BAKU, Azerbaijan: Countries of the world took turns rejecting a new but vague draft text released early Thursday which attempts to form the spine of any deal reached at United Nations climate talks on money for developing countries to transition to clean energy and adapt to climate change.
The draft left out a crucial sticking point: how much wealthy nations will pay poor countries. A key option for the lowest amount donors are willing to pay was just a placeholder “X.” Part of that is because rich nations have yet to make an offer in negotiations.
So the host Azerbaijan presidency with its dawn-released package of proposals did manage to unite a fractured world on climate change, but it was only in their unease and outright distaste for the plan. Negotiators at the talks — known as COP29 — in Baku, are trying to close the gap between the $1.3 trillion the developing world says is needed in climate finance and the few hundred billion that negotiators say richer nations have been prepared to give.
Negotiators slam an ‘unbalanced’ draft
Introducing the plan, lead negotiator Yalchin Rafiyev emphasized how balanced the plan was, but all sides kept saying it was anything but balanced and pointed time was running out.
“We would like to correct the balance. It is completely tilted,” Pakistan delegate Romina Khurshid Alam said.
Poor nations blasted both rich nations and the presidency with Honduras delegate Malcolm Bryan complaining that the plan was a “completely unbalanced text that doesn’t bring us any closer to a landing .... It is high time for developed countries put their numbers on the table.’’
The EU’s climate envoy Wopke Hoekstra called the draft “imbalanced, unworkable, and not acceptable.”
In a statement, the COP29 Presidency stressed that the drafts “are not final.”
“The COP29 Presidency’s door is always open, and we welcome any bridging proposals that the parties wish to present,” the Presidency said in a statement. It added that possible numbers for a finance goal will be released in the next iteration of the draft.
COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev convened the Qurultay — a traditional Azerbaijani meeting — where negotiators spoke to hear all sides and hammer out a compromise. He said that “after hearing all views, we will outline a way forward regarding future iterations.”
No figure for climate cash leaves many disappointed
Independent experts say that at least $1 trillion is needed in finance to help transition away from planet-warming fossil fuels and toward clean energy like solar and wind, better adapt to the effects of climate change and pay for losses and damages caused by extreme weather.
Esa Ainuu, from the small Pacific island of Niue said, slammed the lack of a number in the draft deal.
“For us in the Pacific, this is critical for us,” Ainuu said. “We can’t escape to the desert. We can’t escape somewhere else. This is reality for us. If finance is not bringing any positive, (then) why’re we coming to COP?”
She added: “I don’t even know if we’re going to be here for a COP 30 or COP 31. Something needs to happen.”
Adao Barbosa, a top negotiator from the Indian ocean nation of Timor-Leste said all developing countries are unhappy with the climate finance deal. As things stand, the deal is weak, Barbosa said.
Mohamed Adow, director of the think tank Power Shift Africa, expressed disappointment at the lack of a figure. “We came here to talk about money. The way you measure money is with numbers. We need a cheque but all we have right now is a blank piece of paper,” he said.
Iskander Erzini Vernoit, director of Moroccan climate think-tank Imal Initiative for Climate and Development, said he was “at a loss for words at how disappointed we are at this stage to have come this far without serious numbers on the table and serious engagement from the developed countries.”
He said that some developed nations “are slowly waking up” to the fact that keeping warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times will require over a trillion dollars in finance. “But many are still asleep at the wheel,” he said.
There’s a lot of work left to do
There are three big parts of the issue where negotiators need to find agreement: How big the numbers are, how much is grants or loans, and who contributes.
Official observers of the talks from the International Institute of Sustainable Development who are allowed to sit in on the closed meetings reported that negotiators have now agreed on not expanding the list of countries that will contribute to global climate funds — at least at these talks. Linda Kalcher, of the think tank Strategic Partnerships, said on the question of grants or loans, the draft text suggests “the need for grants and better access to finance.”
She added that the lack of numbers in the draft text could be a “bluff.” The COP29 presidency, which prepares the texts “should know more ... than what they put on the table,” she said.
Other areas that are being negotiated include commitments to slash planet-warming fossil fuels and how to adapt to climate change. But they’ve also seen little movement.
European nations criticized the package of proposals for not being strong enough in reiterating last year’s call for a transition away from fossil fuels.
