Deadlocked COP29 awaits fresh draft deal on final day

BAKU – Representatives from nearly 200 nations awaited a fresh proposal on Friday for a potential compromise in marathon climate finance talks on the last day of a hard-fought COP29 summit in Azerbaijan.
The gruelling two-week conference in the Caspian Sea city Baku is almost certain to go into overtime, with key details for a deal yet to be released, let alone agreed.
A revised draft was promised around midday on Friday, the product of frantic negotiations that stretched into the early hours within a cavernous sports stadium.
The main priority at COP29 is agreeing a new target to replace the $100-billion a year that rich nations provide poorer ones to reduce emissions and adapt to disasters.
Developing countries plus China, an influential negotiating bloc, are pushing for $1.3-trillion by 2030 and want at least $500-billion of that directly from developed nations.
COP29’s Azerbaijani presidency said Friday it had conducted “an extensive and inclusive consultation process that extended into the early hours of the morning” and promised revised texts by noon.
Azerbaijan has been under pressure to find a compromise and criticised for not bridging the gap between nations.
The new draft is expected to offer financial figures after an earlier version on Thursday said that developing countries need at least “USD [X] trillion” per year but omitted a concrete number.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who flew back to Baku after attending COP29’s opening last week, warned on Thursday that “failure is not an option”.
China, the world’s largest emitter, joined other countries in rejecting the earlier draft but urged “all parties to meet one another halfway”. 
Other major sticking points over the finance terms — including who contributes climate finance and how the money is raised and delivered — remain to be resolved.
Apart from splits over money, many nations fear the climate deal in negotiation does not reflect the urgency on phasing out coal, oil and gas — the main drivers of global warming.