This year's U.N. climate summit is struggling to focus minds on the health of the planet, with turbulent geopolitics, a confrontational host and the reelection of U.S. climate skeptic Donald Trump stealing the limelight.

COP29 is focused on getting the money needed to tackle climate change on the table, but disagreements over who pays loom large.

As we approach the halfway mark of the UN Climate Change Conference or COP29 in Azerbaijan, a group of former leaders and climate experts has published a critical open letter highlighting what has so far been a fractious summit that has made little progress.

A group of conflict-affected countries is pushing at COP29 to double financial aid to more than $20 billion a year to combat the natural disaster and security crises facing their populations, a letter seen by Reuters showed.

The impact of climate change was increasingly becoming evident in the form of unfolding disasters, New Delhi said at the conference on climate change in Baku.

Central to their approach is the urgent need for quality climate finance, which they define as finance that is not only abundant but also transparent, responsive and equitable.

A group of conflict-affected countries is pushing at COP29 to double financial aid to more than $20 billion a year to combat the natural disaster and security crises facing their populations, a letter seen by Reuters showed.

Developing countries need at least $1 trillion per year by the end of the decade to cope with climate change, economists told U.N. talks in Baku, where early efforts to reach a finance deal risk being overshadowed by diplomatic rows.

"You owe us!" screamed a protest banner at the COP29 summit in Azerbaijan, where negotiations over how much rich nations most responsible for climate change should pay poorer ones are