BAKU: With time running down, negotiators at the United Nations annual climate talks on Wednesday returned to the puzzle of finding an agreement to bring far more money for vulnerable nations to adapt than wealthier countries have shown they\u2019re willing to pay.
\nPressure was building to drive a deal by the time COP29, as this year\u2019s summit is known, concludes this week. COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev asked negotiators to clear away the technical part of talks by Wednesday afternoon so they can focus on substance.
\nThat substance is daunting. Vulnerable nations are seeking $1.3 trillion to deal with damage from climate change and to adapt to that change, including building out their own clean-energy systems. Experts agree that at least $1 trillion is called for, but both figures are far more than the developed world has so far offered.
\nHalf the world away in Rio, Brazil, where the Group of 20 summit was wrapping up, the United Nations Secretary-General told the group of the world\u2019s largest economies that \u201cthe success of COP29 is largely in your hands.\u201d
\n\u201cThat goal, the financial goal, in its different layers, must meet the needs of developing countries, beginning with a significant increase in concessional public funds.\u201d
\nAnd the president of Brazil, Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, said developed nations should consider moving their 2050 emission goals forward to 2040 or 2045.
\n\u201cThe G20 is responsible for 80 percent of greenhouse effect emissions,\u201d he said. \u201cEven if we are not walking the same speed, we can all take one more step.\u201d
\nNegotiators are fighting over three big parts of the issue: How big the numbers are, how much is grants or loans, and who pays. The \u201chow big\u201d question is the toughest to negotiate and will likely be resolved only after the first two are solved, COP29 lead negotiator Yalchin Rafiyev told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday.
\n\u201cThere are interlinkages of the elements. That\u2019s why having one of them agreed could unlock the other one,\u201d Rafiyev said.
\n\u201cAll presidencies must at this point show that they have what it takes to move from administration to leadership,\u201d German climate envoy Jennifer Morgan said. \u201cThey must set the expectation for ambitious outcomes across the board. … It is now up to the presidency to ensure that we move at full speed toward a green future.\u201d
\nThe current goal of $100 billion annually was set in 2009. Rich potential donor nations have so far been reluctant to offer a starting figure to replace that. Rafiyev said the conference presidency has sought to pressure them, telling them that the figure should be \u201cfair and ambitious, corresponding to the needs and priorities of the world.\u201d
\nIndia\u2019s junior environment minister Kirti Vardhan Singh, who is at the Baku talks, said that \u201cthe Global South are bearing a huge financial burden.\u201d
\n\u201cThis is severely limiting our capacity to meet our developmental needs,\u201d he said.
\nThe European Union is expected to finally offer a figure, likely ranging from $200 billion to $300 billion annually, Linda Kalcher, executive director of the think tank Strategic Perspectives, said Tuesday.
\nThat wasn\u2019t enough for Debbie Hillier, climate policy lead for the humanitarian group Mercy Corps, who called it \u201cwildly out of step with the needs of developing countries\u201d and a failure by richer nations to live up to the agreement of the 2015 Paris climate talks.
\n\u201cIf $200-300 billion is indeed the ballpark for what developed countries will offer, then this is a betrayal \u2014 a betrayal of the communities around the world who, whilst least responsible for climate change, are bearing its most devastating consequences,\u201d she said.
\nSome wealthy nations were talking of loans that could be leveraged to attract other money \u2014 grants, more loans and private investment \u2014 to multiply the funds they can offer.
\nBut poorer nations say they are already drowning in debt and most money should come in the form of grants.
\nWhatever the form of the finance, Ireland\u2019s environment minister Eamon Ryan said it would be \u201cunforgivable\u201d for developed countries to walk away from negotiations in without making a firm commitment toward developing ones.
\n\u201cWe have to make an agreement here,\u201d he said. \u201cWe do have to provide the finance, particularly for the developing countries, and to give confidence that they will not be excluded, that they will be center stage.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BAKU: With time running down, negotiators at the United Nations annual climate talks on Wednesday returned to the puzzle of finding an agreement to bring far more money for vulnerable nations to adapt than wealthier countries have shown they\u2019re willing to pay. Pressure was building to drive a deal by the time COP29, as this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444630,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-444618","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n