The nearly 200 countries represented in this year’s global climate talks have one week to come up with a very important figure: how much money will be collectively delivered every year to stop climate change. Reaching an agreement is not going well so far, write Sara Schonhardt, Zia Weise and Karl Mathiesen. Much of the fighting at the COP climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, comes down to who will pay what. A bloc of 134 developing countries say the yearly target needs to be at least $1.3 trillion starting in 2026. These countries have contributed the least to global emissions, are bearing the brunt of its effects and lack the necessary means to transition to clean power without assistance from wealthy nations. Wealthy nations that can afford to clean up their large economies — which were, by the way, built with fossil fuels — are reluctant to commit to much more than the $100 billion they already give. European countries may be willing to increase that number to between $200 billion and $300 billion annually, reports Zia. These countries argue that China and rich Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates should make financial pledges, because they are “capable of contributing.” If more countries pledge to contribute to the overall pool, it would reduce individual donations. But those countries are not part of the official donor group under the terms of the 1992 U.N. climate treaty. China’s classification as a developing country is particularly irksome to Western nations as its economy is the world’s largest source of climate pollution. For its part, China argues it already helps other countries in various ways, including $25 billion in funding since 2016, but wants to retain its status as a developing country. The election of Donald Trump is also complicating negotiations. Trump has threatened to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement, which could put more pressure on other donor countries to make up the difference. That is frustrating the European Union, which already gives three times more than the U.S., despite having an economy that is two-thirds the size. On the COP sidelines: Meanwhile, countries have until February to submit new, detailed plans for how they intend to achieve their emissions cuts. But talks about ramping up the ambition of those plans were cut short over the weekend, after a group of emerging economies, including China, Saudi Arabia and India, accused wealthy countries of trying to dictate how their economies are run. If countries don’t submit more ambitious climate targets, the world faces catastrophic warming of at least 2.6 degrees Celsius, according to a recent U.N. report.
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