COP29 climate agenda clouded by trade tensions ahead of summit

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By Kate Abnett and Tim Cocks

BRUSSELS/JOHANNSEBURG (Reuters) -China has put trade talks onto the proposed agenda for the COP29 summit, a U.N. document showed, raising the prospect that the issue could disrupt the start of global climate talks.

The draft agenda for this year’s climate summit, published on Friday, includes a Chinese proposal, previously reported by Reuters, for talks on carbon border taxes and other “restrictive trade measures” that Beijing says hurt developing countries.

Delegates at the conference must adopt the summit agenda by consensus as their first task when the COP29 talks begin on Nov. 11 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

But some diplomats said the European Union is likely to oppose the Chinese proposal, which Beijing submitted on behalf of the BASIC group that also includes Brazil, India and South Africa.

Failure to approve the agenda could delay the start of negotiations – cutting into the time left for the main task of approving potentially hundreds of billions of dollars in new funding to address climate change.

“We will speak about it, relentlessly,” South Africa’s Environment Minister Dion George told Reuters.

BASIC countries have been strong critics of the EU carbon border policy, which from 2026 will impose fees on imports of high-carbon goods, including steel and cement.

“We are displeased about it and we don’t think it’s good for our economy,” George said, adding that South Africa and China are having “intense conversations” with the EU.

EU Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said he took countries’ concerns seriously. But he dismissed Beijing’s opposition to the EU carbon border levy.

“Given all the interactions we’ve had, and knowing the Chinese for always being very well-prepared and knowing the exact workings of the system, I don’t find that a very credible strategy to pursue,” Hoekstra told Reuters in a joint interview with other media outlets.

The EU says its carbon border levy is not a trade measure, but rather a climate policy to prevent European industries from being undercut by cheap imports from countries with lax environmental rules.

The EU has previously said disputes over trade should be addressed at the World Trade Organization.

One European climate negotiator expressed concern that the BASIC proposal was intended to prevent discussions at COP29 on cutting CO2 emissions and finance from moving forward.

A fight over the agenda at a round of U.N. climate negotiations in 2023 did not get resolved for more than a week, killing off progress at the talks.

(Reporting by Kate Abnett in Brussels and Tim Cocks in Johannesburg; Editing by Alexander Smith and Louise Heavens)