Climate fund proposal to dismay developing nations – as COP presidency branded ‘one of the worst’

An eleventh hour proposal from a UN climate summit to channel $250bn to developing nations has fallen far short of the $1.3trn they need to cope with climate change.

The draft deal from the COP29 climate summit is likely to dismay vulnerable nations like Kenya, Uganda and Malawi, which are disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change they did little to cause.

Developing countries have hinted they are unwilling to accept anything less than $500bn.

But tight public finances in wealthier countries as well as a swing to the right in some places makes that a hard sell back home.

The existing funding target of $100bn expires at the end of 2025.

Countries are keen to agree something at this COP rather than leave it to next year, when president-elect Donald Trump is expected to withdraw the US from global climate efforts, making a fraught process even harder.

The proposal from today is to scale up to $250bn a year by 2035, with money coming from public coffers, development banks and the private sector.

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The draft deal was released on Friday afternoon Baku time by host nation Azerbaijan, with just hours left on the clock, fuelling anger with the host country for moving far too slowly.

Mohamed Adow, who runs thinktank Power Shift Africa, said: “This COP presidency is one of the worst in recent memory, overseeing one of the most poorly led and chaotic COP meetings ever.

“COP summits are a delicate and precious thing, they require skill and determination in order to progress global climate action and land a successful deal.

“We only have a matter of hours remaining to save this COP from being remembered as a failure for the climate and embarrassment for the rich world.”

He said out loud what many diplomats have said privately, baffled that the presidency left it so late to bridge divides.

That sentiment is not universal, with other countries expressing sympathy with Azerbaijan for having to bring together almost 200 countries who want wildly different things.

Azerbaijan has never been a major player at previous COP talks, but has had plenty of back-up this week as it called in the highly experienced ministers to help bring everything together, including UK energy secretary Ed Miliband and Brazil’s Ana Toni.

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