By Kate Abnett and Valerie Volcovici
BAKU (Reuters) – The U.N. climate chief on Saturday called on leaders of the world’s biggest economies to send a signal of support for global climate finance efforts at their meeting next week in Rio de Janeiro, to help deliver reaching an agreement during the COP29 talks.
The plea, made in a letter to G20 leaders from top UN climate official Simon Stiell, comes as negotiators at the COP29 conference in Baku fight for a deal aimed at scaling up the money to tackle the worsening effects of warming of the Earth.
“Next week’s summit must send crystal-clear global signals,” Stiell, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, said in the letter.
He said they should support an increase in grants and loans, along with debt relief, so that vulnerable countries are “not burdened by the costs of debt servicing that make bold climate action virtually impossible.”
Business leaders echoed Stiell’s plea, saying they were concerned about the “lack of progress and focus in Baku.”
“We call on governments, led by the G20, to respond to this moment and develop policies for an accelerated shift from fossil fuels to a clean energy future, unlocking the vital private sector investment needed ,” a coalition of business groups said in a statement. separate letter.
The groups included the We Mean Business Coalition, the United Nations Global Compact and the Brazilian Council for Sustainable Development.
Ana Toni, a Brazilian climate official, told a news conference she hoped for “a very strong signal on climate” from the G20 meeting, saying it was crucial for the talks in Baku.
ANNUAL FINANCIAL OBJECTIVE
Success at this year’s UN climate summit depends on whether countries can agree on a new annual financing target for richer countries, development lenders and the private sector. Developing countries will need at least $1 trillion a year by the end of this decade to tackle climate change, economists told the UN talks.
But negotiators have made slow progress halfway through the two-week conference. A draft of the deal, which earlier this week was 33 pages long and contained dozens of varying options, had been reduced to 25 pages as of Saturday.
Swedish climate envoy Mattias Frumerie told Reuters that the financial negotiations had not yet resolved the toughest issues: how big the target should be, or which countries should pay.
“The divisions we saw coming at the meeting are still there, leaving a significant amount of work for ministers next week,” he told Reuters.
