WHAT COUNTS AS DEVELOPED NATION?
The roster of countries required to contribute – about two dozen industrialised countries, including the US, European nations and Canada – dates back to a list decided during UN climate talks in 1992.
European governments have demanded others join them in paying in, including China, the world’s second-biggest economy, and oil-rich Gulf states. The deal encourages developing countries to make contributions, but does not require them.
The agreement also includes a broader goal of raising US$1.3 trillion in climate finance annually by 2035 – which would include funding from all public and private sources and which economists say matches the sum needed to address global warming.
Countries also agreed on rules for a global market to buy and sell carbon credits that proponents say could mobilise billions more dollars into new projects to help fight global warming, from reforestation to deployment of clean energy technologies.
Securing the climate finance deal was a challenge from the start.
Donald Trump’s US presidential election victory this month has raised doubts among some negotiators that the world’s largest economy would pay into any climate finance goal agreed in Baku. Trump, a Republican who takes office in January, has called climate change a hoax and promised to again remove the US from international climate cooperation.
Western governments have seen global warming slip down the list of national priorities amid surging geopolitical tensions, including Russia’s war in Ukraine and expanding conflict in the Middle East, and rising inflation.
The showdown over financing for developing countries comes in a year that scientists say is destined to be the hottest on record. Climate woes are stacking up in the wake of such extreme heat, with widespread flooding killing thousands across Africa, deadly landslides burying villages in Asia, and drought in South America shrinking rivers.
Developed countries have not been spared. Torrential rain triggered floods in Valencia, Spain, last month that left more than 200 dead, and the US so far this year has registered 24 billion-dollar disasters – just four fewer than last year.
