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Agence France-Presse

The Cop29 climate talks opened on Monday in Azerbaijan with a call to show global cooperation was not “down for the count”, as Donald Trump’s re-election hangs over the key discussions.
Countries come to Baku after new warnings that 2024 is on track to break temperature records, adding urgency to a fractious debate over funding for climate action in poorer countries.
Trump has pledged to once again withdraw the United States from the landmark Paris climate agreement, and there are concerns the move could weaken ambition around the negotiating table.
As the talks opened, UN climate chief Simon Stiell told countries: “Now is the time to show that global cooperation is not down for the count”.

And he warned wealthy countries who are struggling to agree a new funding target to “dispense with any idea that climate finance is charity”.
“An ambitious new climate finance goal is entirely in the self-interest of every nation, including the largest and wealthiest.”
Negotiators must increase a US$100 billion-a-year target to help developing nations prepare for worsening climate impacts and wean their economies off fossil fuels.
How much will be on offer, who will pay, and who can access the funds are some of the major points of contention.
Developing countries are pushing for trillions of dollars and insist money should be mostly grants rather than loans, but negotiators are tight-lipped over what final figure might emerge.
Cop29 President Mukhtar Babayev acknowledged the need was “in the trillions” but said a more “realistic goal” was somewhere in the hundreds of billions.

“These negotiations are complex and difficult,” the former executive of Azerbaijan’s national oil company said at the opening of the summit.
Developing countries warn that without adequate finance, they will struggle to offer ambitious updates to their climate goals, which countries are required to submit by early next year.
“Bring some money to the table so that you show your leadership,” said Evans Njewa, chair of the LDC Climate Group, whose members are home to 1.1 billion people.
The small group of developed countries that currently contributes the money wants the donor pool expanded to include other rich nations and top emitters, including China and the Gulf states.
That is firmly rejected by Beijing, with one Chinese official warning on Sunday during a closed-door session that the talks should not aim to “renegotiate” existing agreements.
Just a handful of leaders from the Group of 20, whose countries account for nearly 80 per cent of global emissions, are attending. US President Joe Biden is staying away.

Afghanistan will however be sending a delegation for the first time since the Taliban took power. They are expected to have observer status.
Diplomats have insisted that the absences, and Trump’s win, will not detract from the serious work at hand.
The talks come with fresh warnings that the world is far off track to meet the goals of the Paris agreement.
Babayev warned the talks were “a moment of truth for the Paris agreement.”
The climate deal commits to keep warming below 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels, preferably below 1.5 degrees.
But the world is likely to top that level in 2024, according to the European Union climate monitor.
That would not be an immediate breach of the Paris deal, which measures temperatures over decades, but it suggests much greater climate action is needed.
Last month, the UN warned the world is on a path towards a catastrophic 3.1 degrees of warming this century based on current actions.
“Everyone knows that these negotiations will not be easy,” Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Sunday.
“But they are worth it: each tenth of a degree of warming avoided means fewer crises, less suffering, less displacement.”
More than 51,000 people are expected at the talks, which run from November 11 to 22.
For the second year running the talks will be hosted by a country heavily reliant on fossil fuels, after the United Arab Emirates last year.
Azerbaijan has also been accused of stifling dissent by persecuting political opponents, detaining activists and suffocating independent media.


Cop29 host Azerbaijan hits out at West in defence of oil and gas

Southeast Asia’s energy transition hangs in balance at Cop29 amid uncertainty over Trump return

Cop29: Can China fill the climate void left by Trump’s return to ‘Drill, baby, drill’?

Cop29 climate talks open in Azerbaijan with call for cooperation after Trump win

Cop29

Cop29 President Mukhtar Babayev delivers a speech at the climate summit. Photo: AFP

UN climate chief Simon Stiell. Photo: AP

The Cop29 venue in Baku, Azerbaijan. Photo: Reuters

Donald Trump after his election victory last week. Photo: AP

Trump win worries global partners ahead of COP29 climate summit: ‘a slap in the face’

Supporters of Vice-President Kamala Harris linger at the event site after she conceded the US presidential race at Howard University the day after Election Day. Photo: EPA-EFE

Front pages of Italian newspapers in Rome reporting on Donald Trump’s win in the US presidential election. Photo: AP

A student at Howard University in the US cries after Vice-President Kamala Harris conceded the US presidential race. Photo: EPA-EFE

Cop29 is Azerbaijan’s moment to step into the global sunshine

People walk near the Baku Olympic Stadium, the venue of the Cop29 UN climate change conference, in Baku, Azerbaijan, on October 18. Photo: Reuters

The old town of Baku, beside the Caspian Sea, in Azerbaijan is a car-free warren of historic mansions. Photo: Peter Neville-Hadley

The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route. Photo: https://middlecorridor.com/en

As Trump returns, Asia prepares to pay the price for reprise of ‘America First’ policy

Donald Trump’s return to the White House signals that America’s experiment with isolation is in fact a long-term directional change. Photo: TNS

A ship at the container terminal in Port Klang near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Trump has pledged to impose a 10 per cent tariff on imports from all countries. Photo: Shutterstock

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi with US President Donald Trump during a meeting at Hyderabad House in New Delhi in February 2020. Photo: AFP

Trump meets North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, on June 30, 2019. Photo: Reuters

A test-fire of the new Hwasong-19 intercontinental ballistic missile at an undisclosed location in North Korea on October 31. Photo: KCNA via KNS / AFP

THAAD interceptors are seen as they arrive at Seongju, South Korea, in September 2017. Photo: Reuters

UK Defence Secretary John Healey, US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, and Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles meet in London in September. Photo: Pool via Reuters

Philippine Navy Fast Attack Interdiction Craft Lolinato To-Ong passes by a Chinese Navy ship during a Philippine military multi-service joint exercise on Wednesday at Loaita island in the disputed South China Sea. Photo: AP

A couple walk on a hill called ‘Teletubbies Hill’, a locally popular tourist attraction, as the chimneys of Suralaya coal power plant looms in the background, in Cilegon, Indonesia. Photo: AP

Cop29: Hong Kong environment minister to attend UN climate change summit in Azerbaijan

Climate negotiators and observers will descend on Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, for the global summit which runs between November 11 and 22. Photo: Reuters

Environment minister Tse Chin-wan will visit a renewable energy facility in Azerbaijan and return to the city later in the month. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Taliban to attend UN climate conference for the first time

A Taliban fighter stands guard as people receive food rations distributed by a Chinese humanitarian aid group, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on April 30, 2022. Afghanistan also had the highest number of children made homeless by climate disasters of any country as of the end of 2023, according to an August report from international aid agency Save the Children. Photo: AP

Afghanistan’s deputy head of the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) Zainulabedin Abid during an interview. An Afghan delegation will attend the UN climate change summit in Azerbaijan, the foreign ministry spokesman said on Saturday. Photo: AFP

News

World

Delegates fret over future US commitment as two-week Cop29 climate summit starts in Baku


Delegates fret over future US commitment as two-week Cop29 climate summit starts in Baku.


Climate change

Climate change diplomacy

Environment