COP29 opens in Azerbaijan with focus on climate funding

BAKU

The COP29 climate talks open on Sunday in Azerbaijan, under the long shadow cast by the re-election of Donald Trump, who has pledged to row back on the United States' carbon-cutting commitments.

Countries come to Baku for the main United Nations forum for climate diplomacy after new warnings that 2024 is on track to break temperature records, adding urgency to a fractious debate over climate funding.

But Trump's return will loom over the discussions, with fears that an imminent U.S. departure from the landmark Paris agreement to limit global warming could mean less ambition around the negotiating table.

Outgoing President Joe Biden is staying away, as are many leaders who have traditionally appeared early in COP talks to lend weight to the proceedings.

Just a handful of leaders from the Group of 20, whose countries account for nearly 80 percent of global emissions, are attending.

Diplomats have insisted that the absences, and Trump's win, will not detract from the serious work at hand, particularly agreeing a new figure for climate funding to developing countries.

Negotiators must increase a $100 billion-a-year target to help developing nations prepare for worsening climate impacts and wean their economies off fossil fuels.

How much will be on offer, who will pay, and who can access the funds are some of the major points of contention.

"It's hard. It involves money. When it comes to money, everybody shows their true colors," Adonia Ayebare, the Ugandan chair of a bloc that groups over 100 mostly developing countries and China, told AFP.

Trump, who has repeatedly called climate change a "hoax", has vowed to pull the United States out of the Paris agreement.

Developing countries are pushing for trillions of dollars, and insist money should be mostly grants rather than loans.

They warn that without the money they will struggle to offer ambitious updates to their climate goals, which countries are required to submit by early next year.

But the small group of developed countries that currently contributes wants to see the donor pool expanded to include other rich nations and top emitters, including China and the Gulf states.

The talks come with fresh warnings that the world is far off track to meet the goals of the Paris agreement.

"Everyone knows that these negotiations will not be easy," said Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.

"But they are worth it: each tenth of a degree of warming avoided means fewer crises, less suffering, less displacement."

More than 51,000 people are expected at the talks, which run Nov. 11-22.