Proposal for a $300 billion climate fund for developing countries

At COP29 on Saturday, the European Union, the United States, and other wealthy nations increased their climate funding offer to developing countries to $300 billion a year. The move is aimed at breaking the deadlock in the talks, which went into overtime a day before the summit was scheduled to end.

According to a Pak Observer report on Saturday, the UN climate summit, which was initially scheduled to end on Friday, was extended into extra hours as nearly 200 countries agreed on a climate finance plan for the next decade. worked for

Although it is uncertain whether the revised offer will lead to an agreement, negotiators from developing and island nations expressed frustration with the process, which they viewed as extraneous. Some briefly dropped out of the conversation. A $250 billion proposal made by Azerbaijan’s COP29 presidency on Friday was rejected as insufficient by developing countries, which are grappling with the rising costs of climate-related disasters such as storms, floods and droughts.

The summit has highlighted the divide between rich countries, which are facing domestic budget deficits, and developing countries, which are distrustful of past failures to meet climate finance commitments.

The new funding target is intended to replace an earlier pledge of $100 billion a year from developed countries to poor countries, which was due by 2020 but was only met in 2022, and expires in 2025. Sources close to the talks revealed that the EU has agreed. Accept the $300 billion annual target, with the US, Australia and the UK also reportedly supporting the proposal.

However, both the European Commission and the Australian government declined to comment, while the US and UK delegations did not respond to inquiries. With no official update on the draft agreement, tensions remained between the negotiating parties.

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