which was due to culminate on Friday, went into overtime as negotiators from nearly 200 countries – which must adopt the deal by consensus – tried to reach an agreement on the global climate finance plan for the next decade.

The shift in position came after a $250 billion proposal for a deal, drawn up by Azerbaijan’s COP29 presidency on Friday, was described by developing countries as insultingly low.

It was not immediately clear whether the rich countries’ revised position had been shared with developing countries at COP29 and whether it would be enough to win their support.

Five sources with knowledge of the closed-door talks said the EU agreed they could accept the higher number. Two of the sources said the US, Australia and Britain were also on board.

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

Delegates expected a new draft text of the climate finance deal on Saturday after negotiators worked through the night to bridge major gaps in their positions.

The COP29 talks revealed the differences between rich governments constrained by tight domestic budgets and developing countries reeling from the rising costs of storms, floods and droughts fueled by climate change.

The new target is intended to replace an earlier commitment by developed countries to provide $100 billion in climate finance to poorer countries annually by 2020. That target was reached two years late, in 2022, and expires in 2025.

Negotiations

Any deal would require an agreement on more than the base amount.

Negotiators worked throughout the two-week summit to address other critical issues about the goal, including who is asked to contribute and how much of the funding is on a grant basis, rather than provided as loans.

The list of countries required to contribute — about two dozen industrialized nations, including the U.S., European nations and Canada — dates back to a list decided upon at the 1992 UN climate talks.

European governments have asked others to join the payment, including China, the world’s second-largest economy, and the oil-rich Gulf states.

The recent election of Donald Trump as US President, who has called climate change a hoax, has cast a cloud over the talks in Baku.

Negotiators from other wealthy nations expect the world’s largest economy to fall short of its climate finance target during Trump’s upcoming four-year term.

A broader goal of raising $1.3 trillion in climate finance by 2035 — which economists say is about the amount needed — was included in the draft agreement released Friday and would include funding from all public and private sources.

Walk to the table

Poorer countries have warned that a weak economic deal at COP29 would cripple their ability to set more ambitious targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.

Sierra Leone’s environment minister, Jiwoh Abdulai, told Reuters that the initial proposal for a $250 billion target for 2035, as of Friday, would not amount to a real increase in support when inflation is accounted for.

“We’ve spent three years negotiating these numbers. And at the end of three years we have nothing,” Abdulai said, adding that the deal needs stronger language to facilitate access to funding.

On Saturday, the least-developed country group at the United Nations talks, of which Sierra Leone is a part, will present its red lines for an agreement to the COP29 president.

Leaving the talks “must be on the table,” he told Reuters, adding: “All options must be on the table.”