UN climate talks leader says financial help for poor nations is urgent goal of negotiations

AP Science Writer

The head of upcoming climate negotiations is telling world leaders that a new financial aid package for poor and disaster-struck nations is the urgent and make-or-break goal of United Nations talks this fall. Mukhtar Babayev, the Azerbaijan ecology minister who will preside over the November talks in his home country, said time lost means lives, livelihoods and the planet will be lost. At the same time, top United Nations climate official Simon Stiell is making an emotional plea for a stepped-up fight against the cost of unchecked climate change from his hurricane-demolished hometown in Grenada.