A group of African nations has pressed for the opening of negotiations for a $700 billion-a-year funding package, starting in 2025, to help developing countries adapt to the climate crisis.

The so-called emerging countries (Brazil, China, India, and South Africa) are going to the negotiating table with a conditional: The emission cuts promised by these countries can only be achieved with financial support from rich countries and at a higher level than agreed upon in 2009. It provided for a flow of 100 billion dollars a year to finance the required transformations.

For Brazil, among other countries, the value established more than a decade ago no longer fits the current reality. And it is insufficient.

The African proposal is being led by the African Group of Negotiators, and highlights that this is the only way to accelerate decarbonization to the point of containing global warming to 1.5° C compared to pre-industrial temperatures, a target that was set in 2015 in the Paris Agreement.

The funds would be needed to reduce countries' dependence on energy sources linked to burning fossil fuels, on the one hand.

On the other hand, to deal with the climate changes already controlled by mankind with the last decades of emissions, increased heat waves, droughts, storms and floods.

The African group argues that it is not only a matter of underdevelopment, but also of justice. After all, the current state of the planet was produced by massive emissions promoted mainly by Europe, North America, and East Asia, while the worst impacts fall on the southern hemisphere.

Estimates indicate that Africa pays this bill heavily. A recent study by a United Nations commission points out that Cameroon spends something like 9% of its GDP on climate adaptation.

The same goes for Zimbabwe. Ethiopia spends 8%, and Sierra Leone, Senegal, and Ghana spend over 7%. And despite all this spending, there is an estimated deficit of 80% between what is needed and what is actually spent.