Summary of the day
If I were in Baku, I’d be curling up with a cup of cocoa right now – it’s well after 9pm in the Azerbaijani capital – and so I think it’s safe to assume that we won’t see any more geopolitical climate negotiation action this day.
Tomorrow morning from about 6am we will be back again with more rolling coverage of the Cop29 talks, so be sure to swing by the Guardian website to find out the latest from the summit. In the meantime, here are the biggest news lines from day three of the talks:
Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, lambasted France for its colonial “crimes” in its overseas territories. “The crimes of France in its so-called overseas territories would not be complete without mentioning the recent human rights violations,” said Aliyev.
As a result, France’s ecology minister, Agnes Pannier-Runacher, announced she was cancelling her trip to Baku to take part in the Cop29 talks. Aliyev’s remarks were a “flagrant violation of the code of conduct” for running the UN climate talks, she said.
Argentina’s negotiating team were ordered home. The country’s president Javier Milei has previously said that the climate crisis is a “socialist lie”. “We have instructions from the ministry of foreign affairs to no longer participate,” the country’s top environmental official said,
UN Secretary General António Guterres said small, climate-vulnerable island states have the right to be angry with rich nations for their failure to lead on climate action. “You are on the sharp end of a colossal injustice,” he said.
Dr. Pa’oleilei Luteru, chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, said Donald Trump’s pledge to exit the Paris climate agreement is “something of grave, grave concern” to climate-vulnerable countries. “Our survival is very much at risk,” he said.
Muhammad Yunus, interim leader of Bangladesh, hit out at “limitless consumption” and called out for a new culture without waste, fossil fuels or personal profit. “Our civilisation is at a great risk as we continue to promote self-destructive values,” said Yunus.
Yunus also hit out at the “humiliating” situation of poorer countries forced to beg for money to fix the problems caused by their richer counterparts in the global north. “Why should there be a negotiation? You are causing the problem, then you solve it,” he said.
Similar comments were made by Shehbaz Sharif, prime minister of Pakistan, who joined a chorus of leaders using their speeches to call for more money to reach their climate goals - and specifying that they need grants rather than loans that saddle them with more debt.
Iran’s vice-president, Shina Ansari Hamedani, said sanctions against her country were preventing it accessing the finance it needs to build a green economy. She called the sanctions “unjustified and irrational”, and condemned the war in Gaza by the “occupying Zionist regime”.
Giorgia Meloni, prime minister of Italy, insisted “gas, biofuels, hydrogen and carbon capture and storage” will continue to have a role in supplying energy for a growing world population. She also cited nuclear fusion power as a potential “gamechanger”.
Updated
Bangladesh’s interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, has said it is “humiliating” for poorer nations to be forced to beg for the money to fix the problems caused by richer ones.
Yunus has made a series of outspoken remarks today, earlier condemning a culture that had promoted “limitless consumption”, and then asking reporters from US-based news agency The Associated Press: “Why should there be a negotiation? You are causing the problem, then you solve it.”
Speaking this time to the French news agency AFP, Yunus said:
I think that’s very humiliating for nations, to come and ask for money to fix... (the) problem that others caused for them.
Why should we be dragged here to negotiate?
You know the problem... it’s not a fish market.
France's minister for ecology cancels trip to Cop29
France’s minister for ecology is to cancel a trip to Baku to attend Cop29 after Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, made a speech earlier attacking France’s actions in its overseas territories.
Agnes Pannier-Runacher told French lawmakers: “The comments made by President (Ilham) Aliyev at the opening of COP29 in Baku against France and Europe are unacceptable.”
It was a “flagrant violation of the code of conduct” for running United Nations climate talks, she said. And she further lashed out at Aliyev’s “equally unacceptable comments on fossil fuels” after he described his country’s vast oil and gas reserves as a “gift of God”.
Despite her deciding not to attend in person, Pannier-Runacher said the team of French negotiators in Baku would not relent in their efforts to do a deal “to protect the planet and its populations” from climate change.
As we reported earlier, Aliyev drew loud applause from delegates of some Pacific island nations after a speech in which he slammed Paris for its response to independence protests that rocked New Caledonia this spring.
Thirteen people, mostly indigenous Kanaks, and two police officers, have been killed and nearly 3,000 people have been arrested since police in the territory launched an investigation just days after the unrest started in May.
Updated
Enthusiasm for nuclear power has grown at Cop29, with six new countries joining a pledge from last year to triple global nuclear capacity by 2050.
The addition of El Salvador, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kosovo, Nigeria and Turkey brings the total number of members up to 31. None of the new signatories currently use nuclear power - although there was a reactor in Aktau, across the Caspian sea from Baku, when Kazakhstan was part of the Soviet Union.
Several world leaders used their speeches at Cop29 on Tuesday and Wednesday to push for the technology. Kazakhstan advertised its uranium exports, Czechia made a sales pitch for nuclear services it could provide other countries, Poland described nuclear as “the future” and Slovakia boasted about its plans for “small modular reactors” and recycling spent fuel.
In its roadmap to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050, the International Energy Agency sees global nuclear capacity doubling, rather than tripling. It says extending the lifetime of existing plants is “indispensable” but warned that the industry would have to deliver projects “on time and on budget” to fulfil its role.
Brazil’s new climate plan, known as a “nationally determined contribution”, has won praise from many at Cop29. But, according to my colleague Dharna Noor, it has left young conference attendees with the organization Engajamundo unimpressed.
“It’s not ambitious, really,” said Jarê Pinagé, 25, who travelled to the conference from the Brazilian state of Amazonas, who said the plan was “weak” on both adaptation and youth protections.
Samantha Cosco, 25, hails from Pernambuco, Brazil. She said Brazilian officials “didn’t engage with any of our recommendations.”
