countries raised their offer of climate finance to $300 billion a year at COP29 on Saturday, raising hopes of a deal with developing nations that had dismissed an earlier proposal as insufficient to address the impacts of global warming.
Negotiators from several developing countries and island nations aired frustration over a U.N. process they said was not rising to the challenge of global warming and temporarily walked out of talks on Saturday afternoon.Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister Biman Prasad said he was optimistic. “When it comes to money it’s always controversial but we are expecting a deal tonight,“ he told Reuters.
Past failures to meet climate finance obligations have also made developing countries mistrustful of new promises. The new goal is intended to replace developed countries' previous commitment to provide $100 billion in climate finance for poorer nations per year by 2020. That goal was met two years late, in 2022, and expires in 2025.
In a sign of some progress, countries agreed Saturday evening on rules for a global market to buy and sell carbon credits that proponents say will mobilise billions of dollars into new projects to help fight global warming.Marina Silva, Brazil's minister of the environment and climate change, has said that the Amazon rainforest nation - which is set to host next year's summit - was pushing for $390 billion annually from developed countries by 2035.
The roster of countries required to contribute - about two dozen industrialised countries, including the U.S., European nations and Canada - dates back to a list decided during U.N. climate talks in 1992.