The much-anticipated draft of a crucial finance deal released at Cop29 on Thursday has been called "deeply disappointing" and "unacceptable" with no agreement reached on levels of funding required to address the climate crisis across the globe.
Vulnerable nations have called for a $1 trillion-a-year fund to be established at the talks in Baku, Azerbaijan – but tensions are high after the text featured only an "X" where a specific figure was expected to be.
The Cop29 presidency has said the talks are on target to conclude at 6pm on Friday but climate leaders insisted there was much work to be done to deliver a viable action plan for the future of the planet.
EU Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said the draft is "unacceptable", ahead of the planned final day of the conference in Azerbaijan.
"There is not a single ambitious country who thinks this is nearly good enough," he said.
Fresh from the G20 talks in Brazil, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres rode into the climate talks with a rallying cry to spur negotiators on – "failure is not an option", he said.
"We need a major push to get discussions over the finishing line … to deliver an ambitious and balanced package on all pending issues, with a new finance goal at its heart," he urged.
What's missing?
The elephant in the room is the lack of substance in the finance plan, with details still being thrashed out in the final hours of the summit.
"The text does not specify numerical figures for the proposed mobilisation goal, or for the provision element," said Ali Mohamed, chairman of the African Group of Negotiators at the talks.
The developing world says $1.3 trillion is needed per year to tackle climate change, afar cry from the hundreds of billions developed nations have currently put on the table.
In a meeting convened by the Cop29 presidency, leaders from across the globe echoed similar disappointment.
"The text is not useful for reaching an outcome," said Simon Watts, New Zealand's Minister of Climate Change, while representatives from Honduras decreed the draft a "completely unbalanced text that does not bring us any closer to a landing point".
"Deeply disappointing" was heard from around the room filled with hundreds of delegates.
Two proposals have been set out in the draft, one seemingly favouring developing nations, the second in favour of developed. What is needed now is for negotiators to find a middle ground.
The first calls on climate finance of an undisclosed amount in the "trillions" to be paid annually from 2025-2035 to be "from developed to all developing countries and to address their evolving needs". This would be in the form of grants or grant equivalent terms.
The second states that the "new collective quantified goal" has one provision and one mobilisation component, and that developed countries should provide an undisclosed amount in billions per year in grants or grant-equivalent terms.
The new finance plan will replace the goal of collectively mobilising $100 billion per year to address the needs of developing countries, which ends in 2025.
Joseph Sikulu, Pacific director at 350.org and Pacific Climate Warrior, said: “We hoped to see a draft text today that would show rich nations putting their money where their mouth is and responding to the demands from the Global South. What we got is a text with no clear grant-based core money."
THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
If you go
The flights
There are direct flights from Dubai to Sofia with FlyDubai (www.flydubai.com) and Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com), from Dh1,164 and Dh822 return including taxes, respectively.
The trip
Plovdiv is 150km from Sofia, with an hourly bus service taking around 2 hours and costing $16 (Dh58). The Rhodopes can be reached from Sofia in between 2-4hours.
The trip was organised by Bulguides (www.bulguides.com), which organises guided trips throughout Bulgaria. Guiding, accommodation, food and transfers from Plovdiv to the mountains and back costs around 170 USD for a four-day, three-night trip.
EXPATS
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Evacuations to France hit by controversy
- Over 500 Gazans have been evacuated to France since November 2023
- Evacuations were paused after a student already in France posted anti-Semitic content and was subsequently expelled to Qatar
- The Foreign Ministry launched a review to determine how authorities failed to detect the posts before her entry
- Artists and researchers fall under a programme called Pause that began in 2017
- It has benefited more than 700 people from 44 countries, including Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Sudan
- Since the start of the Gaza war, it has also included 45 Gazan beneficiaries
- Unlike students, they are allowed to bring their families to France
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The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors
Power: Combined output 920hp
Torque: 730Nm at 4,000-7,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel consumption: 11.2L/100km
On sale: Now, deliveries expected later in 2025
Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000
BAD%20BOYS%3A%20RIDE%20OR%20DIE
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What it means to be a conservationist
Who is Enric Sala?
Enric Sala is an expert on marine conservation and is currently the National Geographic Society's Explorer-in-Residence. His love of the sea started with his childhood in Spain, inspired by the example of the legendary diver Jacques Cousteau. He has been a university professor of Oceanography in the US, as well as working at the Spanish National Council for Scientific Research and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Biodiversity and the Bio-Economy. He has dedicated his life to protecting life in the oceans. Enric describes himself as a flexitarian who only eats meat occasionally.
What is biodiversity?
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, all life on earth – including in its forests and oceans – forms a “rich tapestry of interconnecting and interdependent forces”. Biodiversity on earth today is the product of four billion years of evolution and consists of many millions of distinct biological species. The term ‘biodiversity’ is relatively new, popularised since the 1980s and coinciding with an understanding of the growing threats to the natural world including habitat loss, pollution and climate change. The loss of biodiversity itself is dangerous because it contributes to clean, consistent water flows, food security, protection from floods and storms and a stable climate. The natural world can be an ally in combating global climate change but to do so it must be protected. Nations are working to achieve this, including setting targets to be reached by 2020 for the protection of the natural state of 17 per cent of the land and 10 per cent of the oceans. However, these are well short of what is needed, according to experts, with half the land needed to be in a natural state to help avert disaster.
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THE%20SPECS
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THE SIXTH SENSE
Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Rating: 5/5
Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
