COP29 live: Mutual recriminations as countries say $300 billion COP29 deal for poorer countries is untrue

Will China rise if Trump takes a step back on climate change?published at 11:08 GMT

11:08 GMT

Justin Rowlatt
Climate editor

The WhatsApp message was from the chief negotiator of one of the most powerful countries at the COP climate meeting. Can I come over for a chat, he asked.

As his team hunched over their computers and ate take-out pizza, he fumed at the obstructionist behavior of many other teams in the conference.

So far so good. Others have been talking about it all week – that he was the worst cop ever; that the negotiating texts, which should shrink as deadlines approach, have in fact become bloated; this CS in its current form may already be dead.

Looming over all of this is the prospect that US President-elect Donald Trump will withdraw the US from the COP process when he takes office for the second time.

He called action on climate change a “scam” and at his victory celebration in West Palm Beach earlier this month pledged to increase U.S. oil production beyond the current record level, saying: “We have more liquid gold than any country.” peace.” .

Image Source, Getty Images

But there was one positive moment: China.

“That’s the only bright spot in all of this,” the chief negotiator told me. Not only was his negotiating style markedly different from previous years, but he also noted that, in his words, “China could take a step forward.”

China traditionally releases minimal information about its climate policies and plans, so it came as a surprise when officials announced for the first time that they had paid developing countries more than $24 billion to combat climate change since 2016.

“This is serious money, almost no one else is at this level,” one KS insider told me.