“The current text offers no progress” on efforts to cut the world’s emissions of heat-trapping gases, said Germany delegation chief Jennifer Morgan. “This cannot and must not be our response to the suffering of millions of people around the world. We must do better.”
Eamon Ryan, Ireland’s environment minister, also criticized “backsliding” on cutting fossil fuels from last year’s deal.
COP29: Pakistan among nations that blast draft of vague deal on climate cash for poor countries
https://arab.news/94p2m
COP29: Pakistan among nations that blast draft of vague deal on climate cash for poor countries
- Introducing the plan, lead negotiator from Azerbaijan, Yalchin Rafiyev, emphasized how balanced the plan was
- “We would like to correct the balance. It is completely tilted,” Pakistan delegate Romina Khurshid Alam said
Pakistan joins Muslim world in sending condolences ahead of Pope’s funeral on Saturday
- Over 128,000 people have already paid last respects to Francis, whose coffin will be closed at 1800 GMT in ceremony attended by senior cardinals
- Francis will be interred in the ground, his simple tomb marked with just one word: Franciscus, people will be able to visit the tomb from Sunday morning
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan joined the Muslim world in sending condolences as the Vatican made final preparations Friday for Pope Francis’s funeral and the last of the huge crowds of mourners filed through St. Peter’s Basilica to view his open coffin.
Over 128,000 people have already paid their last respects to Francis, whose coffin will be closed at 8:00pm (1800 GMT) in a ceremony attended by senior cardinals.
Many of the 50 heads of state and 10 monarchs attending Saturday’s ceremony in St. Peter’s Square, including US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, are expected to arrive later Friday in Rome.
“Pakistan conveys its heartfelt condolences on the passing of His Holiness, Pope Francis, a revered spiritual figure and a worldwide advocate for peace, interfaith dialogue and compassion,” the foreign office said.
“His Holiness demonstrated unwavering commitment to fostering unity among world religions, advocating for the oppressed and promoting the inherent dignity of all humankind. Pakistan deeply values his tireless efforts to enhance mutual respect and understanding among diverse cultures and faiths.”
The foreign office said the pope’s legacy was marked by “profound humility, selfless service and a unifying vision for humanity,” which would serve as an inspiration for generations to come.
“At this moment of profound sorrow, Pakistan stands in solidarity with our Catholic brothers and sisters worldwide and with all those touched by the extraordinary life of service.”
Italian and Vatican authorities have placed the area around St. Peter’s under tight security with drones blocked, snipers on roofs and fighter jets on standby. Further checkpoints will be activated on Friday night, police said.
Vast crowds of people on Friday morning packed Via della Conciliazione, the wide avenue leading to the Vatican, for the third and final day of the pope’s lying-in-state.
For a second night in a row, the Vatican kept St. Peter’s open past the scheduled hours to accommodate the queues, only closing the doors between 2:30am (0030 GMT) and 5:40am Friday.
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, will preside at the Rite of Sealing of the Coffin of the late Pope Francis on Friday, April 25, at 8:00 PM, ahead of the papal funeral on Saturday morning.
The Catholic Church’s first Latin American pope died on Monday aged 88, less than a month after spending weeks in hospital with severe pneumonia.
The Argentine pontiff, who had long suffered failing health, defied doctors’ orders by appearing at Easter, the most important moment in the Catholic calendar.
It was his last public appearance.
Condolences have flooded in from around the world for the Jesuit, an energetic reformer who championed those on the fringes of society in his 12 years as head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
He used his last speech to rail against those who stir up “contempt... toward the vulnerable, the marginalized, and migrants.”
After the funeral, Francis’s coffin will be driven at a walking pace to be buried at his favorite church, Rome’s papal basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.
The hearse will pass down Rome’s Fori Imperiali – where the city’s ancient temples lie – and past the Colosseum, according to officials.
Big screens will be set up along the route on which to watch the ceremony, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said.
Francis will be interred in the ground, his simple tomb marked with just one word: Franciscus.
People will be able to visit the tomb from Sunday morning, as all eyes turn to the process of choosing Francis’s successor.
