COP29: Hard-hit nations rejects $250B climate offer

Fierce bargaining at UN climate talks in Azerbaijan dragged into Saturday after a $250 billion a year offer from rich nations was flatly refused by developing countries hardest hit by Earth's rapid warming.

Negotiators from nearly 200 nations spent another harried and sleepless night in a sports stadium trying to land a compromise figure for poorer countries facing rising seas, harsher droughts and worsening disasters.

At daybreak, the marathon back-and-forth overnight in the Caspian Sea city of Baku had yet to produce a final draft acceptable to all.

Azerbaijan, which is hosting the COP29 summit, had said it hoped to adopt a global deal by consensus at a closing session sometime after 10:00 am (0600 GMT).

On Friday, after negotiating for the better part of two weeks, wealthy countries proposed raising their commitment for climate action in poorer nations from $100 billion to $250 billion a year by 2035.

The offer was roundly spurned by countries that need enormous sums to shift their economies to clean energy and build resilience to climate shocks on their doorstep.

"It is shameful to put forward texts like these," said Tina Stege, climate envoy for the Marshall Islands, an atoll nation threatened by rising seas.

COP29 hosts Azerbaijan urged nations to keep striving but admitted the figure was not "fair or ambitious" enough.

The Alliance of Small Island States, for which climate crisis is an existential threat, said the offer showed "contempt for our vulnerable people".

Ali Mohamed, chair of the African Group of Negotiators, another influential bloc, called it "totally unacceptable and inadequate".

A group of developing countries had demanded at least $500 billion, and some said with inflation the figure proposed by rich nations would be much lower in reality.