The gigantic financial gap has some of the worst greenhouse gas emitters, including India and Brazil, rejecting calls to cut pollution faster without more assistance. Part of the problem is that it’s not entirely clear who owes what. (File photo shows farmers burning straw stubble after harvesting a paddy crop in a field on the outskirts of Amritsar on October 8.)
A US$100bil (RM416bil) dividing line between the world’s richest and poorest countries threatens to undermine any hope for a grand deal at the COP26 climate negotiations.
That’s the amount in annual contributions promised more than a decade ago by developed nations to help less well-off nations cut planet-warming emissions and adapt to climate change. It’s one half of a quid pro quo agreed in 2015 at United Nations-sponsored talks in Paris: Developed countries put up the cash, and in return poor countries invest in clean-energy technologies and resiliency projects such as flood defenses.
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