BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) – A new deal announced early Thursday seeks to shape a deal reached at U.N. climate change talks on financing to help developing countries transition to clean energy and adapt. Countries around the world took turns rejecting the ambiguous draft document. to climate change.
The draft omitted a key issue: how much rich countries should pay poorer countries. The key option for the minimum amount a donor was willing to pay was simply a placeholder “X.” One reason for this is that rich countries have not yet made offers in negotiations.
So the president of host Azerbaijan succeeded in uniting a divided world on climate change, only to find they loathed the plan. Negotiators at the meeting in Baku, known as COP29, will provide $1.3 trillion in climate finance that developing countries say they need and that negotiators say rich countries are prepared to provide. is trying to close the gap between hundreds of billions of dollars.
read more: Fragile countries seek $1.3 trillion to address damage and curb climate change
Climate cash figures not shown, many disappointed
Independent experts support the transition from global warming fossil fuels to clean energy sources such as solar and wind power, to better adapt to the effects of climate change and to compensate for loss and damage caused by extreme weather events. , says it will require at least $1 trillion in funding.
Colombia’s Environment Minister Susana Mohamed said: “We are not negotiating anything” without the numbers offered by developed countries.
“The lack of transparency in the pledges feels like a slap in the face to the most vulnerable,” said Juan Carlos Monterrey Gómez of Panama.
“It’s a total disrespect to the countries that are bearing the brunt of this crisis,” he said. “Developed countries must stop playing games with our lives and put serious, quantified fiscal proposals on the table.”
Gomez cited places where negotiators have worked on this issue: South Africa, Germany, the Philippines, Egypt, Austria, Switzerland, Dubai, Colombia, and even here in Baku several times. ” he asked. Mars? Do we need to go to space to get quantitative numbers from developed countries in order to start negotiations here? ”
Esa Ainuu, from Niue, a small Pacific island, also slammed the lack of numbers in the draft contract.
“For us in the Pacific, this is extremely important,” Ainunu said. “We cannot run away to the desert. We cannot run away elsewhere. This is the reality for us. If finance does not bring any positives, then why do we join the COP? ?”
Mohamed Addo, director of the Power Shift Africa think tank, also expressed disappointment at the lack of figures. “I need a check, but all I have now is a blank piece of paper,” he said.
Iskander Elgini Belnois, director of the Moroccan climate think tank Imal Initiative for Climate and Development, said: “We have come this far without serious numbers and without serious government involvement.” I am speechless at how disappointed I am at this stage.” Developed countries. ”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said: “I don’t think we can go on and on without clarifying important aspects of the negotiations.”
Negotiators slam ‘unbalanced’ draft
Chief negotiator Yaltin Rafiev emphasized how balanced the plan was, but both sides continued to insist it was not balanced and time was running out.
“We want to correct the balance. It’s completely tilted,” Pakistan international Romina Khurshid Alam said.
Wopke Hoekstra, the European Union’s special envoy for climate, said the draft was “unbalanced, unworkable and unacceptable.”
Xia Yingxian, a member of the Chinese delegation, also said the current draft contained many parts that were “unsatisfactory and unacceptable.”
In a statement, the COP29 Presidency stressed that the draft was “not final”.
“The door of the COP29 Presidency remains open and we welcome any bridging proposals that Parties wish to present,” the Presidency said in a statement. It added that possible figures for financial targets would be included in the next draft on Friday.
COP29 President Mukhtar Babaev convened Kurultai, Azerbaijan’s traditional conference, where negotiators heard all sides and held discussions to reach a compromise. “After we hear all input, we will outline a way forward for future iterations,” he said.
Both large and small countries want further reductions in fossil fuel consumption.
Other areas being negotiated include commitments to reduce fossil fuels that cause global warming and how to adapt to climate change. But they saw little movement.
European countries and the United States criticized the package of proposals as not being strong enough to reiterate last year’s call to transition away from fossil fuels.
Jennifer Morgan, head of the German delegation, said that “the current document shows no progress” in efforts to reduce global heat-trapping gas emissions. “This cannot and should not be our response to the suffering of millions of people around the world. We must do better.”
John Podesta, the US special envoy for climate change, said he was surprised that there was “nothing that builds on the results we agreed in Dubai last year.” The United States, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases in history, has played little role in the talks as it prepares for a re-election by Donald Trump.
But members of the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance, including Colombia, Ireland and Denmark, which are seeking to phase out fossil fuels, said the lack of language on transitioning away from fossil fuels was not a deal-breaker for them. .
A few days earlier, the 20 largest economies met in Brazil, but did not mention calls for a transition away from fossil fuels. Mr. Guterres, who attended the meeting, said that official language and reality are different.
“Without phasing out fossil fuels, it will be impossible for the world to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius,” Guterres told a news conference on Thursday.
Also on Thursday, the European Union, Mexico, Norway and several other countries announced their commitment to meet the landmark Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. announced plans to rapidly reduce emissions over the next 10 years. However, he did not elaborate on how these cuts would be made.
Under the agreement, each country will have to develop detailed voluntary plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by early next year.
Tore Sandvik, Norway’s climate and environment minister, said there was “a real risk that we will not meet our targets.” “We need to emphasize the message that the Paris Agreement is working as intended.”
Associated Press journalists Ahmed Hatem and Olivia Chan contributed to this report.
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