COP29 raises $300bn for poor nations in climate deal

Nearly 200 nations have approved a climate deal that raises to at least $300bn a year to help poorer countries deal with the impacts of climate change, with rich countries leading the payments, according to a hard fought deal clinched at the COP29 conference in Baku.

After two weeks of exhausting negotiations in Baku, Azerbaijan that dragged well into overtime, COP29 president Mukhtar Babayev banged the gavel at 2.39am local time (10.39pm Irish time) to approve the global pact.

The new goal is intended to replace developed countries' previous commitment to provide $100bn per year in climate finance for poorer nations by 2020. That goal was met two years late, in 2022, and expires in 2025.

Countries also agreed a deal to allow carbon trading between nations.

Delegates at the conference in Baku, which ran beyond its agreed end time, assented to the proposals on the Article 6 section of the Paris Agreement.

Those who support an international country-to-country carbon market believe it can help cut net emissions by financing reforestation or renewable energy projects in poorer countries.

The money would be paid by richer states who have failed to reach their emissions cuts targets.

However, critics believe carbon credits could be abused and used by high emission countries to avoid their responsibilities.

They also fear the credits given to green projects might not be matched by real world emissions cuts.

Earlier, Fiji's Deputy Prime Minister Biman Prasad told Reuters "When it comes to money it's always controversial but we are expecting a deal tonight."

A number of nations have accused Azerbaijan, an authoritarian oil and gas exporter, of lacking the experience and will to meet the moment, as the planet again sets record temperatures and faces rising deadly disasters.

Small island nations threatened by rising seas and impoverished African states had angrily stormed out of a meeting with Azerbaijan, saying their concerns had been ignored.

The European Union, United States and other wealthy countries met directly with poorer nations to work out final details, with both blocs also concerned at efforts led by Saudi Arabia to water down calls from last year's summit to phase out fossil fuels.

A draft of the final text seen by journalists proposes that rich nations raise to $300bn a year by 2035 their commitment to poorer countries to fight climate change.

Sierra Leone's climate minister Jiwoh Abdulai, whose country is among the world's poorest, called the draft "effectively a suicide pact for the rest of the world".

Tired and 'disheartened'

As staff at the cavernous and windowless stadium began closing down, diplomats rushed to meetings with one another, some ready with food and water in preparation for another late night.

Panama's outspoken negotiator, Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, had voiced anger at offers by rich countries but warned not to repeat the failure of COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009.

"I'm sad, I'm tired, I'm disheartened, I'm hungry, I'm sleep-deprived, but there is a tiny ray of optimism within me because this cannot become a new Copenhagen," he told reporters.

UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said the revised offer of $300bn was "a significant scaling up" of the existing pledge by developed nations, which also count the United States, EU and Japan among their ranks.

Climate activists shouted "shame" as US climate envoy John Podesta walked the halls.

"Hopefully this is the storm before the calm," he said.

Wealthy nations say it is politically unrealistic to expect more in direct government funding.

Donald Trump, a sceptic of both climate change and foreign assistance, returned to the White House in January and a number of other Western countries have seen right-wing backlashes against the green agenda.

The draft deal posited a larger overall target of $1.3tn per year to cope with rising temperatures and disasters, but most would come from private sources.

The US and EU have wanted newly wealthy emerging economies like China - the world's largest emitter - to chip in.

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China, which remains classified as a developing nation under the UN framework, provides climate assistance but wants to keep doing so on its own voluntary terms.

The EU and other countries have also tussled with Saudi Arabia over including strong language on moving away from fossil fuels, which negotiators say the oil-producing country has resisted.

"We will not allow the most vulnerable, especially the small island states, to be ripped off by the new, few rich fossil fuel emitters," said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.

Additional reporting: Colman O'Sullivan