"Climate dealmakers brace for China showdown over money at COP29"

" Climate dealmakers brace for China showdown over money at COP29 \r\n\r\nWith just five months to go before the COP29 climate summit, the biggest fights are set to be over how to channel trillions of dollars from developed nations to emerging markets \u2014 and how China fits into the equation.\r\n\r\nNegotiators representing more than 190 countries convened\u00a0in Bonn, Germany, this week for a meeting that typically sets the tone for the annual talks. While the atmosphere was more positive than last year \u2014 where the controversial appointment of an oil executive to lead COP28 overshadowed discussions \u2014 the gathering also made clear the scale of the challenge facing Azerbaijan, a relatively small player on the international stage that stepped in to host COP29 at the last minute.\r\n\r\nThe key goal of November\u2019s summit in Baku is to agree on a new post-2025 goal for raising money to speed up the green transition in developing nations and protect them from more extreme weather. The world's poorest and most climate-vulnerable states are loathe to accept anything less than trillions, with some pushing for up to $1 trillion a year coming from public funds. Meanwhile, developed countries are trying to broaden the donor base to ease pressure on their strained budgets.\r\n\r\n\u201cTrillions will be needed,\u201d said Tina Stege, climate envoy for the Marshall Islands. \u201cWe need an overhaul of the international financial system to address the persistent inequities that punish rather than support the most vulnerable.\u201d\r\n\r\nAnalysts estimate that between $1 trillion and $6 trillion a year will be required to meet the Paris Agreement\u2019s most ambitious goal to keep global temperatures in check. Negotiators in Bonn suggested any climate finance deal would likely resemble an onion, with a headline figure of what\u2019s needed, including from the private sector, and an amount that will come from the public coffers of developed nations. Further layers could include contributions from countries that haven\u2019t previously been donors, like China, and multilateral development banks.\r\n\r\nThis year\u2019s climate talks are taking place against a less-than-ideal backdrop. COP29 will kick off just days after the US presidential election, and negotiators are already bracing for the possibility of a Trump victory. Wars in Ukraine and Gaza have pit the world\u2019s biggest economies against each other. It\u2019s also unclear how cooperative China, currently the world\u2019s biggest emitter, will be as it faces fresh trade restrictions on green technologies from both Washington and Brussels.\r\n\r\nDisputes over money come\u00a0down to a fundamental tension that underpins global\u00a0climate negotiations: What do the countries most responsible for climate change \u2014 those that industrialized first and added billions of tons of carbon to the atmosphere \u2014 owe the nations that are now paying the price in weather damages.\r\n\r\nDeveloping countries and small island states say the likes of the US and the European Union have so far fallen way short of the mark. A commitment made by rich countries to deliver $100 billion of public finance per year by 2020 \u2014 a fraction of what\u2019s needed to protect billions of people \u2014 was only met two years later. India is leading calls for that figure to be 10 times higher as part of the new post-2025 \u201cNew Collective Quantified Goal.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cIf money makes the world go round, today\u2019s unequal financial flows are sending us spinning toward disaster,\u201d United Nations General Secretary Antonio Guterres said last week. \u201cClimate finance is not a favor. It is fundamental to a livable future for all.\u201d\r\n\r\nBut developed nations don\u2019t want another albatross like that hanging around their neck, according to one\u00a0European negotiator, who requested anonymity to discuss details of sensitive talks. China\u2019s economy has grown so much in the last three decades that it needs to contribute, as does Saudi Arabia, whose production of fossil fuels significantly adds to global warming, the person said.\r\n\r\nChina\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment on the COP29 talks, or on debate over its contribution to climate finance. \u201cChina will always be a member of the Global South and the developing world,\u201d President\u00a0Xi Jinping said in a video speech to a UNCTAD event Wednesday, repeating a frequent\u00a0argument that the nation shouldn't be ranked alongside industrialized economies.\r\n\r\nThe China question will likely to be one of the toughest to navigate, according to Li Shuo, director of the China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute in Washington. The uncertainty of the November election, bitterness over trade measures and loss of the close personal connection between former US and China envoys John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua, who both stepped down last year, could make progress difficult.\r\n\r\n\u201cThere is a way to get China to play a role, but traditional donors still need to pay their fair share,\u201d Li said. \u201cThe climate finance issue is particularly thorny and the politics this year are very challenging.\u201d\r\n\r\nFor Li, whether Azerbaijan provides the leadership needed is the wildcard for COP29. The nation has so far given few clues on the path it sees to delivering the enormous sums of money required. Rafiyev said officials have gone back to the drawing board on its signature initiative to place a levy on producers of oil, gas and coal amid pushback on the proposal in its current form.\r\n\r\nMukhtar Babayev, the Azeri minister set to preside over COP29, has expressed optimism that countries will ultimately reach a comprehensive climate finance deal. \u201cDetails will come later,\u201d he said in a June 4 interview in Baku. \u201cNow it\u2019s time to talk.\u201d"

"Climate dealmakers brace for China showdown over money at COP29"

Government to Leverage PPPs to close GHS 464 Billion Annual Infrastructure GapAMP

IMF Hails UAE’s Resilience as Growth Forecast Raised to 4.8% in 2025AMP

Ghana: Joint Action Plan to Tackle Illicit Flows in Extractive Sector LaunchedAMP