World Agrees to $300 Billion Climate Aid Package at COP29 Despite Deep Divisions

On 23 Novem­ber 2024, CNN report­ed that near­ly 200 coun­tries reached a con­tentious cli­mate deal at COP29 in Baku, Azer­bai­jan, estab­lish­ing a $300 bil­lion annu­al fund for devel­op­ing nations by 2035. The arti­cle begins:

“Peo­ple doubt­ed that Azer­bai­jan could deliv­er. They doubt­ed that every­one could agree. They were wrong on both,” said Mukhtar Babayev, the Azer­bai­jani state-oil com­pa­ny vet­er­an and pres­i­dent of COP29.

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Key Points:

1. The agree­ment came after tense nego­ti­a­tions marked by walk­outs from vul­ner­a­ble nations and required wealthy nations to pro­vide cli­mate fund­ing by 2035.
2. Devel­op­ing coun­tries strong­ly crit­i­cized the $300 bil­lion fig­ure as insuf­fi­cient, not­ing experts rec­om­mend $1.3 tril­lion for ade­quate cli­mate response.
3. Over 1,700 fos­sil fuel indus­try rep­re­sen­ta­tives attend­ed the Azer­bai­jan sum­mit, out­num­ber­ing most coun­try del­e­ga­tions and com­pli­cat­ing negotiations.
4. The deal encour­ages but does­n’t require con­tri­bu­tions from emerg­ing economies like Chi­na and Sau­di Ara­bia, reflect­ing com­plex geopo­lit­i­cal dynamics.