Anger over final financial settlement as the finance deal finally reached at the COP29 summit to assist less-developed countries tackle climate change has been bitterly criticised for being nowhere near enough.
Negotiations in Azerbaijan – that over ran by 33 hours – saw richer countries raise their contribution to $300bn a year by 2035. The African Group of Negotiators described it as “too little too late” while the representative from India dismissed it as “paltry”.
Developing countries had asked for $1.3 trillion to help them tackle the climate crises.Interestingly China and India are still defined by the United Nations as “developing” countries and have no formal obligation to cut their greenhouse gas emissions or to provide financial help to poorer countries. They are technically eligible to receive climate aid, although China chooses not to do so.
The conference got off to a controversial start when a senior official COP29 appeared to have used his role to arrange a meeting to discuss potential fossil fuel deals, the BBC reported. A secret recording shows the chief executive of Azerbaijan’s COP29 team, Elnur Soltanov, discussing “investment opportunities” in the state oil and gas company with a man posing as a potential investor.
Earlier Azerbaijan came in for criticism when countries complained that draft texts of an agreement left out and played down a commitment to “transition away from fossil fuels”.
You can read the UN summary of the conference here.