The host of this year’s UN climate summit on Wednesday urged governments to start compromising to break a deadlock over how to help poorer countries tackle global warming.
This November’s COP29 summit in gas-rich Azerbaijan is meant to produce a global agreement on how much rich nations should pay developing countries for climate assistance, but talks have stalled.
While poorer nations are the least responsible for carbon emissions, they suffer the most from a warming planet.
Developing countries need massive investments in energy systems to cut their own carbon footpr ints and money to strengthen defences against the effects of global warming.
But a diplomatic meeting in Bonn last month ended in stalemate. Countries were unable to advance on an issue that has eroded trust at climate talks for years.
In a letter to the roughly 200 nations that have signed up to UN climate accords, COP29 president Mukhtar Babayev lamented the absence of “necessary progress”.
Time was running out, he warned.
“We clearly need a rapid increase in the pace of our work,” wrote Babayev, a government minister and former executive at Azerbaijan’s national oil company.
“Time lost is lives, livelihoods and the planet lost,” he added.
“We call on all parties to increase the pace of their work and move on from their early negotiating positions.”