Landmark $300bn for poorer nations in COP29 climate deal

Richer countries have pledged to give a record $300bn (£238bn) to the developing world to help them prepare for and prevent climate change.

The talks at the UN climate summit COP29 in Azerbaijan ran 33 hours late, and came within inches of collapse.

The head of the UN climate body, Simon Stiell, said it had “been a difficult journey, but we’ve delivered a deal.”

But the talks failed to build on an agreement passed last year calling for nations to “transition away from fossil fuels”.

Developing nations, as well as countries that are particularly vulnerable to climate change, dramatically walked out of the talks on Saturday afternoon.

“I am not exaggerating when I say our islands are sinking! How can you expect us to go back to the women, men, and children of our countries with a poor deal?” said the chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, Cedric Schuster.

But at 03:00 local time on Sunday (23:00 GMT on Saturday), and after some changes to the agreement, nations finally passed the deal. It was met with cheers and applause, but a furious speech from India showed that intense frustration remained.

“We cannot accept it… the proposed goal will not solve anything for us. [It is] not conducive to climate action that is necessary to the survival of our country,” Leela Nandan told the conference, calling the sum too small.

Then nations including Switzerland, Maldives, Canada and Australia protested that the language about reducing global use of fossil fuels was too weak.

Instead, that decision was postponed until the next climate talks in 2025.

This promise of more money is a recognition that poorer nations bear a disproportionate burden from climate change, but also have historically contributed the least to the climate crisis.

The newly-promised money is expected to come from government grants and the private sector – banks and businesses – and should help countries move away from fossil fuel power to using renewable energy.

There was also a commitment to tripling the money that goes towards preparing countries for climate change. Historically, only 40% of the funding available for climate change has gone towards this.

As well as the promise of $300bn (£238bn), nations agreed that $1.3tn is needed by 2035 to also help prevent climate change.

This year – which is now “virtually certain” to be the warmest on record – has been punctuated by intense heatwaves and deadly storms.

The opening of the talks on 11 November was dominated by the election of US President Donald Trump, who will take office in January.

He is a climate sceptic who has said he will take the US out of the landmark Paris agreement that in 2015 created a roadmap for nations to tackle climate change.

“For sure it brought the headline number down. The other developed country donors are acutely aware that Trump will not pay a penny and they will have to make up the shortfall,” Prof Joanna Depledge, an expert on international climate negotiations at Cambridge University, told the BBC.

Reaching this deal is a sign that countries are still committed to working together on climate, but with the largest economy on the planet now unlikely to play a part, it will become harder to meet the multi-billion dollar goal.

“The protracted end game at COP29 is reflective of the harder geopolitical terrain the world finds itself in. The result is a flawed compromise between donor countries and the most vulnerable nations in the world,” said Li Shuo from the think-tank Asia Society Policy Institute.

UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband stressed that the new pledge does not commit the UK to come up with more climate finance but it was actually a “huge opportunity for British businesses” to invest in other markets.

“This is a critical eleventh hour deal at the eleventh hour for the climate. It is not everything we or others wanted but it is a step forward for us all,” he said.

In return for promising more money, developed nations including the UK and the European Union wanted stronger commitments by countries to reduce use of fossil fuels.

Despite their hopes that the agreement struck at the talks in Dubai last year to “transition away from fossil fuels” would be strengthened, the final proposed agreement only repeated it.

For many nations this was just not good enough, and it was rejected – it will now have to be agreed next year.

Countries that rely on oil and gas exports reportedly put up a strong fight in negotiations to stop further progress.

“The Arab Group will not accept any text that targets specific sectors, including fossil fuels,” Saudi Arabia’s Albara Tawfiq said at an open meeting earlier this week.

Several nations came to the talks with new plans to address climate change in their own countries.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer made a play for climate leadership on the world stage and pledged to reduce UK emissions by 81% by 2035, which was celebrated by many as an ambitious goal.

The host nation, Azerbaijan, was a controversial choice for climate talks. It says it wants to expand gas production by up to a third in the next decade.

Brazil is seen as a better choice to host next year’s climate summit, COP30, in the city of Belém because of President Lula’s strong commitments to climate change and reducing deforestation in the globally important Amazon rainforest.