A testy meeting with rich countries, a $300B take-it-or-leave-it climate offer — and a day of drama

BAKU, Azerbaijan — Negotiators from several of the world’s most powerful economies held a contentious meeting in Saturday’s wee hours as they sought to push through a $300 billion-per-year climate financing deal for poorer nations, two people familiar with the discussions told POLITICO.

But the offer failed to break the stalemate at the COP29 summit. Instead, vulnerable countries that call the money a life-or-death deal pushed back hard for much higher sums — and complained about being locked out of the discussions.

Hours after it appeared that the talks might unravel, the summit’s hosts announced what could be a final deal calling for $300 billion or more in annual funding. That proposal was still awaiting approval as of 2 a.m. Sunday in Azerbaijan.

In a different closed-door meeting on Saturday afternoon, which POLITICO listened in on, developing countries asked for $500 billion.

“We feel as though we are left with nothing from this COP,” Samoan environment minister Cedric Schuster, representing a bloc of 39 island nations, told other countries. He added, “Is this how we treat the countries with the moral high ground in the process, who stand to lose the most and have already lost so much?”

The island nations and the bloc of least-developed countries then walked out of the meeting, leaving the conference on the verge of collapse.

European Union climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra acknowledged: “It is iffy whether we will succeed.”

The last COP to end without an agreement was in 2000. If this summit collapses, it will push the financing question into 2025, after Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

“The developing countries are now saying that it is better to have no agreement than a bad one,” said one European diplomat, granted anonymity to discuss closed-door talks. “Normally that is true but in this case, with the upcoming [Trump] presidency in the U.S., it should be crucial for them to have an agreement now.”