The European Union, United States and other wealthy countries at the COP29 climate summit have agreed to raise their offer of a global finance target to $300 billion per year by 2035, sources told Reuters on Saturday.
The shift in position came after a $250 billion proposal for a deal, drafted by Azerbaijan’s COP29 presidency on Friday, was panned by developing countries as insultingly low.
Five sources with knowledge of the closed-door discussions said the EU had agreed they could accept the higher number. Two of the sources said the United States, Australia, and Britain were also on board.
Delegates at the UN climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan were awaiting a new draft of a global deal on climate finance on Saturday morning after negotiators worked through the night.
It was not immediately clear if the wealthy countries’ revised position had been communicated to developing countries at COP29.
A European Commission spokesperson declined to comment on the negotiations. The US delegation at COP29 did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Indonesian rescuers were searching on Sunday for 130 people from a passenger ship that sank in the Java Sea after 113 others were evacuated, the country's search and rescue agency said, adding that six people had died.
At least five people were wounded in a Russian attack on the Ukrainian city of Odesa on Sunday morning, officials said, a day after strikes on the city killed two people.
Authorities in the Philippines said on Sunday it could take weeks or months to identify the victims of a ferry fire that killed 76 people, as forensic experts begin collecting and comparing DNA samples and investigators determine the cause.
Saudi Arabia shut its East-West oil pipeline on Friday after it was hit in a drone attack, disrupting a key route used to bypass shipping problems in the Strait of Hormuz.