As the end of the UN climate summit, the Conference of the Parties COP29 approaches, developed countries have not yet publicly disclosed the amount of public international funding they will bring to the negotiation table.

Politico reported this week that the European Union had been internally discussing a figure ranging from $200 billion to $300 billion annually by 2035 as the largest donor to the target, but it has refrained from relying on this publicly.

EU plans for financing

On Wednesday afternoon, German climate envoy Jennifer Morgan told reporters that the European Union is taking the matter of numbers and evaluating potential funding sources "very seriously."

She said, "One of the reasons there is no German figure or EU figure yet is that we don't just want to pull a number out of thin air." She added, "We are working to adopt a new, modern, and fair approach to climate financing."

Morgan pointed out that the figures related to the size of the target, in addition to the structure and the thorny issue of expanding contributors beyond the traditional group of wealthy countries, "will be part of the final package."

The G77 demands $1.3 trillion

The Ugandan negotiator, Adonia Ayebare, speaking on behalf of the Group of 77, which includes all developing countries, said: "We need a figure as the main headline for the text."

The Ugandan negotiator demands a text based on an amount of 1,300 billion dollars for the annual needs of developing countries. It is up to the countries to negotiate how to finance this aid specifically.

The head of the African Group of States, Ali Mohammed, said that although they had hoped to make some progress by now, there had only been "silence" from the developed countries. He added to reporters at the COP29 conference: "This is extremely frustrating and disappointing."

The funding dilemma

In the meantime, Chris Bowen, the Australian Minister for the Environment tasked with drafting the agreement text with Egyptian Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad, stated before the plenary session that the figures being discussed include $1.3 trillion, $440 billion, $600 billion, and $900 billion, all of which are amounts proposed by developing countries.

However, the co-chair of the text preparation, Yasmine Fouad, said that discussions on the structure of the climate finance goal still vary in terms of perspectives. These terms denote the various forms of financing that contribute to the goal, including controversial private investments.

Moreover, Stephen Cornelius, Deputy Chair for Global Climate and Energy Team at the World Wildlife Fund, said, "As we approach the end of the 29th Conference of the Parties, negotiations are still ongoing."

Financing and Political Support

Cornelius said the tough issues—climate finance scale, who pays for it, who can access it, mitigation, and adaptation—remain unclear. He added that these issues need political guidance in addition to more technical work.

He urged the COP29 presidency to practice "diplomacy" to find an ambitious common ground by Friday, at the conclusion of the conference.

Regarding the rumors about $200 billion, the chief negotiator on behalf of Bolivia, Diego Pacheco, expressed his astonishment, asking, "Is this a joke?" In fact, developed countries wait until the last moment to make a financial commitment.

In light of Donald Trump's return to the White House, Europeans are intensifying meetings and openly collaborating with China. On Tuesday evening, the German Jennifer Morgan toured the corridors of the delegations' offices accompanied by the Chinese climate envoy Liu Jinmin.

The twenty-seven member countries of the European bloc may not agree among themselves, according to some sources.

Meanwhile, the Colombian Environment Minister María Susana Muhamad González said in statements to Agence France-Presse, "What is concerning right now is that no one is putting a number on the table. And there is no foundation on which we can negotiate."

The position of wealthy nations

Developed countries are demanding to know how they will link their public funds with other financial resources (such as private funds and new taxes) in order to ensure that the most vulnerable communities benefit from this aid.

Danish Climate Minister Lars Aagaard said in statements to Agence France-Presse: "We must expand the base of contributors because countries that were poor in 1990 now enjoy a standard of living that is very close to or even higher than that of the poorest European countries."