COP29 proposes $250bn a year in climate finance

A new draft of a global climate agreement released at COP29 in Azerbaijan proposes that developed countries provide $250 billion annually by 2035 to help poorer countries fight global warming.

It is the first time a concrete number has been formally proposed at the UN climate talks in Baku, and comes on the final day of a summit dominated by divisions over money.

The text sets an ambitious overall target to raise a total of $1.3 trillion a year by 2035, with the money from rich governments at the core of funding that would be coupled with private-sector investments.

The nearly 200 nations at COP29 had struggled to agree on a new goal that boosted assistance for developing nations to cut emissions and adapt to climate change.

The existing pledge committed wealthy nations most responsible historically for global warming to provide $100 billion a year in climate finance.

An influential negotiation bloc of 134 developing nations including China has demanded at least five times that figure from developed countries.

Major contributors such as the European Union had said such demands were politically unrealistic and that private-sector money must play a large part.

The EU had resisted pressure to put its own figure on the table and wants newly wealthy emerging economies like China, the world's largest emitter, to contribute to the overall goal.

Many countries have also pushed at COP29 for a redoubling of efforts to cut planet-heating emissions, something opposed by the Arab Group of nations which does not want fossil fuels singled out.