Cop29 talks drag as poor countries reject US$250 billion offer from rich nations
A group of 134 developing states, including China, had demanded at least US$500 billion to help build resilience against climate change
Heated negotiations on a global climate deal were set to spill into Saturday after developing nations rejected an initial US$250 billion offer from rich countries to help them tackle global warming.
Cop29 hosts Azerbaijan said negotiations would drag “over the course of the night” in the Caspian Sea city Baku to produce a final text.
This will be put before nearly 200 nations for consensus approval on Saturday.
The rejected proposal raised an existing commitment of US$100 billion a year from rich nations but fell well short of what experts say developing nations need.
“It is shameful to put forward texts like these,” said Tina Stege, climate envoy for the Marshall Islands, an atoll nation threatened by rising seas.
Cop29 host Azerbaijan urged nations to keep striving but admitted the US$250 billion figure, to be reached by 2035, was not “fair or ambitious” enough.
