BAKU  -  The COP29 climate talks open Monday in Azerbaijan, under the long shadow cast by the re-election of Donald Trump, who has pledged to row back on the United States’ carbon-cutting commitments. Countries come to Baku for the main United Nations forum for climate diplomacy after new warnings that 2024 is on track to break temperature records, adding urgency to a fractious debate over climate funding.

But Trump’s return will loom over the discussions, with fears that an imminent US departure from the landmark Paris agreement to limit global warming could mean less ambition around the negotiating table. “We cannot afford to let the momentum for global action on climate change be derailed,” said Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu’s special envoy for climate change and environment.

“This is a shared problem that will not solve itself without international cooperation, and we will continue to make that case to the incoming president of one of the world’s largest polluters.” Outgoing President Joe Biden is staying away, as are many leaders who have traditionally appeared early in COP talks to lend weight to the proceedings. Just a handful of leaders from the Group of 20, whose countries account for nearly 80 percent of global emissions, are attending. Afghanistan will however be sending a delegation for the first time since the Taliban took power. They are expected to have observer status. Diplomats have insisted that the absences, and Trump’s win, will not detract from the serious work at hand, particularly agreeing a new figure for climate funding to developing countries. Negotiators must increase a $100 billion-a-year target to help developing nations prepare for worsening climate impacts and wean their economies off fossil fuels.

How much will be on offer, who will pay, and who can access the funds are some of the major points of contention.

“It’s hard. It involves money. When it comes to money, everybody shows their true colours,” Adonia Ayebare, the Ugandan chair of a bloc that groups over 100 mostly developing countries and China, told AFP on Sunday.

Trump, who has repeatedly called climate change a “hoax”, has vowed to pull the United States out of the Paris agreement.

But Ayebare brushed aside the potential consequences of a US withdrawal, noting Trump already took Washington out of the Paris agreement during his first term.

“This has happened before, we will find a way of realigning.”