We will likely not reach the goal of 1.5 degrees based on the very low degree of financing from the developed world. It means death, it means misery for our countries, said Panama's representative Juan Carlos Monterrey Gómez, shortly after the countries reached an agreement on Sunday night.
Rich countries are to contribute with 300 billion dollars annually until 2035 to help poorer countries with the climate transition. "Too little, too late", according to the African group's negotiating delegation.
We are extremely disappointed over the lack of progress regarding the issues that are critical for Africa, said Ali Mohamed, chairman of the group, at the meeting.
"Insult"
Nigeria's envoy Nkiruka Maduekwe expressed himself directly:
This is an insult.
Also Evans Njewa, who leads the group representing the world's poorest countries (LDC), expressed disappointment and said that "the agreement, from our perspective, is not to be considered ambitious".
Cedric Schuster, Samoan chairman of AOSIS, an association of countries threatened by rising sea levels, said that he had hoped for more to "protect the interests of the most vulnerable", but still gave his support to the agreement.
Praised by EU and USA
The EU's climate chief Wopke Hoekstra belonged to the more positive crowd and called the agreement a "new era" for climate financing.
Also US President Joe Biden praised the agreement and called it "ambitious".
"Even though there is still a lot of work ahead of us to reach our climate goals, today's result takes us a significant step closer", said Biden in a statement.
UN's climate chief Simon Stiell likened it to an "insurance policy for humanity" and added that like other insurance policies "it only works if the premium is paid in full and on time".
