BAKU – Division and discontent came to light at the UN climate summit in Baku on Thursday; The proposal for a new global finance deal has presented two very different options that make no one happy as the deadline approaches.

The main goal of COP29 is to agree on how much money richer developed countries should provide to poorer developing countries to help them fight climate change; This is a critical foundation in efforts to limit the damage caused by rising global temperatures.

But talks in Azerbaijan’s capital appeared to be moving slowly to reach an agreement on the currency, with the final draft of the negotiating text arriving several hours behind schedule as delegates entered the theoretical closing 48 hours.

The new document, with the summit ending on Friday, showed much remains undecided on important questions such as what is included in the annual figure, who pays and how much.

“It is clearly unacceptable in its current form,” said Wopke Hoekstra, the European Union climate commissioner.

“This whole thing turns into a tragic spectacle, a clown show, because when we get to the last minute we always end up with a very weak text,” Juan Carlos Monterrey Gómez, Panama’s chief negotiator, told Reuters.

Developing countries need at least $1 trillion a year by the end of the decade to cope with climate change, economists said in interviews last week.

Although the 10-page document was reduced by half the size of the previous version by removing some options, it outlined the opposing positions of the developed and developing country blocs that had been established before the incident.

One focused on ensuring that funds were in the form of grants or grant equivalents, and contributions from developing countries to each other (a nod to major potential donors like China) were not officially part of the target.

The other, echoing the position of richer countries, aimed to expand the types of financing included in the final annual target and included contributions from others, not just grants from developed countries.

In both options, specifying the total amount of funds that countries will aim to invest each year is avoided and an area marked ‘X’ is left.

“We are far from the finish line,” said Li Shuo, an expert on climate diplomacy at the Asia Social Policy Institute. “The new finance text presents the two extremes of the corridor without much in between.”

He added: “It is crucial that the text overlooks a figure that defines the scale of future climate finance, which is a prerequisite for negotiation in good faith.”

This was perhaps unsurprising as key donor countries, including those in the EU, said they wanted more clarity on the structure and participant base before publicly discussing how much they could contribute.

FOSSIL FUELS

Some negotiators also said Thursday’s proposals failed to deliver on a commitment made at last year’s Dubai summit to move away from fossil fuels, which was hailed at the time as a turning point.

Human activities (particularly the burning of fossil fuels) have helped the planet’s long-term average temperature rise by about 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, leading to catastrophic floods, hurricanes, droughts, and extreme heat waves. opened it.

Countries are working harder to meet the 2015 Paris Agreement target of limiting global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F) by the end of the century, and ideally to less than 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F). Seeking financing.

Climate scientists now say the world is likely to surpass this ambitious threshold, where even more devastating climate impacts could occur, by the early 2030s, if not sooner.

Along with finance, the future of fossil fuels is at the center of COP29 and has sparked disagreements from day one.

At the opening plenary session, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev lashed out at Westerners who criticize his country’s oil and gas industry, calling such resources a gift from God.

The final draft text of the Dubai Pact referred to “moving energy systems away from fossil fuels” but did not clearly outline next steps.

A European negotiator told Reuters that efforts to reduce carbon emissions or curb global warming were “slipping backwards” from Dubai.

The climate finance agreement document gave a hint at the future of fossil fuels, with language about phasing out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies “as soon as possible.”

He also called on companies to “contribute to climate action and align their operations with the Paris Agreement” through efforts such as investing in developing countries and supporting technology transfer.

“We only have two days left. We need to work really hard to make this COP a successful COP,” Maldives Environment Minister Thoriq Ibrahim told Reuters. REUTERS