[Source: Reuters]

Countries at the COP29 summit in Baku adopted a $300 billion global finance target to help poorer nations cope with the impacts of climate change, a deal roundly criticized by its intended recipients as woefully insufficient.

The agreement, clinched in overtime at the two-week conference in Azerbaijan’s capital, was meant to provide momentum for international efforts to curb global warming in a year destined to be the hottest on record. Instead it left developing countries frustrated.

United Nations climate chief Simon Steill acknowledged the two weeks of excruciating negotiations that led to the agreement, but hailed the outcome as an insurance policy for humanity.

The agreement replaces rich countries’ previous commitment to provide $100 billion per year in climate finance – a goal that was met two years late, in 2022, and which expires in 2025.

The COP29 climate conference had been due to finish on Friday, but ran into overtime as negotiators from nearly 200 countries struggled to reach consensus on the climate funding plan for the next decade.

The summit cut to the heart of the debate over financial responsibility of industrialized countries – whose historic use of fossil fuels have caused the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions – to compensate others for worsening damage wrought by climate change.

It also laid bare divisions between wealthy governments constrained by tight domestic budgets and developing nations reeling from costs of storms, floods and droughts.

Countries are seeking financing to deliver on the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7F) above pre-industrial levels – beyond which catastrophic climate impacts could occur.

The world is currently on track for as much as 3.1C (5.6F) of warming by the end of this century, according to the 2024 U.N. Emissions Gap report, with global greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuels use continuing to rise.