The world agreed on Sunday to a bitterly negotiated climate deal that requires wealthy historic polluters to pay $300 billion annually to poor and vulnerable countries that have demanded more to confront the global warming crisis.
After two exhausting weeks of chaotic bargaining and sleepless nights, nearly 200 countries voted on the controversial financial agreement in the early hours of this morning under the roof of a sports stadium in Azerbaijan.
Countries have struggled to reconcile long-standing divisions over climate finance. Sleep-deprived diplomats, huddled in anxious groups, were still reviewing the final wording in the plenary session before the agreement was approved.
At times, the talks appeared on the verge of collapse, with developing countries walking out of the meetings and threatening to walk out if rich countries did not provide more money.
In the end – despite their repeated repetition that no deal was better than a bad deal – they did not stand in the way of reaching an agreement, even though it fell far short of what they wanted.
The final agreement requires developed countries to pay no less than $300 billion annually by 2035 to help developed countries green their economies and prepare for the worst disasters.
That’s higher than the $100 billion now provided by rich countries under a commitment set to expire — and the $250 billion proposed in Friday’s draft.
This offer was met with strong criticism from developing countries, which demanded at least $500 billion to build resilience to climate change and reduce emissions.
A number of countries have accused Azerbaijan, an authoritarian oil and gas exporter, of lacking the experience and will to meet this moment, as the planet once again records record temperatures and faces increasingly deadly disasters.
Rich countries and small island states have also expressed concern about efforts led by Saudi Arabia to water down calls from last year’s summit to phase out fossil fuels.
The United States and the European Union wanted newly wealthy emerging economies like China — the world’s largest emitter — to participate.
The final draft encouraged developing countries to make contributions on a voluntary basis, which reflects no change for China, which already pays for climate financing on its own terms.
Rich countries said it was politically unrealistic to expect more direct government funding.
Donald Trump, a climate change and foreign aid skeptic, returns to the White House in January, and a number of other Western countries have seen a right-wing backlash against the green agenda.
The agreement stipulates a larger overall target of $1.3 trillion annually to deal with rising temperatures and disasters, but most of it will come from private sources.
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