THE Group of Seven (G7) industrialised nations has made a new US$15bil (RM65bil) offer to Vietnam to agree during a summit next week on funding to speed up its transition away from coal, three people familiar with the talks said.
Vietnam, which is among the world’s top 20 coal users, was initially slated to sign up for the so-called just energy transition partnership with G7 nations at a global COP27 climate summit in November, but high-level talks broke off before the meeting.
To persuade Vietnam to back the offer, Western negotiators led by the European Union and Britain have proposed a bigger financial package, which includes US$7.5bil (RM32bil) made up almost exclusively of loans from the public sector and the same amount in pledges from the private sector, the sources said.
All three Western officials, who declined to be named because talks were confidential, said it would be the final offer from the G7 before a summit of European Union and South-East Asian nations in Brussels on Dec 14, which EU officials have repeatedly indicated as the new target date for a deal.
The offer has gradually expanded from an initial pledge of just US$2bil (RM8.7bil) in public funds with undefined additional private support. It is unclear whether it could be further revised if no deal is reached next week. — Reuters
