As Reuters reported developed countries would offer $300 billion a year by 2035 of climate finance, developing countries response was still not clear
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Whispers of boost in climate finance goal to $300bn
As tension started to build in Baku for the end-game of the COP29 climate summit around midday, reports emerged that developed countries would be willing to raise their offer for the core of the new climate finance goal from $250 billion to $300 billion a year by 2035.
On Friday, the COP29 presidency released a draft text for a deal on the goal, known as the NCQG, with a number of $250bn a year by 2035, which provoked anger and dismay among developing countries, especially the African Group and small island states.
Sources with knowledge of the closed-door discussions told Reuters the European Union, the US, Australia and the UK had indicated they could accept the higher number.
Immediate reactions were not forthcoming from developing countries, who are discussing their strategy. But $300bn a year is only around half of what the G77 group of all developing countries had sought as government finance.
It’s also less than the $390 billion by 2035 that Brazilian environment minister Marina Silva proposed in a press conference late on Friday night. That figure is from a report by a UN-commissioned group of top economists.
Power Shift Africa campaigner and economics professor Fadhel Kaboub said $300 billion is “still not good enough”.
COP31 decision delayed, with Australia and Turkiye stalemate
Governments in the UN’s “Western Europe and Others group” have been unable to reach consensus on where to hold the COP31 climate summit in 2026.
Turkiye and Australia are both bidding for it and, despite a meeting between the two countries’ climate ministers last week, neither have backed down. The decision will now be made at the annual climate talks in Bonn in June or at the COP30 talks in November.
Australia wants to co-host the summit alongside at least one Pacific nation, with Adelaide and Sydney the most likely destinations. Turkiye is hoping to host it in the southern tourist hotspot of Antalya.
Australia will have national elections by May at the latest, before the Bonn talks in June. It is possible that the current centre-left government could lose power to a more right-wing government.
Thom Woodroofe, senior international fellow at Australia’s Smart Energy Council, said that “when Australia sets its diplomatic sights on big and important things, it can make them happen”. “Hosting a COP will help to focus Australia’s transition to a decarbonised economy and clean energy export superpower,” he added in a statement.
Bahar Ozay, coordinator of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network in Turkiye, said the country has good air transport links and that hosting COP31 will “create a significant and timely leverage” for the green transition. She added that Turkiye was “not an oil and gas exporter”.
Criticism has been levelled at recent COP host nations for their high levels of fossil fuel production and exports. Australia was the world’s largest exporter of liquified natural gas in 2021, according to BP’s statistical yearbook.
Turkiye wants to host COP31 in its tourism capital Antalya, which will be in its tourist off-season with temperatures of 10-20C (Flickr/ Naval S)
