Activists participate in a demonstration for climate finance at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Countries of the world took turns rejecting a new but vague draft text released early Thursday which attempts to form the spine of any deal reached at United Nations climate talks on money for developing countries to transition to clean energy and adapt to climate change.

The draft left out a crucial sticking point: how much wealthy nations will pay poor countries. A key option for the lowest amount donors are willing to pay was just a placeholder “X.” Part of that is because rich nations have yet to make an offer in negotiations.

So the host Azerbaijan presidency managed to unite a fractured world on climate change, but only in their distaste for the plan. Negotiators at the talks — known as COP29 — in Baku are trying to close the gap between the $1.3 trillion the developing world says is needed in climate finance and the few hundred billion that negotiators say richer nations have been prepared to give.

No figure for climate cash leaves many disappointed

Independent experts say that at least $1 trillion is needed in finance to help transition away from planet-warming fossil fuels and toward clean energy like solar and wind, better adapt to the effects of climate change and pay for losses and damages caused by extreme weather.

Colombia's environment minister Susana Mohamed said without a figure offered by developed nations, “we are negotiating on nothing.”

Panama's Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez said the “lack of commitment transparency feels like a slap in the face to the most vulnerable."

"It is just utter disrespect to those countries that are bearing the brunt of this crisis,” he said. “Developed countries must stop playing games with our life and put a serious quantified financial proposal on the table.”

Gomez listed places where negotiators worked on the issue: South Africa, Germany, the Philippines, Egypt, Austria, Switzerland, Dubai, Colombia and a few times here in Baku, asking “For God’s sakes, what’s the next stop? Mars? Do we need to go to outer space to get a quantitative number from our developed countries to be able to start negotiating here?”

Esa Ainuu, from the small Pacific island of Niue also blasted the lack of a number in the draft deal.

“For us in the Pacific, this is critical for us,” Ainuu said. “We can’t escape to the desert. We can’t escape somewhere else. This is reality for us. If finance is not bringing any positive, (then) why’re we coming to COP?”

Mohamed Adow, director of the think tank Power Shift Africa, also expressed disappointment at the lack of a figure. “We need a cheque but all we have right now is a blank piece of paper,” he said.

Iskander Erzini Vernoit, director of Moroccan climate think-tank Imal Initiative for Climate and Development, said he was “at a loss for words at how disappointed we are at this stage to have come this far without serious numbers on the table and serious engagement from the developed countries.”

Even United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “I don’t think you can go on and on and on without clarifying the key aspects of the negotiation.”

Negotiators slam an ‘unbalanced’ draft

Lead negotiator Yalchin Rafiyev emphasized how balanced the plan was, but all sides kept saying it was anything but balanced and pointed time was running out.

“We would like to correct the balance. It is completely tilted,” Pakistan delegate Romina Khurshid Alam said.

The European Union’s climate envoy Wopke Hoekstra called the draft “imbalanced, unworkable, and not acceptable.”

And Xia Yingxian, a member of China delegation, also said the current draft text contains many “unsatisfied and unacceptable” parts.

In a statement, the COP29 Presidency stressed that the drafts “are not final.”

“The COP29 Presidency’s door is always open, and we welcome any bridging proposals that the parties wish to present,” the Presidency said in a statement. It added that possible numbers for a finance goal will be in the next draft on Friday.

COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev convened the Qurultay — a traditional Azerbaijani meeting — where negotiators spoke to hear all sides and hammer out a compromise. He said that “after hearing all views, we will outline a way forward regarding future iterations.”

Nations big and small want more on slashing fossil fuels

Other areas that are being negotiated include commitments to slash planet-warming fossil fuels and how to adapt to climate change. But they’ve seen little movement.

European nations and the United States criticized the package of proposals for not being strong enough in reiterating last year’s call for a transition away from fossil fuels.

“The current text offers no progress” on efforts to cut the world’s emissions of heat-trapping gases, said Germany delegation chief Jennifer Morgan. “This cannot and must not be our response to the suffering of millions of people around the world. We must do better.”

U.S. climate envoy John Podesta said he was surprised that “there is nothing that carries forward the ... outcomes that we agreed on last year in Dubai.” The United States, the world’s biggest historic emitter of greenhouse gases, has played little role in the talks as it braces for another presidency under Donald Trump.

But members of the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance such as Colombia, Ireland and Denmark, who are pushing for an end of fossil fuels, said the lack of wording on transitioning away from fossil fuels is not a deal killer for them.

Days earlier, the 20 largest economies met in Brazil and didn't mention the call for transitioning away from fossil fuels. Guterres, who was at that meeting, said official language is one thing, but reality is another.

“There will be no way” the world can limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius "if there is not a phase out of fossil fuels,” Guterres said at a Thursday news conference.

