Rich nations raise COP29 climate finance offer in bid to break deadlock | U.S. & World [Video]

By Kate Abnett, Valerie Volcovici and Nailia Bagirova

BAKU (Reuters) -Wealthy countries raised their offer of climate finance to $300 billion a year at COP29 on Saturday, raising hopes of a deal with developing nations that had dismissed an earlier proposal as insufficient to address the impacts of global warming.

The U.N. climate summit had been due to finish on Friday but ran into an extra day as negotiators from nearly 200 countries – who must adopt the deal by consensus – tried to reach agreement on the contentious funding plan for the next decade.

The two-week conference cut to the heart of the global debate over the financial responsibility of rich industrialized countries, whose historical use of fossil fuels caused the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions, to compensate for the damage wrought by climate change.

Negotiators from several developing countries and island nations aired frustration over a U.N. process they said was not rising to the challenge …