Azerbaijan Dispute over trillions: UN climate summit to be extended

The UN climate conference in Azerbaijan has been extended due to a bitter dispute over climate aid worth trillions of euros.

After two weeks of negotiations, draft final texts were available at the scheduled end on Friday - but these caused outrage.

The central point of contention is the extent to which financial flows to developing countries will be increased. The presidency proposed that the industrialized countries in particular mobilize 250 billion US dollars annually by 2035 - that would be around 2.5 times more than is currently flowing. However, demand will also increase considerably, not to mention compensation for inflation.

Climate activists have therefore spoken of a "sad joke". The head of Greenpeace Germany, Martin Kaiser, said: "A forest fire cannot be extinguished with a garden hose."

Dozens of developing countries had vehemently demanded trillions of euros in funding. An independent UN expert group has also come to the conclusion that the need for external aid amounts to around 1,000 billion US dollars per year by 2030 - and as much as 1,300 billion by 2035. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that "crunch time" was now approaching, just like in basketball.

"No one really responsible"

The five-page draft text mentions an overall target of at least 1.3 trillion dollars, with development banks and private sources of money also playing an important role, as well as other donor countries. Oxfam expert Kowalzig criticized: "No one is really responsible for this part of the global goal."

Climate expert Viviane Raddatz from the development organization WWF said: "It is not clear how much real subsidies and public funds are to flow in here, and how much will come from private sources." Bill Hare from the think tank ClimateAnalytics pointed out that according to the wording, the target does not have to be reached until 2035, so it is actually a question of an upper limit, not a lower limit.

The EU and other economic powers had not publicly mentioned or offered any sums at all during the conference until the last day. The German government merely stated that it was completely unrealistic for trillions of euros to come from budgets now. They appealed to countries such as China and the rich Gulf states to also pay in. The problem: according to old UN logic, they are still considered developing countries and therefore recipients of aid.

Costs of doing nothing significantly higher

Developing countries have been insisting on more aid for years. Their argument: they themselves have contributed almost nothing to the climate crisis, so the rich countries of the North must live up to their historical responsibility. Millions are already suffering from the consequences of global warming, particularly in the global South. Examples include failed harvests and hunger crises following droughts. Or destruction after storms, forest fires or floods. Experts warn that this could trigger migration flows. And: the costs of doing nothing are many times higher and no longer affordable.

Important resolutions from last year's climate conference in Dubai were not included verbatim in the draft text - probably under pressure from Saudi Arabia, as observers and experts suspect. Specifically, these are three goals: the commitment to move away from oil, gas and coal, the tripling of the expansion of renewable energies and the doubling of energy efficiency by 2030. There is only one reference to this - which, in the view of the environmental organization Germanwatch, would still be a solid resolution and not a step backwards in terms of content.

It would be disappointing for the EU if these important formulations were not repeated. However, there would also be a high price to pay if an agreement on the issue of money - and thus the entire conference - were to fail.

The host as a problem

Germanwatch expert Christoph Bals doubted that the process was in good hands with the Azerbaijani presidency: "It is not clear to me what game the presidency is playing."

The former Soviet republic, ruled with an iron-fisted hand by head of state Ilham Aliyev, is hoping to boost its image by hosting the mammoth conference with tens of thousands of participants. However, there were critical questions from the outset as to whether a petrostate, 90 percent of whose export revenues come from oil and gas, could credibly host a climate conference. During the conference, it became clear that the presidency had a lot of self-confidence but little ambition. It was obvious to experts that their team was poorly prepared. Behind closed doors, negotiators spoke of chaotic conditions in some cases.

SDA