Also on Thursday, the EU, Mexico, Norway and several other countries announced they would release plans to rapidly cut emissions over the next decade to meet the landmark Paris agreement’s goal of restraining global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, although they did not detail how those cuts would happen.

Under the agreement, countries need to detail their voluntary plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by early next year.

“There is a real risk of falling short,” said Tore Sandvik, Norway’s minister of climate and environment. “We must reinforce the message that the Paris agreement is functioning as intended.”

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Athletes see climate change as threatening their sports and their health. Some are speaking up

Pragnya Mohan, of India, competes in the women's individual triathlon at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.

 Pragnya Mohan has been a professional triathlete for nearly a decade, but summers in her native India are now so hot that she can’t train there anymore. She escaped the heat to train in the United Kingdom, but worries about a day when a warming world kills her sport entirely.

American discus thrower Sam Mattis described temperatures as high as 44 Celsius (111 Fahrenheit) at the 2021 U.S. Olympic trials in Eugene, Oregon, causing some fans, officials and athletes to pass out. And New Zealand soccer player Katie Rood recalled training in heat chambers to prepare for the Tokyo Olympics, and warmups cut short in high heat and humidity.

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All three spoke at the United Nations climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan to talk about the threat that climate change poses to them, to fans and to sport itself. With billions of fans worldwide, they're among athletes and leagues trying to get more people to care, and act, on climate change.

“In the future, if climate change is not addressed and is not thoughtfully handled, triathlons can cease to exist,” Mohan said at a panel discussion.

It's not all about heat. Mohan noted this year's Paris Olympics had to delay some triathlon events because heavy rains — which have increased as a warming atmosphere holds more water — contributed to high bacteria levels in the Seine River.

Some top soccer clubs have gotten together in a climate action alliance aimed at reducing emissions and inspiring fans to act on climate change. One of those is La Liga club Real Betis. Rafael Muela Pastor, general manager of the club's foundation, said at another panel in Baku that soccer is “the most powerful and massive sport in the world” and it's crucial that “we have to do something.”

“We have a super power and we have a responsibility with that,” he said.

Leslie Mabon, a lecturer on environmental systems at the United Kingdom's Open University, said athletes can raise awareness on issues like global warming, but the most transformative activism often comes from elsewhere.

“I do think athletes can move the needle, but sometimes it’s away from the very highest levels,” said Mabon. “The financial implications of what’s at stake do make it very difficult, and particularly the governing bodies — the leagues, the FIFAs of this world — it’s very hard to get them to take action.”

FIFA — the governing body for world soccer — was unmoved by concerns about heat and human rights in holding the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, a country criticized for its treatment of migrant workers, among other issues. And at times, outwardly positive actions from sports leaders can be little more than greenwashing.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino attended COP29 and posted on Instagram about extending a partnership with Pacific Island nations to foster “climate-resilient football development” and raise awareness about climate change. That came just months after FIFA signed a sponsorship deal with Saudi Arabia's state oil giant Aramco.

Women soccer players from around the world signed an open letter urging FIFA to end the deal, citing both the country's record on the rights of women and LGBTQ+ people and the impact of fossil fuel production on climate change.

FIFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

“It’s very hard for anything that comes from the top levels to be taken seriously or to be taken credibly when you still have these kind of deals in place,” Mabon said.

Climate change is also making sports more expensive and widening disparities. Jessica Murfree, assistant professor of sport administration at the University of North Carolina, said athletes will have to travel farther and spend more to train and compete as some places become incompatible with sport because it's too hot or there isn't enough snow.

“That’s going to have a massive impact on athletes and athlete hopefuls,” she said. “It drives a bigger socioeconomic wedge between the haves and the have-nots, which then becomes a justice issue.”

Sports are seeking to adapt to a hotter planet. Sometimes competitions get moved to different places, or starting times get shifted to cooler parts of the day. Then there's technology: Qatar spent billions to air-condition stadiums at its World Cup to keep fans and players cool.

But sports can't air-condition its way out of the climate crisis, said Rood, the New Zealand soccer player.

The energy it requires “is a huge cost to the environment," she said in an interview, adding: "It’s not just the isolated events that happen once or twice a year. It’s the training and the lead-up ... those conditions can’t necessarily be created every time.”

And that's concerning for Tina Muir, a former elite runner from the United Kingdom who talks about the threat of climate change through the business she founded, Running for Real. Athletes are conditioned to push themselves beyond their limits, she said.

“It's going to be almost like a war of attrition for many athletes,” Muir said. “It's who can handle these tough conditions the most. ... but also becomes a bit of a safety game, being able to tough it out but doing long-term damage to yourself in the process.”

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