THE Cop29 summit was branded a “farce” today for ending on a “drop in the ocean” financial package for developing countries bearing the worst impacts of climate change.

Wealthy countries’ £240 billion annual funding agreement is less than a quarter of the £1trn affected nations had said was needed.

ActionAid UK senior climate resilience specialist Zahra Hdidou described its text as “a complete catastrophe and a farce”  as the UN environmental conference drew to a close in Baku, Azerbaijan.

She added that as “floods and droughts tear through the global South, the goal announced remains a drop in the ocean compared to the trillions needed to help climate-hit communities adapt and recover.”

Friends of the Earth head of policy Mike Childs credited the British delegation for playing a productive role during the talks, but still said that in terms of climate leadership, the planet is still “light years away from where we were at last year’s meeting in Dubai.

“These latest international talks failed to solve the question of climate finance,” he said.

“Instead they have again kicked the can down the road. Developing countries are being hammered by climate extremes now, predominantly fuelled by the current and historic polluting activities of rich nations, like the UK.”

Anti-poverty group Christian Aid also criticised the Cop29 deal, saying: “People of the global South came to these talks needing a lifeboat out of the climate crisis. But all they got was a plank of wood to cling to.

“This summit has been hijacked by rich countries who have failed to negotiate in good faith. The cost of their actions here will be paid in the lives of vulnerable people on the front lines of climate breakdown.”

Kate Blagojevic, associate director for campaigns and organising at 350.org added: “Who pays for climate action has a clear answer — billionaires, multimillionaires  and fossil fuel barons have deep coffers — they must be forced to pay what they owe. Increased taxation on extreme wealth, private jets and yachts and fossil fuel companies’ profits and extraction could bring in billions, even trillions of dollars.”

The new climate bursary is three times more than the £80-billion-a-year 2009 deal that is soon to expire.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said it was a “critical 11th-hour deal at the 11th hour for the climate” but admitted: “It is not everything we or others wanted but is a step forward for us all.

“It’s a deal that will drive forward the clean energy transition which is essential for jobs and growth in Britain and for protecting us all against the worsening climate crisis.”

He said there is “much more work to do” to prevent climate catastrophe.

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay MP said: “The final agreement is simply not good enough for the world’s poorest nations with too little money to deal with devastating impact of climate change, and the oil and gas lobby has succeeded in weakening the commitment made at the last Cop to ‘transition away’ from fossil fuels.

“Yet, Cop is still the one international forum in which those who are today bearing the major, immediate burdens of the human-made climate catastrophe become visible and heard.”