By SETH BORENSTEIN, MELINA WALLING and SIBI ARASU

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — United Nations annual climate negotiations » began Monday with more than nine hours of behind-the-scenes wrangling over what should be on the agenda for the next two weeks. We then turned to the main problem: money.

In Baku, Azerbaijan, where the world’s first oil well was drilled and the smell of fuel was noticeable outside, talk instead focused on the smell of money, in huge quantities. Countries are negotiating how rich countries can contribute so that poor countries can reduce carbon pollution by abandoning fossil fuels and switching to clean energy, offset climate disasters and adapt to future extreme weather.

In an attempt to start the 12 days of negotiations, known as COP29, with a victory, Monday’s session appeared to find a solution to a lingering financial problem surrounding the trading of carbon pollution rights – a problem that has eluded to negotiators for years. This could free up up to $250 billion a year to help poor countries, new COP29 president Mukhtar Babayev has said.

But Erika Lennon, senior counsel at the Center for International Environmental Law, warned that pushing through resolutions so early in the conference “without discussion or debate sets a dangerous precedent for the entire negotiating process.” .

When it comes to discussions about financing, the amount of money discussed to help poor countries could reach $1.3 trillion per year. This is what developing countries need, according to African countries, which produced 7% of the heat-trapping gases in the air but have faced multiple climate crises, since floods has drought.

Whatever amount the nations propose, it would replace an old agreement that had a target of $100 billion a year. Richer countries wanted figures closer to this figure. If a deal is reached, the money will likely come from a variety of sources, including grants, loans and private financing.

“These numbers may seem high, but they are nothing compared to the cost of inaction,” Babayev said upon taking office.

Signs of climate disasters abound

This year the world is in tune with 1.5 degrees of warming and is on track to become the hottest year in human civilization.

The goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times was set in the Paris Agreement in 2015. But that’s about two or three decades, not a year of this warming and “it’s not possible”. , simply not possible,” said World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.

The effects of climate change during disasters such as hurricanes, droughts and floods are already here and being felt, Babayev said.

“We are on the path to ruin,” he said. “Whether you see them or not, people suffer in the shadows. They die in the dark. And they need more than compassion. More than prayers and paperwork. They need leadership and action.

United Nations Climate Secretary Simon Stiell, whose home island of Carriacou was devastated earlier this year by Hurricane Berylused the story of her neighbor, 85-year-old Florence, to help her find “a way out of this mess.”

Her house was demolished and Florence focused on one thing: “Being strong for her family and for her community.” There are people like Florence in every country in the world. Reversed and raised.″

This is what the world needs to do in the face of climate change, Stiell said.

A context of war and upheaval weighs on the negotiations

Over the past year, country after country has experienced political upheaval, the latest being in the United States – the largest historical carbon emitter – and Germany, a leading climate country.

THE election of Donald Trumpwhich contests climate change and its impacts, and the collapse of German government coalition are changing the dynamics of climate negotiations here, experts said.

“The North needs to cut its emissions even faster… but instead we have Trump, we have a German government that just collapsed because part of it wanted to be even slightly ambitious (on climate action),” Imperial said. Friederike Otto, climatologist at College London. “We are very far away.”