Cop29 live: call for summits only to be held in countries that support climate action

Today is “peace, relief and recovery” day at Cop29 in Baku, a fitting theme for a year in which horrific violence has hit millions in countries such as Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and the DRC.

Researchers suggest that climate change has fuelled some major conflicts in recent history, though they are quick to stress it is just one factor among many. Increasingly scarce water supplies are among the risks for future wars – a finding that may be of particular concern to host country Azerbaijan, which depends on upstream sources outside of its borders for most of its water. (For a small note of hope: as economies switch from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy, conflicts over energy resources may well decline.)

Many world leaders took note of the aggression rocking the world in their speeches on Tuesday and Wednesday. Leaders from across the geopolitical divide, such as Belarus and the EU, spoke about violent imperialism and the need for peace. Several leaders criticised Israel’s bombing of Gaza and the muted international response.

“How can we work together for our shared future when some are deemed unworthy of life?” asked the crown prince of Jordan, Al Hussein bin Abdullah II. He was one of the few to draw an explicit link between war and climate, explaining how conflict compounds the environmental threats that people face. It’s a problem felt particularly acutely in Jordan, where refugees make up an estimated one-third of the population.

Azerbaijan has framed the whole summit as a “peace” Cop, eager to paint the country in a positive light after the blood shed in Nagorno-Karabakh last year. Whether the spin will encourage great cooperation in Baku on climate is yet to be seen.

Negotiations are otherwise inching forward, and a flurry of reports came out yesterday that may shape the deals done behind closed doors. It kicked off with the powerful finding that poor countries need $1 trillion a year in climate finance by 2030 – five years earlier than rich countries are likely to agree to, as my colleague Fiona Harveyexplained. Taxing crypto and petroleum-based plastics could be one of many creative sources of finance with serious backers, another report noted.

Yalchin Rafiyev, Cop29’s lead negotiator, described the text on the pivotal climate finance goal as “a workable basis for discussion for the first time in the three years of the technical process.” Others seem more sceptical.