The World Climate Conference in Azerbaijan is being extended. At the planned end of the conference on Friday (6 p.m. local time), the international community’s difficult negotiations over trillions in climate aid were still ongoing. After two weeks of negotiations, drafts of final texts were available – but these caused outrage.
The central point of contention is how much financial flows to developing countries will be increased. The summit presidency suggested that industrialized countries in particular increase their climate aid for poorer countries to $250 billion annually by 2035. That would be around 2.5 times more than the amount of support that currently flows per year. However, the demand is also increasing significantly, not to mention the need to compensate for inflation.
Dozens of developing countries had vehemently demanded trillions in funding. An independent UN group of experts also comes to the conclusion that the need for external aid is around 1,000 billion US dollars per year by 2030 – and even 1,300 billion by 2035.
Climate activists reacted with disappointment to the quarter trillion proposal. Greenpeace’s Germany boss, Martin Kaiser, said a forest fire cannot be put out with a garden hose. “If the major economic nations actually only want to make 250 billion available in just ten years, they are slapping a fist in the face of those people who have already had their livelihoods deprived of them by droughts and floods or who have lost their family members.”
The EU, including Germany and other economic powers, had not publicly mentioned or offered any sums during the conference until the last day. The federal government simply said that it was completely unrealistic that trillions of euros in money were now coming from budgets. They appealed to countries like China and the Gulf states to also pay in.
#World #climate #conference #extended #due #trilliondollar #dispute