With inputs from AP
Families heartbroken as Pakistan closes airspace for Indian planes, land border shut
- Militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir has triggered diplomatic crisis between Islamabad and New Delhi
- Diplomatic relations between Pakistan and India were weak even before the latest measures were announced
KARACHI: A 79-year-old Pakistani man, Ali Hasan Baqai, lamented about not being able to meet his siblings living in India as he sat with his wife and grandchildren at his house in Pakistan’s Karachi, hours after Pakistan closed its air space for Indian airlines on Thursday.
The move came in retaliation to a raft of actions by India after a deadly militant attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir that New Delhi says Pakistan is involved in. Pakistani officials have rejected the accusations.
The latest diplomatic crisis was triggered by the killing of 26 men at a popular tourist destination in Indian-administered Kashmir on Tuesday, in the worst attack on civilians since the 2008 Mumbai shootings. The tit-for-tat announcements took relations between the nuclear-armed neighbors, who have fought three wars, to the lowest level in years.
Whenever relations deteriorate between Pakistan and India, elderly Baqai is besieged with a feeling of longing for his siblings and his birthplace on the other side of the border with India.
“I was planning to visit India. My sisters there were also planning to travel to Pakistan. But all of a sudden this attack happened. We could not even think of it. The situation was absolutely normal but suddenly the situation turned bad,” Baqai told Reuters Television.
Ali was born in 1946 in Delhi, India, a year before the partition of the subcontinent in 1947. He was last able to visit Delhi in 2014. Two of his sisters, along with his mother, passed away in the subsequent years. His three brothers died in India last year.
“If we don’t get a chance and the borders are closed for a long time, the only way left is we go to Dubai and meet each other there,” he said.
“You can’t meet your relatives. We can neither go there, nor can they come. It has become a mockery now. There is no hope left.”
Roadside blast kills three paramilitary troops in Pakistan’s volatile southwest
- The blast appeared to target bomb disposal personnel of the Frontier Corps paramilitary force in the Marget coalfield
- No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but suspicion is likely to fall on Baloch separatist militants
QUETTA: A roadside blast killed three paramilitary troops and injured four others in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province on Friday, a local administration official said.
The blast in Margat area, home to coal mines and located some 60 kilometers from the provincial capital of Quetta, appeared to target the Frontier Corps paramilitary force’s bomb disposal personnel when they were clearing the route.
Balochistan, which shares a porous border with Iran and Afghanistan, has been the site of a decades-long insurgency by Baloch separatists who have targeted security forces protecting mining fields, laborers and truckers transporting minerals.
“An improvised explosive device (IED) was planted along the route being used for the transportation of coal from the Marget coalfield which exploded when the bomb disposal wing of the Frontier Corps was busy in security clearance of the route,” Quetta Deputy Commissioner Saad bin Asad told Arab News.
“Three soldiers of the BD wing were killed and four wounded in the attack.”
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion is likely to fall on ethnic Baloch separatist militants, who frequently target security forces, Chinese nationals, ethnic Punjabi commuters and laborers in the restive province.
The separatists accuse Islamabad of exploiting the province’s natural resources, such as gold and copper. Successive Pakistani governments have denied the allegations and said they only worked for the uplift of the region and its people.
The latest attack comes a day after three people, including two women, were killed when a vehicle was hit by a powerful explosion in Balochistan’s Kalat district. Last month, the Baloch Liberation Army separatist group hijacked a train with hundreds of passengers aboard near Balochistan’s Bolan Pass, which resulted in the deaths of 23 soldiers, three railway employees and five passengers. At least 33 insurgents were also killed.
Pakistan accuses the neighboring Afghanistan and India of supporting separatist militants in Balochistan, an allegation denied by New Delhi and Kabul.
Pakistan, Afghanistan agree to enhance trade and connectivity in push to reset ties
- Ties with Kabul have been strained over a spike in militancy and a deportation drive against Afghan nations
- Pakistani deputy PM and special envoy to Kabul visited Islamabad last week in an attempt to resolve issues
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to enhance trade and connectivity during a visit to Kabul by top officials from Islamabad, the foreign office said on Friday, amid a push by the two neighbors to reset soured relations.
Pakistan-Afghanistan relations have been strained by a spike in militancy in Pakistan’s western regions that border Afghanistan, following the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul in 2021. Islamabad says anti-Pakistan militants carry out cross-border attacks using safe havens in Afghanistan, a charge Kabul denies.
