BRUSSELS: With less than three months until this year’s COP29 UN climate negotiations, countries are still divided on one of the summit’s main challenges: setting a new funding target to support developing nations in addressing climate change.
A document released by the UN climate body on Thursday outlines the disagreements between nations ahead of a preparatory meeting in Baku next month. This meeting aims to advance discussions on the most contentious issues.
The document presents seven potential options for a new COP29 deal to replace the current $100 billion annual commitment from wealthy countries to support developing nations.
Vulnerable and developing countries are pushing for a significantly larger funding goal. Meanwhile, donor countries like Canada and the European Union argue that a substantial increase in public funding is not feasible given their strained national budgets.
“We have made progress, but there are still clear differences that need to be reconciled,” said Mukhtar Babayev, the incoming COP29 summit president and Azerbaijan’s minister of ecology and natural resources. Babayev noted that intensive negotiations on the finance target will be organized ahead of the summit in Baku this November.
One proposal in the document suggests that developed countries should provide $441 billion annually in grants and aims to mobilize a total of $1.1 trillion each year from all sources, including private finance, from 2025 to 2029.
Another proposal, reflecting the EU’s position, calls for a global climate-funding target exceeding $1 trillion annually. This would encompass both domestic investments and private funding, with a smaller portion contributed by high-emission and economically capable countries. The EU has also pushed for China — the world’s largest emitter and second-largest economy — to contribute to this new climate funding goal.
China, categorized as a developing country by the UN’s outdated system from the 1990s, resists the notion of being required to contribute to climate finance, which is predominantly funded by wealthier nations. Negotiators anticipate that determining financial responsibilities will be one of the main challenges at COP29.
Another proposed option, reflecting Canada’s perspective, suggests that contributions should be based on per-capita emissions and income, potentially including countries like the UAE and Qatar.
