DEVELOPING nations slammed the deal reached at the United Nations climate talks (Cop29) today, which pledged at least $300 billion (around £239bn) a year to help them cope with the ravages of global warming.

The money will go to developing countries to help them manage the transition from coal, oil and gas, adapt to future warming and pay for the damage caused by increasingly extreme weather. 

Though three times the $100bn (nearly £80bn) a year agreed in a deal due to expire from 2009, it is nowhere near the $1.3 trillion (just over a £1trn) that developing countries were asking for.

Cop29 president Mukhtar Babayev called the deal into acceptance before any nation had a chance to speak. When they did, they blasted him for being unfair to them, the deal for not being enough and the world’s rich nations for being too stingy.

India’s negotiator Chandni Raina called it “a paltry sum” to rousing cheers, repeatedly saying how India objected. “I’m sorry to say we cannot accept it.”

She said the final package pushed through “does not speak or reflect or inspire confidence.

“We absolutely object to the unfair means followed for adoption. 

“We are extremely hurt by this action by the president and the secretariat.”

She said she has lost faith in the UN system.

A long line of nations agreed with India, with Nigeria’s Nkiruka Maduekwe, CEO of the National Council on Climate Change, calling the deal an insult and a joke.

Juan Carlos Monterrey of the Panama delegation said: “I’m disappointed. It’s definitely below the benchmark that we have been fighting for for so long.” 

He noted that a few changes, including the inclusion of the words “at least” before the amount of $300 billion, and an opportunity for revision by 2030, helped push them to the finish line.

“Our heart goes out to all those nations that feel like they were walked over,” he said.

Speaking for nearly 50 of the poorest nations of the world, Evans Davie Njewa of Malawi expressed what he called “reservations” with the deal. 

And the Alliance of Small Island States’ Cedric Schuster said he had more hope “that the process would protect the interests of the most vulnerable” but nevertheless expressed tempered support for the deal.

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said in a post on X that he hoped for a “more ambitious outcome,” but said the agreement “provides a base on which to build.”