Another source of tension has been Pakistan’s decision to expel undocumented Afghans and those who had temporary permission to stay, saying it can no longer cope. Since November 2023 when Islamabad first launched the deportation drive against illegal foreigners, over 900,000 Afghans have left the country. The Afghan government has condemned the “unilateral measures” to forcibly deport tens of thousands of Afghans. Afghans have also reported weeks of arbitrary arrests, extortion and harassment by authorities as Islamabad has accelerated the deportation drive since April, a charge officials deny.
Amid these tensions, Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar and special envoy to Kabul, Ambassador Mohammad Sadiq, went to Afghanistan on a one-day visit last week widely seen as an attempt to resolve outstanding issues of contention.
“During the visit, the deputy prime minister [and] foreign minister held meetings with the acting Afghan prime minister, acting Afghan deputy prime minister and acting Afghan foreign minister,” Shafqat Ali Khan, a Pakistani foreign office spokesperson, told reporters at a weekly news briefing in Islamabad.
“Both sides held extensive discussions on a range of issues including peace and security, people-to-people contacts and agreed to enhance bilateral trade and economic cooperation to the mutual benefit of people of both countries.”
Pakistan remains at loggerheads with two of its main neighbors, India and Afghanistan, while Islamabad’s relations with Iran have also seen friction in recent weeks over the killing of eight Pakistani laborers in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan province. Both Pakistan and Iran last year exchanged strikes against what they called militant hideouts, but quickly moved to de-escalate tensions.
This week, an attack on tourists in India’s Himalayan territory of Kashmir has sparked a new crisis between nuclear armed neighbors India and Pakistan, with New Delhi blaming militants with “cross-border linkages” for the killings, which Islamabad denies. Both nations have announced tit-for-tat measures to downgrade ties in the aftermath of the violence.
The tensions have come as Pakistan navigates a tricky path to economic recovery, seeking to boost trade by enhancing connectivity with regional countries and attract foreign investment from allies in the region and beyond.
In this regard, Dar on Thursday held a telephonic conversation with Uzbekistan Foreign Minister Seyedov Bakhtiar Odilovic and apprised him of his discussions with Afghan officials about a tri-nation railway line project involving Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“The deputy prime minister shared his discussions in Kabul regarding Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan railway line project and hoped that the three countries would soon sign the framework agreement for this important regional connectivity project,” the foreign office spokesman said at the briefing.
The project is part of Pakistan’s efforts to position itself as a key trade and transit hub, connecting the landlocked Central Asian states to the global market.
‘Out of the question’ Pakistan’s Nadeem will attend Bengaluru meet, Indian javelin hero Chopra says
- Chopra had earlier announced world’s top throwers, including Olympian Nadeem, had been invited to first Neeraj Chopra Classic on May 24
- Tuesday’s attack in Kashmir prompted heavy criticism of Chopra’s decision to invite Nadeem even though he was unlikely to attend
NEW DELHI: India’s Olympic javelin gold medalist Neeraj Chopra said it was now “completely out of the question” that rival Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan will attend his meet in Bengaluru next month following Tuesday’s deadly militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Relations between nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan have plummeted to their lowest level in years after the killing of 26 tourists on Wednesday.
A day before the attack, Chopra had announced that the world’s top throwers, including Paris Olympics champion Nadeem, had been invited to the first Neeraj Chopra Classic on May 24, an event he hoped would pave the way for a Diamond League meet in India one day.
However, the attack in Kashmir prompted heavy criticism of Chopra’s decision to invite Nadeem, even though it was unlikely the Pakistan thrower was going to attend.
“There has been so much talk about my decision to invite Arshad Nadeem to compete in the Neeraj Chopra Classic, and most of it has been hate and abuse,” Chopra, who won gold in Tokyo and silver in Paris, said in a social media post on Friday.
“The invitation I extended to Arshad was from one athlete to another — nothing more, nothing less. The aim of the NC Classic was to bring the best athletes to India and for our country to be the home of world-class sporting events.
“After all that has taken place over the last 48 hours, Arshad’s presence at the NC Classic was completely out of the question.”
Media reports said Nadeem, Pakistan’s first individual Olympic gold medalist, had opted not to attend the Bengaluru meet, which clashed with his training schedule for the Asian Championships in South Korea next month.
The soured relations between the two countries also spilled over to the sports world earlier this year when India’s cricket team refused to travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy and played all their matches, including the March 9 final, in Dubai.
