Azerbaijan Fight for money - The UN climate summit is on the brink

After ten days of tough negotiations, interests are still clashing at the UN Climate Change Conference in Azerbaijan - but a consensus among the almost 200 states is expected to be reached by Friday.

In Baku, developing countries are demanding that the industrialized nations be more ambitious in combating the climate crisis and disburse trillions in aid money. The EU, on the other hand, is putting on the brakes and emphasizing that it will only offer concrete sums once other key issues have been clarified. "Otherwise you have a basket of goods with a price tag, but you don't know exactly what's in it," said EU Climate Action Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra.

The two-week summit with tens of thousands of participants from almost 200 countries is scheduled to end on Friday - although an extension has been common in recent years. The central point of contention is the extent to which financial aid to developing and emerging countries should be increased. According to an independent UN expert group, the need for external aid amounts to around one trillion US dollars per year by 2030 - and as much as 1.3 trillion by 2035. That would be 10 to 13 times more than the amount of climate aid currently being provided.

Environmentalists are proposing to collect money for this through higher taxes on flights, oil production or the wealth of the super-rich. The latter has even been adopted by the G20 countries: Without interfering in the tax sovereignty of states, they will work together to effectively tax very wealthy individuals, the declaration from Rio de Janeiro states.

China - still a developing country?

The EU is basically prepared to mobilize more money. However, the German government is insisting that countries such as China and the rich Gulf states, which have made a lot of money from oil, gas and coal, also contribute money. However, according to a 30-year-old UN classification, they - and India, for example - are still considered developing countries and therefore recipient countries.

Some developing countries are now taking action: Nigerian Environment Minister Balarabe Abbas Lawal, for example, told the Guardian: "China and India cannot be placed in the same category as Nigeria and other African countries." Instead, they should contribute money themselves. Colombia's environment minister, Susana Muhamad, also told the paper that the old categories were "obsolete" and should be changed. Statements like these could increase the pressure on China.

EU fears regression

The EU fears that ambitious formulations from the last climate conference in Dubai on curbing greenhouse gases and moving away from oil, gas and coal could fall by the wayside during the negotiations in Baku. EU Commissioner Hoekstra said that the only way was up. "This is clearly something we will be focusing on in the coming days."

Petro-state Azerbaijan in demand as mediator

The focus is now on the host country Azerbaijan - which itself generates 90 percent of its export revenues from oil and gas. The presidency declared that it was now relying on a "spirit of cooperation and willingness to compromise" in order to achieve a result by Friday. Drafts of the various resolutions are to be presented for the first time on Thursday morning - one day before the planned end.

SDA