Climate change: EU increases $300 billion yearly financial offer to poor countries

The European Union, on Saturday, increased the offer made by wealthy countries to assist the poorest countries most affected by climate change to $300 billion annually.

According to report, this is an attempt to save negotiations that the developing world warned were about to collapse.

The two-week UN climate negotiations stretched into an extra day.

And negotiators searched for a consensus into the night in a windowless sports stadium in the Caspian Sea city of Baku.

Developing countries that are suffering from increasing drought and other disasters rejected an early offer of $250 billion year by 2035 on Friday, in what is expected to be the hottest year on record.

In a hottest ever recorded year, developing countries bearing the brunt of rising drought and disasters flatly rejected on Friday an initial offer of $250 billion per year by 2035.

According to two negotiators, the EU is pressing wealthy nations to increase the amount to $300 billion.

This includes the US, UK, and Japan.

However, the negotiators added that there were restrictions on other aspects of the larger climate agreement that was being discussed at the COP29 summit in Azerbaijan.

Since fossil fuels are the primary cause of global warming, Europeans in particular want an annual review of international efforts to phase out these sources.

Saudi Arabia has opposed this, attempting to weaken a historic commitment made at COP28 last year to move away from coal, gas, and oil.

Eamon Ryan, the Irish environment minister, stated that he was “hopeful” for a settlement.

Ryan disclosed that a more definitive picture would become apparent later in the day when a revised text is anticipated.

“We need to get an agreement.

“This is important that we give hope to the world, that multilateralism can work, that we are responding to the climate crisis”, Ryan told AFP.

He claimed that while the necessity for further funding for the developing countries was acknowledged, “we also have to put a halt to the advancement of fossil fuels”.

The African Group of Negotiators’ chair, Ali Mohamed, told AFP that following the original $250 billion offer, which he described as “a big mockery,” there had been “good discussions” on money.

He stated that developing countries had made clear that immobility would “lead to a failure of COP”.

“No deal is better than a bad deal”, he said.

Numerous people at risk

A network of over 300 activist organizations supported Mohamed’s position.

This also serves as Kenya’s climate change envoy, according to report.

They also called on developing countries to maintain their resolve.

The non-governmental organizations accused industrialized countries in a letter of trying to evade their legal climate financing duties.

“You claim to champion a rules-based system, yet flout the rules when they don’t suit your interests, putting at risk billions of people and life on Earth”, they wrote.

Rich countries argue that expecting greater direct government funding is politically unfeasible.

Donald Trump, who is skeptical of both foreign aid and climate change, was elected president-elect of the United States earlier this month.

Right-wing opposition against the green agenda has also been observed in a number of other Western nations.

The draft agreement proposes a bigger total aim of $1.3 trillion annually to address disasters and rising temperatures.

Although, the majority would come from private sources.

The $100 billion that wealthy countries already provide under a promise that is about to expire would be increased by even $250 billion.

A group of developing nations said that the gains were less than anticipated because of inflation.

Others demanded at least $500 billion.

The Saudis’ battle for fossil fuels

According to experts hired by the UN to evaluate the requirements of developing nations, $250 billion is “too low”.

They opined that wealthy countries ought to be contributing at least $390 billion by 2035.

Brazil, the host of the COP30 next year, raised this sum.

The country argued that wealthier nations alone should bear the $390 billion burden.

China, the biggest emitter in the world, is one of the newly affluent rising economies that the US and EU have urged to contribute.

China is still considered a developing country by the UN.

Though it offers climate aid, it wants to continue doing so voluntarily.

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia has pushed hard for softer language on fossil fuels.

Like China, Saudi Arabia has fought against being forced to offer help, according to a seasoned campaigner from a developing nation.

It mentioned that China has largely taken a low-key and cooperative position in Baku.

The Saudi objective was “turning back the clock,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock cautioned on Friday.

The authoritarian nation of Azerbaijan has been charged with not having the resources and knowledge necessary to lead such intricate talks.

This authoritarian nation reportedly depends on the sale of gas and oil.

The summit began with its chairman, Ilham Aliyev, denouncing Western countries and praising fossil resources as a “gift of God.”

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