The finance agreement reached at the COP29 summit late Sunday night has sparked outrage around the world as countries criticize negotiators for failing to meet the scale of the challenge.

After days of negotiations in Azerbaijan, rich countries agreed to raise their contribution from $250 billion to $300 billion a year by 2035.

According to BBC, the African Group of Negotiators described it as “too little, too late”; the representative from India dismissed the money as “a paltry sum” and a group of NGOs warned that the $300 billion pledge does not go far enough to help those most vulnerable to climate change.

Poorer countries had asked for $1.3 trillion to help them fight the climate battle.

Meanwhile, China and India are still defined by the United Nations as “developing” countries and as a result they have no formal obligation to cut their greenhouse gas emissions or to provide financial help to poorer countries.

Both countries are technically eligible to receive climate aid, although China chooses not to do so. Beijing, one of the world’s largest economies, does step in to support countries with the impact of global warming, via bilateral agreements.

India, however, does accept support from “developed” nations.

Speaking to BBC, one source said there had been one positive during the summit. This was China.

“The only bright spot in all of this is China,” the source said.

According to him, not only was Beijing’s negotiating style markedly different to previous years, but “China could be stepping forward”.

In the past, China has released minimal information about its climate policies and plans, but this year, for the first time, officials said they have paid developing countries more than $24 billion for climate action since 2016.

“That’s serious money, almost nobody else is at that level,” another COP insider said.

Where does Afghanistan fit into this?

Afghanistan is considered one of the most vulnerable countries when it comes to climate change and for the first time in three years, the Islamic Emirate was able to participate at the summit.

Leading a delegation to COP29 was Matuil Haq Khalis, who’s head of the country’s environment protection agency. He said Afghanistan needs international support to deal with extreme weather like erratic rainfall, prolonged droughts and flash floods.

“All the countries must join hands and tackle the problem of climate change,” said Khalis.

Afghanistan has been hard hit by climate change, with a recent assessment by experts ranking it the sixth most climate vulnerable country in the world.

In March, northern Afghanistan experienced heavy rains resulting in flash floods, killing over 300 people. Climate scientists have found that extreme rainfall has gotten 25% heavier over the last 40 years in the country.

Khalis meanwhile said Afghanistan has prepared national action plans to deal with climate change and will be updating its climate goals within the next few months.

Contributing nations

There are 23 “developed” nations, which are industrialized countries with a strong economy, that have to contribute and reach the annual target of $300 billion.

However, many developed countries want to see this group expanded, arguing that the global landscape has shifted a lot since these classifications were drawn up as part of the original UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992.

China, India and the Gulf states, for example, are still classed as developing nations despite their increasing contributions to global warming.

Outcry over deal reached

Sunday’s night’s finance deal has sparked heated reaction from developing nations but some global leaders, however, maintain that the agreement will keep climate action going.

US President Joe Biden said: “While there is still substantial work ahead of us to achieve our climate goals, today’s outcome puts us one significant step closer”.

EU Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra, who attended the talks, said COP29 “will be remembered as the start of a new era on climate finance” and the deal was “an ambitious and realistic goal and an increased contributor base”.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said: “I had hoped for a more ambitious outcome – on both finance and mitigation – to meet the scale of the great challenge we face, but the agreement reached provides a base on which to build.”

But for many others, the deal was not welcomed.

ActionAid UK described the agreement as “a complete catastrophe and farce” and warned the amount is “a drop in the ocean” compared with “the trillions needed to help climate-hit communities”.

Environmental group Friends of Earth said the talks have “failed to solve the question of climate finance”, adding that developing nations are being “hammered by climate extremes”

India’s representative meanwhile lashed out and said the $300 billion deal showed that intense frustration still remained over the agreement.

“We cannot accept it … the proposed goal will not solve anything for us. [It is] not conducive to climate action that is necessary to the survival of our country,” Chandni Raina told the conference, saying the amount was too small.

Raina said the decision-making process was unfair and excluded nations, a comment which was met with cheers and applause in the room.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s envoy Nkiruka Maduekwe described the deal as an “insult”.