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Countries still far apart on COP29 financing goal

With less than three months up until this year's COP29 UN climate settlements, nations stay far from agreement on the top's biggest job: to concur a new funding target to help establishing countries deal with climate change.

A negotiations document published by the U.N. climate body on Thursday set out the splits between countries, ahead of a. meeting in Baku next month, where mediators will attempt to. inch forward some of the stickiest issues.

The document recommends 7 choices, showing countries'. completing positions, for a possible COP29 offer. The brand-new target. will replace wealthy countries' present dedication to supply $100. billion each year in environment finance to developing nations.

Susceptible and establishing nations desire a far bigger. funding objective. Donor countries such as Canada and the 27-nation. European Union state stretched nationwide spending plans imply a substantial dive. in public financing is unrealistic.

We have actually come a long way however there are still plainly. various positions we need to bridge, said inbound COP29. summit president Mukhtar Babayev.

Babayev, who is Azerbaijan's minister of ecology and natural. resources, stated the COP29 presidency would arrange intensive. negotiations on the finance objective ahead of the COP29 top in. Baku in November.

One alternative in the file sets out a target for developed. countries to provide $441 billion each year in grants, integrated. with an objective to mobilise an overall $1.1 trillion in financing from. all sources, including private financing, every year from 2025 to. 2029.

That choice reflects Arab nations' position.

Another alternative, showing the EU's working out stance, sets. a worldwide climate-funding target of more than $1 trillion each. year - consisting of countries' domestic investments and personal. funding - inside which would be a smaller sized amount supplied by. nations with high greenhouse-gas emissions and financial. capabilities.

The EU has demanded that China - the world's biggest. polluter and second-biggest economy - add to the new. climate-funding goal.

China is classified as a developing country by the U.N. under a. system established in the 1990s that is still used today. Beijing. declines the idea that it need to be on the hook to pay for. climate finance, the money mostly paid by rich nations to bad. ones.

Mediators expect the concern of who ought to pay to be among. the greatest obstacles to concurring a financing deal at COP29.

Another option in the document, showing Canada's. position, suggests contributors to the target should be. identified on per-capita emissions and income - a measure that. might also add the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and others.

(source: Reuters)