Daily Times

After three sleepless nights of back and forth among negotiators, all it took to seal a contentious global deal on climate finance was the hammering of a gavel. And just as quickly, the denunciations began.

In a year expected to be the hottest on record, the fate of the fight against climate change was haggled over for two weeks inside Azerbaijan’s Olympic Stadium, which has never held the Olympics but was transformed into a cavernous, windowless maze of conference rooms.

The key issues showed no sign of resolution by the scheduled closing time of 6:00 pm on Friday, with Azerbaijan only convening a final session after midnight more than a day afterwards. But at nearly 3:00 am on Sunday, Azerbaijan’s stoic, silver-haired COP president Mukhtar Babayev raised the gavel. The deal, he announced, had been adopted.

Most of the delegates took to the floor, some applauding loudly and others — such as those from oil producer Saudi Arabia — just watching politely.

But no sooner was word of the deal out than countries were lining up to lodge complaints. Cuba and India both took to the floor to denounce it, as did Chile and typically amenable Switzerland. In a fiery address, India’s representative said the figure agreed in the deal — $300 billion a year to be paid by wealthy countries to poorer ones worst affected by climate change — was “abysmally low”.

Chandni Raina accused Babayev of ignoring objections and going ahead to announce the agreement by consensus — a tactic repeatedly used at UN climate talks.

“This has been stage-managed and we are extremely, extremely disappointed with this incident,” she said as she looked at him, while climate activists in the back of the room roared and pounded their desks in approval. Babayev, unflinching, responded, “Thank you for your statement.”