UN chief urges compromise on climate finance

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said he hopes to see developed nations make compromises to address concerns of developing nations on climate finance.

The UN chief made the comments at a news conference held at the UN climate summit in Belem, Brazil (COP30) on Thursday, as the event nears a close.

Some developed economies, including the European Union and the United Kingdom, support a roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels, but they do not want to discuss increasing finance for developing countries, especially for climate adaptation.

When asked what his message to these countries was, the secretary-general expressed cautious optimism.

"I must tell you that I spoke with the overwhelming majority of those countries. They seem ready to engage with the financing of adaptation," he said.

At COP29 in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, participating countries reached consensus on an annual funding of at least $300 billion from developed countries and a broader climate finance goal of at least $1.3 trillion per year by 2035 for supporting climate mitigation actions of developing countries.

COP30's tasks include drawing up roadmaps to implement the COP29 targets. Meanwhile, the conference is also expected to review the progress that has been made in efforts to double international public adaptation finance from 2019 levels by 2025, a goal adopted in 2021.

Guterres also highlighted his concern that the issue of climate adaption finance should be "balanced by progress in the key aspects of mitigation".

"I am perfectly convinced that the compromise is possible," he stressed. "You have to take into account, as I mentioned, the legitimate concerns of adaptation and the legitimate concerns of mitigation, which include the necessity to take into account the question of fossil fuels." 

Guterres urged countries that have not submitted their Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs, which are climate pledges each party needs to update every five years under the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement, to hand in their documents as quickly as possible.

He stressed, however, countries' current NDCs are far from being aligned with the 1.5 C goal.

The Paris treaty aims to keep global temperature rise this century below 2 C above preindustrial levels, while also pursuing efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 C. Scientists increasingly agree that keeping global warming under 1.5 C is essential to avoid severe and catastrophic impacts.

"We need to consider them as a floor, not a ceiling," Guterres emphasized. "And we need to make an effort in order to guarantee that we have a more drastic cut in emissions in the years to come."

With the scheduled conclusion of COP30 on Friday, Guterres said it's not the time to talk about possible failure.

"I think this is not the moment to talk about the possible failure of the COP. It is the moment to guarantee that failure doesn't occur," he said.