(Bloomberg) — Nearly 200 countries agreed to triple the amount of money available to help developing countries confront rapidly warming temperatures.
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But the deal reached at the close of the two-week COP29 summit in Azerbaijan resulted from fractious and at times openly hostile negotiations, producing an agreement that even its supporters may see as insufficient and disappointing. The process of global climate cooperation will lurch forward from here under the weight of heavier existential questions.
Global temperature rise is on the cusp of 1.5C — a critical tipping point for avoiding the most catastrophic consequences of climate change.
“We needed to leave Baku with an agreement to keep the multilateral system alive,” said Juan Carlos Monterrey-Gomez, Panama’s special representative for climate change. “We kept the system alive. But I think 1.5 is dead.”
Rich countries have pledged to provide at least $300 billion annually by 2035, through a wide variety of sources, including public finance as well as bilateral and multilateral deals. The agreement also calls on parties to work toward unleashing a total of $1.3 trillion a year, with most of it expected to come through private financing.
Developed and developing countries entered the negotiations far apart. At one point on Saturday, the talks appeared to be on the brink of collapse, before numerous closed-door meetings brought a deal closer.
Rich nations are grappling with a slew of fiscal and political constraints, including inflation, constrained budgets and rising populism. The election of Donald Trump and his threat to pull the US out of the landmark Paris climate agreement also cast a shadow on the summit.
Under a compromise, rich nations eventually agreed to commit $50 billion more than called for in a draft agreement on Friday. They had also made any agreement contingent on reaffirming last year’s COP28 outcome in Dubai that included a vow to transition away from fossil fuels.
But Saudi Arabia, leading a bloc of Arab nations, opposed the move to single out any sector.
“There is definitely a challenge in getting greater ambition when you are negotiating with the Saudis,” John Podesta, the top US climate negotiator, told reporters. “At a time when the world is facing such catastrophic effects from climate change an inch at a time is not enough.”