Developing nations slam 'paltry' $300 bn climate deal
Published: 04:11 PM,Nov 24,2024 | EDITED : 08:11 PM,Nov 24,2024
COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev speaks at a first closing plenary of the COP29 Climate Conference in Baku. — AFP
BAKU: The world approved a bitterly negotiated climate deal on Sunday but poorer nations most at the mercy of worsening disasters dismissed a $300 billion a year pledge from wealthy historic polluters as insultingly low. After two exhausting weeks of chaotic bargaining and sleepless nights, nearly 200 nations pushed through the contentious finance pact in the early hours in a sports stadium in Azerbaijan. But the applause had barely subsided when India delivered a full-throated rejection of the 'abysmally poor' deal, kicking off a firestorm of criticism from across the developing world.
'It's a paltry sum,' thundered India's delegate Chandni Raina. 'This document is little more than an optical illusion. This, in our opinion, will not address the enormity of the challenge we all face.' Sierra Leone's climate minister Jiwoh Abdulai said it showed a 'lack of goodwill' from rich countries to stand by the world's poorest as they confront rising seas and harsher droughts. Nigeria's envoy Nkiruka Maduekwe put it even more bluntly: 'This is an insult.'
Some countries had accused Azerbaijan, an oil and gas exporter, of lacking the will to meet the moment in a year defined by costly climate disasters and on track to become the hottest on record. But at protests throughout COP29, developed nations -- major economies like the European Union, the United States and Japan -- were accused of negotiating in bad faith, making a fair deal impossible. Developing nations arrived in the Caspian Sea city of Baku hoping to secure a massive financial boost from rich countries many times above their existing pledge of $100 billion a year.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he had 'hoped for a more ambitious outcome' and appealed to governments to see it as a starting point. Developed countries only put the $300 billion figure on the table on Saturday after COP29 went into extra time and diplomats worked through the night to improve an earlier spurned offer. Bleary-eyed diplomats, huddled anxiously in groups, were still polishing the final phrasing on the plenary floor in the dying hours before the deal passed. UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband hailed 'a critical eleventh-hour deal at the eleventh hour for the climate'.
At points, the talks appeared on the brink of collapse. Delegates stormed out of meetings, fired shots across the bow, and threatened to walk away from the negotiating table should rich nations not cough up more cash. In the end -- despite repeating that 'no deal is better than a bad deal' -- developing nations did not stand in the way of an agreement. — AFP
'It's a paltry sum,' thundered India's delegate Chandni Raina. 'This document is little more than an optical illusion. This, in our opinion, will not address the enormity of the challenge we all face.' Sierra Leone's climate minister Jiwoh Abdulai said it showed a 'lack of goodwill' from rich countries to stand by the world's poorest as they confront rising seas and harsher droughts. Nigeria's envoy Nkiruka Maduekwe put it even more bluntly: 'This is an insult.'
Some countries had accused Azerbaijan, an oil and gas exporter, of lacking the will to meet the moment in a year defined by costly climate disasters and on track to become the hottest on record. But at protests throughout COP29, developed nations -- major economies like the European Union, the United States and Japan -- were accused of negotiating in bad faith, making a fair deal impossible. Developing nations arrived in the Caspian Sea city of Baku hoping to secure a massive financial boost from rich countries many times above their existing pledge of $100 billion a year.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he had 'hoped for a more ambitious outcome' and appealed to governments to see it as a starting point. Developed countries only put the $300 billion figure on the table on Saturday after COP29 went into extra time and diplomats worked through the night to improve an earlier spurned offer. Bleary-eyed diplomats, huddled anxiously in groups, were still polishing the final phrasing on the plenary floor in the dying hours before the deal passed. UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband hailed 'a critical eleventh-hour deal at the eleventh hour for the climate'.
At points, the talks appeared on the brink of collapse. Delegates stormed out of meetings, fired shots across the bow, and threatened to walk away from the negotiating table should rich nations not cough up more cash. In the end -- despite repeating that 'no deal is better than a bad deal' -- developing nations did not stand in the way of an agreement. — AFP