Climate change: Which countries will foot the bill?

Debate is surging among governments, with pressure on China to join the group of countries providing climate finance.

Record-breaking heat in China. Wildfires forcing Swiss villages to evacuate. Drought ravaging Spanish crops. As the costs of climate change rack up, a debate is surging among governments: who should pay?

The question has been in the spotlight amid this week's climate talks between the U.S. and China, where the world's two biggest economies tried to find ways to work together on issues ranging from renewable energy deployment to climate finance ahead of this year's U.N. climate summit, COP28, in Dubai.

Given China's rapid economic growth and increasing emissions, pressure has grown on Beijing to join the group of countries providing this funding.

During the talks in Beijing, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said the two sides would continue to discuss climate finance over the next four months, before the COP28 conference starting November 30.

"It's difficult to argue that countries like China, Brazil or Saudi Arabia should still be put at the same level as the least developed countries and small island developing states," a diplomat from one European Union country told Reuters.

The EU, today the biggest contributor of climate finance, has lobbied to expand the pool of donor countries that provide it.

Climate finance refers to money that wealthy countries pay toward helping poorer nations reduce CO2 emissions and adapt to a hotter, harsher world.