Climate talks reach endgame on new finance deal [Video]

The UN’s marathon climate summit neared the finish line early Sunday, with nations due to approve or reject a hotly-disputed deal for wealthy historic emitters to provide at least $300 billion to poorer countries that had demanded much more.

After an exhausting two weeks of negotiations in Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea capital of Baku, COP29 president Mukhtar Babayev declared open the final summit plenary after midnight, two days after the conference was officially scheduled to end.

A final text was released following several sleepless nights for negotiators, with tensions boiling over as small islands states and the world’s poorest countries walked out of one meeting.

“This package is an affront to us. We are the countries that have the most at stake,” said Tina Stege, climate envoy of the Marshall Islands, an atoll nation threatened by rising seas.

Top German negotiator Jennifer Morgan told AFP that countries would be presented a …