At UN climate talks, nations blast draft of vague deal on climate cash for developing countries

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Countries of the world took turns rejecting a new but vague draft text released early Thursday which attempts to form the spine of any deal reached at United Nations climate talks on money for developing countries to transition to clean energy and adapt to climate change.

The draft left out a crucial sticking point: how much wealthy nations will pay poor countries. A key option for the lowest amount donors are willing to pay was just a placeholder “X.” Part of that is because rich nations have yet to make an offer in negotiations.

So the host Azerbaijan presidency with its dawn-released package of proposals did manage to unite a fractured world on climate change, but it was only in their unease and outright distaste for the plan. Negotiators at the talks — known as COP29 — in Baku, are trying to close the gap between the $1.3 trillion the developing world says is needed in climate finance and the few hundred billion that negotiators say richer nations have been prepared to give.

Negotiators slam an 'unbalanced' draft

Introducing the plan, lead negotiator Yalchin Rafiyev emphasized how balanced the plan was, but all sides kept saying it was anything but balanced and pointed time was running out.

“We would like to correct the balance. It is completely tilted,” Pakistan delegate Romina Khurshid Alam said.

Developing nations blasted both rich nations and the presidency with Honduras delegate Malcolm Bryan complaining that the plan was a "completely unbalanced text that doesn’t bring us any closer to a landing .... It is high time for developed countries put their numbers on the table.’’

The EU's climate envoy Wopke Hoekstra called the draft “imbalanced, unworkable, and not acceptable.”

In a statement, the COP29 Presidency stressed that the drafts “are not final.”

“The COP29 Presidency’s door is always open, and we welcome any bridging proposals that the parties wish to present,” the Presidency said in a statement. It added that possible numbers for a finance goal will be released in the next iteration of the draft.

COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev convened the Qurultay — a traditional Azerbaijani meeting — where negotiators spoke to hear all sides and hammer out a compromise. He said that “after hearing all views, we will outline a way forward regarding future iterations.”

No figure for climate cash leaves many disappointed

Independent experts say that at least $1 trillion is needed in finance to help transition away from planet-warming fossil fuels and toward clean energy like solar and wind, better adapt to the effects of climate change and pay for losses and damages caused by extreme weather.

Colombia's environment minister Susana Mohamed said without a figured offered by developed nations, “we are negotiating on nothing.” Other nations gave the Mohamed a round of applause as her statement concluded.

Esa Ainuu, from the small Pacific island of Niue also blasted the lack of a number in the draft deal.

“For us in the Pacific, this is critical for us,” Ainuu said. “We can’t escape to the desert. We can’t escape somewhere else. This is reality for us. If finance is not bringing any positive, (then) why’re we coming to COP?”

She added: “I don’t even know if we’re going to be here for a COP 30 or COP 31. Something needs to happen.”

Mohamed Adow, director of the think tank Power Shift Africa, also expressed disappointment at the lack of a figure. “We need a cheque but all we have right now is a blank piece of paper,” he said.

Iskander Erzini Vernoit, director of Moroccan climate think-tank Imal Initiative for Climate and Development, said he was “at a loss for words at how disappointed we are at this stage to have come this far without serious numbers on the table and serious engagement from the developed countries.”

There's a lot of work left to do

There are three big parts of the issue where negotiators need to find agreement: How big the numbers are, how much is grants or loans, and who contributes.

Official observers of the talks from the International Institute of Sustainable Development who are allowed to sit in on the closed meetings reported that negotiators have now agreed on not expanding the list of countries that will contribute to global climate funds — at least at these talks. Linda Kalcher, of the think tank Strategic Partnerships, said on the question of grants or loans, the draft text suggests “the need for grants and better access to finance.”

Other areas that are being negotiated include commitments to slash planet-warming fossil fuels and how to adapt to climate change. But they’ve also seen little movement.

European nations and the U.S. criticized the package of proposals for not being strong enough in reiterating last year’s call for a transition away from fossil fuels.

“The current text offers no progress” on efforts to cut the world’s emissions of heat-trapping gases, said Germany delegation chief Jennifer Morgan. “This cannot and must not be our response to the suffering of millions of people around the world. We must do better.”

Eamon Ryan, Ireland’s environment minister, also criticized “backsliding” on cutting fossil fuels from last year’s deal.

U.S. climate envoy John Podesta said he was surprised that “there is nothing the carries forward the ... outcomes that we agreed on last year in Dubai.” The United States, the world’s biggest historic emitter of greenhouse gases, has played little role in the talks as it braces for another presidency under Donald Trump.

Some nations push to slash fossil fuels

Also on Thursday, the EU, Mexico, Norway and several other countries announced they would release plans to rapidly cut emissions over the next decade to meet the landmark Paris agreement’s goal of restraining global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times, although they did not detail how those cuts would happen.

“There is a real risk of falling short,” said Tore Sandvik, Norway’s minister of climate and environment. “We must reinforce the message that the Paris agreement is functioning as intended.”

Under the agreement, countries need to detail their voluntary plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by early next year.

How they would achieve cuts that in many cases will need to be dramatic. The European Union, for example, needs to reduce its emission by roughly 75% below 1990 levels by 2035, according to an analysis by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental nonprofit.

The other countries that joined the announcement include the United Kingdom, Panama, Switzerland and Canada.

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Associated Press journalist Ahmed Hatem contributed to this report.

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