COP29 DAY 2: G77, China reject draft on climate funding goal

G77 and China, the largest bloc representing around 130 countries at the UN climate talks, has rejected the framework for a draft negotiating text on a new climate finance goal — the central issue at this year’s COP29 summit in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The substantive framework for a draft negotiating text, prepared by the co-chairs of the Ad Hoc Work Programme on the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) and published in October, is the first item for countries to deliberate on.

However, on Tuesday, G77 and China rejected the framework, arguing it does not accurately reflect the suggestions that developing countries have made for the new climate finance goal.

Host Azerbaijan hits out at western critics

The president of Azerbaijan, host of this year’s UN climate summit, lashed out at Western critics of his country’s oil and gas industry. In his keynote address, President Ilham Aliyev described his country as a victim of a “well-orchestrated campaign of slander and blackmail”.