Paris Climate Summit Will Hinge on Climate Aid - Poor Nations

More funds to help poor nations cope with climate change will be the make-or-break issue when a Paris summit seeks a U.N. deal in December to slow global warming, the main group of developing nations said on Thursday.

Poor nations say they are far more vulnerable than the rich to powerful hurricanes, heat waves, droughts and rising sea levels and want clear promises that aid will rise from an existing goal of $100 billion a year by 2020.

For many developing nations "climate change poses an existential risk, it's a matter of life and death," Nozipho Mxakato-Diseko, South Africa's delegate who speaks for more than 130 developing nations, said at U.N. climate negotiations.

"Whether Paris succeeds or not will be dependent on what we have as part of the core agreement on finance," she told a news conference in Bonn during the Oct. 19-23 U.N. talks among almost 200 nations, the final preparatory session before Paris.

Developed nations have promised to raise climate funds to $100 billion a year, from a wide range of public and private sources, by 2020 to help emerging economies curb greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to impacts of climate change.

Mxakato-Diseko's Group of 77 and China, which has expanded to 134 members from 77 at its founding, wants guarantees that aid will be "scaled up from a floor of $100 billion from 2020".

The United States and other rich nations favor vaguer wording that stops short of promising a rise from 2020.

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