COP29 hosts urges collaboration as final negotiations of the deal enter stage

Azerbaijan, the host of COP29's climate summit, urged participants to come up with a financial deal by Friday as negotiations for the two-week long conference reached their final hours.

The world governments present at the Baku meeting, in the Caspian Sea City, are required to agree on a comprehensive plan whereby rich countries would pledge hundreds of billions to assist poorer nations deal with the increasing impacts of global climate change.

The wealthy nations are resisting the need to provide at least $1 trillion per year by the end decade. The negotiations have been clouded as well by the uncertainty surrounding the United States' role, historically the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. This is due to Donald Trump, a climate sceptic, returning to the White House.

In a Friday morning note to delegates, the COP29 Presidency said: "We encourage all parties to continue their collaboration within and between groups in order to propose bridging propositions that will help us finalise our works here in Baku."

A new draft agreement would be released in Baku at noon, with the hope of reaching a deal before the end of the afternoon.

In the past, COPs have always run longer than expected.

After a new draft of a deal was released on Thursday by the Presidency, it revealed two options that were wildly different and left no one happy.

The 10-page document, which was reduced in size to less than half of previous versions released at the summits, avoided stating how much each country would invest annually, and instead marked the space with an "X".

The report also revealed a wide range of opinions on issues like whether money should be given as grants or as loans, and how different non-public financing should contribute to the annual target.

"I hope that they will find the sweet spot in this next version," said Li Shuo. Director of the China Climate Hub, Asia Society and veteran observer at COP summits, Li Shuo is a director of the China Climate Hub. "Anything else may require rescheduling of flights."

U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who returned to Baku on Thursday from the G20 summit in Brazil, called for a major push towards a deal. He also warned that "failure was not an option". (Kate Abnett, Karin Strohecker and Richard Valdmanis contributed additional reporting; Alex Richardson edited the article).

(source: Reuters)