BAKU: Rich countries on Friday offered $250 billion a year by 2035 to help poor countries hit by global warming.
At the COP29 talks in Azerbaijan, developing countries demanded a bigger commitment from global polluters mostly responsible for warming.
In a draft text revealed hours before two weeks of the climate conference Azerbaijan said wealthy nations had committed to providing $250 billion a year by 2035.
The text also sets an ambitious overall target to increase at least $1.3 trillion per year by 2035 from not only developed countries but the private sector.
The new target “is totally unacceptable and inadequate”, said Ali Mohamed, chair of the African Group of Negotiators. “$250 billion will lead to unacceptable loss of life in Africa and around the world, and imperils the future of our world,” he said.
However, the United States hinted that it was not looking to negotiate a higher figure. President-elect Donald Trump will take office in two months and is likely to pull the world’s largest economy again out of climate diplomacy.
Germany, a longtime leader on climate where elections are scheduled next year, said any final deal was inevitable to include debt restructuring and other financial tools to raise the money, not just government money.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock speaking to media said Europe wants to “live up to its responsibilities, but also in a way that it doesn’t make promises it can’t live up to”.
Jasper Inventor from Greenpeace called the $250 billion offer “inadequate, divorced from the reality of climate impacts and outrageously below the needs of developing countries”.
But Avinash Persaud, special advisor on climate change to the president of the Inter-American Development Bank, said that the offer showed the talks were “within sight of a landing zone” for the first time.
Last year’s COP28 summit in Dubai made a call on the world to transition away from fossil fuels after long negotiations in Dubai. — AFP
