Akshat Rathi

Nearly 200 countries agreed to triple the amount of money available to help developing countries confront rapidly warming temperatures.

(Bloomberg) -- COP29 host Azerbaijan released a final draft of a climate finance deal, calling on rich nations to commit at least $300 billion a year in climate financing to the developing world.

Two weeks of difficult negotiations came to the brink of failure before settling on a $300 billion deal that flashes warnings for the future of climate diplomacy.

Nearly 200 countries agreed to triple the amount of money available to help developing countries confront rapidly warming temperatures.

Today’s newsletter gives you a behind-the-scenes look at how COP29 went from the brink of collapse to a $300 billion deal. Then, we look ahead to the next moment in global climate negotiations — talks toward a global plastic treaty as discussions begin in Busan, South Korea. For more of our coverage, please subscribe.

The oil giant was crucial in making sure none of the major outcomes called for nations to move away from fossil fuels.

After three decades of being the main opposition at the annual climate talks, the Saudis have developed a sophisticated playbook, according to veteran negotiators. They are masters of the arcane and complicated rules that govern the COP process, said multiple people who participated in the closed-door debates, and used that skill to raise oblique objections to run down the clock and present poor compromises that were non-starters.

“Goals and targets are one thing, but delivering is the next thing,” Mette Frederiksen, prime minister of Denmark, says on this week’s Zero.

Scott Strazik, CEO of GE Vernova, argues the answer is "yes" on this week’s episode of Zero.

“Hydrogen is the Swiss Army knife of energy,” Eric Toone of Breakthrough Energy Ventures says on Zero. It’s a “complete and total game changer.”