Nations strive for climate funding consensus as COP29 deadline nears

Climate negotiators are striving to reach an agreement on new climate funding at a UN climate conference scheduled to close on Friday.

A key task of the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) is to determine a new target of financial contributions that developed nations should make to support developing countries in addressing climate change after 2025.

According to climate negotiators, the task remains challenging as a new draft of the negotiating text released early Thursday showed no consensus on a specific climate funding target and a divergence of perspectives among the Parties.

"We need a figure as a headline to really determine whether we're ... making progress," said Adonia Ayebare, chair of the Group of 77 (G77) and China negotiating group of developing nations at a plenary session Thursday.

In 2009, developed countries agreed to mobilize $100 billion annually by 2020 to support climate action in developing countries, and the goal was later extended to 2025.

At COP29, a target of mobilizing and providing at least 500 billion dollars by developed countries annually was proposed, but the developed nations have not responded, according to Ayebare.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for a "major push" in climate negotiations as the conference draws to a close, emphasizing the need for a "surge in finance."

In the draft climate agreement, two options were offered, reflecting the overall positions of developing countries and developed countries.

One stated that the funds should take the form of grants or grant equivalents, excluding contributions between developing countries. The other, reflecting the stance of wealthier nations, sought to expand the types of finance eligible for the annual goal, incorporating more than just grants from developed countries and including contributions from other sources.

Ayebare noted "a lack of differentiation" in the draft agreement, referring to the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities formalized in the climate change convention since 1992.

"Developed countries having historically contributed the most to the greenhouse emissions must take the lead in reducing emissions and provide financial and technological support to developing countries," he said.

"The time for political games is over," said Cedric Schuster, the Samoan chairman of the Alliance of Small Island States, a group of nations at threat from rising seas.

Schuster noted that the texts showed a "clear shifting of the burden to these least capacitated, least responsible and most ambitious."

Panama's lead negotiator, Juan Carlos Monterrey, said during the plenary session that developed countries' lack of commitment and transparency feels like "a slap in the face to the most vulnerable."

"Developed countries must stop playing games with our life and put a serious, quantified financial proposal on the table," he said.

(Cover: An art installation depicting a beached whale on the shore of the Caspian Sea to raise awareness of climate change, Baku, Azerbaijan, November 17, 2024. /CFP)