COPENHAGEN: Developing countries should not have to set stricter targets for cutting their carbon emissions before funds are available to help them, the chairman of this year’s UN climate negotiations said on Thursday.

Addressing a ministerial climate meeting in Copenhagen, Azerbaijani politician Mukhtar Babayev said finance was a “critical enabler of climate action”.

“But there is a growing gap between the needs of developing countries and what’s available,” said Babayev, the ecology and natural resources minister of oil-rich Azerbaijan, which will host the COP29 climate summit in Baku in late 2024.

This year, “finance will lie at the heart of climate diplomacy”, he said.

At last year’s annual UN climate talks, governments agreed to “transition away” from fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal. But that agreement did not include commitments to provide financial aid for developing countries, a major sticking point in the global climate negotiations.

This is set to be a central theme of the Baku summit, which hopes to fix a new target for the aid rich nations should give to poorer ones.

The forthcoming negotiations are an “opportunity to set a new path, unlock funds and rebuild trust between the parties”, said Babayev, who was an executive for Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR for 26 years.

“If we get this right, and we send a clear and strong signal that more public and private finance will be allocated to climate targets, then we will empower all parties to raise the ambitions of their upcoming NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions).”