BAKU -Countries agreed on Sunday to an annual finance target of $300 billion to help poorer countries deal with impacts of climate change, with rich countries leading the payments, according to a hard fought deal clinched at the COP29 conference in Baku.
"It has been a difficult journey, but we've delivered a deal," Steill said after the agreement was adopted. The summit cut to the heart of the debate over financial responsibility of industrialized countries - whose historic use of fossil fuels have caused the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions - to compensate others for worsening damage wrought by climate change.
Countries are seeking financing to deliver on the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels - beyond which catastrophic climate impacts could occur. The agreement also includes a broader goal of raising $1.3 trillion in climate finance annually by 2035 - which would include funding from all public and private sources and which economists say matches the sum needed to address global warming.Donald Trump's U.S. presidential election victory this month has raised doubts among some negotiators that the world's largest economy would pay into any climate finance goal agreed in Baku.