UN chief says 'failure not an option' at Baku climate talks

BAKU — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday warned the world's climate negotiators of the risks of failure, urging a "major push" to seal a deal in Baku. 

"Let's be frank. Many substantive differences are still remaining," Guterres told reporters as he returned to the COP29 talks. 

"We need a major push to get discussions over the finishing line," Guterres said. "Failure is not an option."

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia warned Thursday that the Arab Group would reject any UN climate deal that goes after fossil fuels.

"The Arab Group will not accept any text that targets any specific sectors, including fossil fuel," Albara Tawfiq, a Saudi official, told delegates at COP29 talks in Azerbaijan.

China joined a global rejection of a draft deal on climate finance Thursday at the COP29 summit but urged nations to bridge their differences, with one day left in the talks.

"The current text contains a lot of elements that are not satisfactory and acceptable to China. Yet we call on all parties to meet one another halfway," Xia Yingxian, a Chinese official, told delegates at the UN negotiations in Azerbaijan.