Baku, Azerbaijan—Nations returned Monday to the negotiating table at deadlocked UN climate talks in Azerbaijan, but with time running out, hopes of a breakthrough are pinned on the G20 leaders meeting in Brazil.
The nearly 200 nations at COP29 are negotiating a new deal to provide developing countries enough money to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases and build resilience against worsening climate shocks.
Rei Josiah Echano, disaster chief in the typhoon-hit Philippines province of Northern Samar, said he hoped the talks would be “radically fast-tracked” to help those in dire need.
As the crunch climate talks enter a second week, diplomats are no closer to an agreement that will define the success or failure of this year’s meeting.
COP29 president Mukhtar Babayev said the negotiations unfolding in a cavernous stadium by the Caspian Sea had reached a “critical moment.”
“We are halfway through COP29 and now the real challenges begin,” said the former oil executive turned ecology minister.
Government ministers taking over the negotiations in Baku have until Friday to break the impasse over how to provide the developing world with the money it needs to tackle global warming.
With the clock ticking, pressure is mounting on G20 leaders to throw their weight behind the stalled process when they meet in Brazil for their annual summit.
“A successful outcome at COP29 is still within reach, but it will require leadership and compromise, namely from the G20 countries,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Sunday in Rio de Janeiro, where he is attending the G20 summit of the world’s biggest economies.
“The spotlight is naturally on the G20. They account for 80 percent of global emissions,” Guterres said, calling on the group to “lead by example.”
In a sign that a solution could emerge from Rio, the head of the Brazilian delegation to COP29, Andre Aranha Correa do Lago, left Baku to prepare for the G20.
Hosts under pressure
The haggling in Baku has been glacial, but a meeting between Chinese and European officials was seen as a glimmer of hope in an otherwise gloomy first week.
Besides the finance impasse, a fight is also brewing over whether countries should recommit to last year’s landmark pledge to move the world away from fossil fuels.
The conference opened in the shadow of Donald Trump’s re-election in the United States, and efforts to shore up support for the global climate fight took another knock when Argentina’s delegation withdrew from the summit.
Developing countries excluding China will need $1 trillion a year in outside assistance by the end of the decade, according to independent economists commissioned by the United Nations.
Climate-vulnerable nations want a chunk of this paid by developed countries, but donors say they cannot raise that money alone and the private sector must also be involved.
The United States and European Union also want wealthy emerging economies not obligated to pay climate finance—most notably China—to share the burden.
The EU is the biggest contributor to international climate finance but faces political and budget pressure, and could be left exposed should the United States refuse to pay up under Trump.
Azerbaijan lacks diplomatic experience at a time when COP observers say crucial leadership is needed to steer what some see as the most complex climate negotiations in years.
Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, also came under fire for defending fossil fuels, while his fiery remarks about France’s colonial history resulted in Paris’s climate envoy cancelling her ticket to Baku.
