Bangladesh’s interim leader on Wednesday blasted the “humiliating” fight for climate finance at the COP29 negotiations, demanding that rich countries and emitters pay for the problems they have caused.

Muhammed Yunus, who leads one of the most climate-vulnerable countries, said countries that bear little responsibility for global warming were forced to bargain for help to adapt to the consequences.

“I think it’s very humiliating for nations to come and ask for money to solve… (the) problem that others have caused them,” he told AFP on the sidelines of the UN climate negotiations in Azerbaijan.

“Why should we be dragged here to negotiate?” he added.

“You know the problem…it’s not a fish market.”

These comments illustrate the frustration of developing countries seeking much more money from rich countries to help them adapt to climate shocks and transition to cleaner energy.

Sharpening their attention, a new report warns that global warming carbon emissions from fossil fuels have reached record levels this year and that much faster action is needed to meet climate commitments.

This means that to meet the Paris Agreement’s ambitious goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the world must now reach net zero CO2 emissions by the end of the 2030s, instead of 2050. said Global Carbon project scientists.

“This is what the presidency has been promoting since the beginning of this year – the time window is narrowing, narrowing – and we must act urgently,” Yalchin Rafiyev, Azerbaijan’s main negotiator for COP29, told AFP .

“There are still opportunities to keep 1.5°C within reach,” and reaching a deal on climate finance “will certainly pave the way for us to realize this opportunity.”

– ‘Magic money tree’ –

Negotiators still have a big mountain to climb on any deal, however, with a new draft on Wednesday leaving most sticking points completely unresolved.

Most developing countries want an annual commitment of at least $1.3 trillion, more than 10 times what donors including the United States, European Union and Japan are currently paying.

Donor countries want others to join them in paying, particularly China and wealthy Gulf states, and are reluctant to pledge large new sums of public money at a time when they face economic pressures and politicians in their country.

Instead, they want to promise the mobilization of the private sector, an option that NGOs describe as “wishful thinking”.

“They always like to think of the private sector as the magic money tree,” said Debbie Hillier, head of global climate policy for Mercy Corps.

For developing countries already in debt, aid should take the form of grants rather than loans.

Philip Davis, the Prime Minister of the Bahamas, said small island nations spent 18 times more on debt repayments than they received in climate finance.

“The world has found the ability to finance wars, the ability to mobilize against pandemics,” Davis said.

“Yet when it comes to confronting the deepest crisis of our time, that of the very survival of nations, where is this same capacity?”

With progress on finance not moving faster than progress on emissions, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama abandoned his prepared remarks to complain that “our talk-filled speeches on climate change don’t change anything.” .

He skewered the many leaders who skipped the event, saying their absence added “insult to injury.”

– Diplomatic tensions –

A diplomatic dispute was brewing between Azerbaijan and France, whose Minister of Ecology declared that she would not travel to Baku after the “unacceptable” remarks of the Azerbaijani president.

Ilham Aliyev took advantage of a forum bringing together climate-vulnerable countries on Wednesday to castigate “France’s crimes in its so-called overseas territories”.

These comments referred to the bloody protests that shook New Caledonia this year.

Relations between Paris and Baku are very frosty due to France’s long-standing support for Armenia, Azerbaijan’s great rival.

Last year, Azerbaijan defeated the country in a lightning offensive by retaking the separatist Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh, leading to an exodus of more than 100,000 Armenians.

Wednesday wasn’t entirely without progress, however: Brazil, host of next year’s COP, formally submitted its updated climate pledges, pledging to reduce greenhouse gases by 59 to 67 percent compared to to 2005 levels by 2035.

The pledge would be ambitious “as long as the country strives to reach the highest level,” said Karen Silverwood-Cope, climate director at WRI Brazil.

“If Brazil only reaches the bottom of the scale… the country will fall far short of its climate goals.”

bur-sah/lth/giv