A bit of reaction coming in from delegates in Baku to the news that Argentina is to withdraw its negotiators from Cop29.
The Argentinian Citizen Association for Human Rights posted on social media that it had worked with the Argentinian delegation on the gender program, adding:
It is sad to see Argentina’s absence from the negotiations after having led on this issue in many of the previous COPs.
Another sustainability expert from Argentina posted:
Argentina withdraws its delegation from #COP29 in Baku, losing its voice in climate finance negotiations. At a key moment to secure resources against the climate crisis, the country is left out, weakening its future and its ability to adapt.
My colleague Patrick Greenfield will have more on this story shortly.
Brazil’s new emissions cutting pledge - good cop and bad cop
Brazil delivered its new “nationally determined contribution” (NDC) to the UN today at Cop29. I’ll explain what that means and why it is both good and bad news.
As well as the key issue of the trillion dollar goal for climate finance at Cop29, getting countries to pledge much bigger cuts in emissions is critical too. We learned this morning that far from “transitioning away from fossil fuels” as promised last year at Cop28, fossil fuel emissions will rise in 2024 - despite needing to fall by 43% by 2030 to have any chance of keeping to the 1.5C limit for global heating.
Emissions cuts are meant to be delivered by each country via its NDC and a new round of NDCs are due by February. Handing in NDCs early, as Brazil has done, can help push other nations to do the same - in the past, many have been late. Ambitious NDCs can also raise the collective game.
The good news then is that Brazil, which is hosting next year’s Cop, has filed its NDC and in parts it is more ambitious, aiming for cuts of 59% to 67% by 2035, compared to 2005. But in the 30-minute press conference held by Brazil in Baku, fossil fuels were mentioned only in a question from a journalist. That is quite an omission, as Brazil plans a 36% increase in production by 2035.
Brazilian vice-president Geraldo Alckmin answered the question by talking about biofuel - ethanol - for cars, green hydrogen, solar and wind energy - but not oil and gas.
Shady Khalil, at Oil Change International, said: “Brazil’s NDC demonstrates ambition in reducing emissions, but it cannot claim to be at the ‘forefront of the global energy transition’ unless it puts an immediate end to new fossil fuel projects. Brazil’s increase [in oil and gas] production is ignored by the new NDC.”
The justification appears to be that the oil and gas would be exported, making the emissions someone else’s problem. The first of the new round of NDCs, filed by last year’s Cop hosts the UEA, included the same manoeuvre.
Natalie Jones, at the International Institute for Sustainable Development, said: “The UAE claims its NDC aligns with 1.5C targets, but it sidesteps a huge chunk of emissions - those from exporting oil and gas. The science is unambiguous: new oil and gas fields have no place in a 1.5C future.”
As we all live on one planet, under one atmosphere, shifting the responsibility for emissions from one country to another helps no-one, and the problem remains a central challenge in ending the climate crisis.
Argentinian negotiators ordered to withdraw from Cop29
This feels like a worrying development. My colleague Patrick Greenfield has been speaking to the Argentinian team in Baku.
Argentine negotiators representing the government of Javier Milei have been ordered to withdraw from Cop29 and will no longer participate in the Baku climate summit.
Speaking to the Guardian, Argentina’s undersecretary for the environment Ana Lamas - the country’s most senior representative on the climate and nature after Milei downgraded the ministry - confirmed the decision first reported by Climatica.
“It’s true. We have instructions from the ministry of foreign affairs to no longer participate. That’s all I can tell you,” she said. Lamas did not answer whether Argentina was planning on leaving the Paris agreement.
Argentina’s far right leader Milei has previously said that the climate crisis is a “socialist lie”. He threatened to withdraw from the Paris agreement during the election campaign last year but has since backed down.
Yesterday, Javier Milei spoke with incoming US president Donald Trump, after which Milei’s spokesperson said Trump told his Argentine counterpart that he was his “favourite president”.
Updated
Climate, like colonialism, is the fault of global north, says Bangladesh's leader
We earlier reported how Muhammad Yunus, the interim leader of Bangladesh, had hit out at a culture of “limitless consumption” and called for “a new lifestyle consistent with the safety of the planet”. US-based news agency The Associated Press is now carrying more remarks from him.
World leaders ought not even be negotiating this year, Yunus told AP. Countries responsible for global heating should simply provide the funds to deal with the crisis.
“Why should there be a negotiation? You are causing the problem, then you solve it,” he told AP in an interview in Baku, Azerbaijan. “We will raise our voice and tell them it’s your fault, like what we did with colonialism.”
Yunus said the climate negotiations can be “humiliating” for poor countries. He likened the talks to a “fish market” packed with people trying to get the best bargains. “That’s a very wrong perception of the whole thing,” he said.
Known as the “banker to the poorest of the poor”, Yunus was chosen to lead Bangladesh’s interim government after deadly nationwide protests toppled its divisive prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
His country is among the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change, with up to 17% of its land area at risk from rising seas. But “everyone’s home is on fire,” said Yunus.
He said rich nations, who developed their economies by burning planet-warming coal, oil and gas, are “not safe either. So they have to act in their self-interest as well as the interest of the whole planet.”
In addition to faith leaders rejecting the Azerbaijan president’s claim that oil and gas is a ‘gift from God’, Brazil’s environment minister Marina Silva has given a puckish response:
We should take care in moderation of the gifts we are given - if we eat too much sugar, we get diabetes.
Updated
As diplomats wrangle over how to fund the world’s adaptation to a climate in crisis, production in the industry primarily responsible for climate breakdown has hit an all-time high, according to a new analysis.
According to a report by German NGO Urgewald, annual investment in oil and gas deposit exploration averaged $61.1bn (€57.5bn euros) between 2022 and 2024 – eclipsing the mere $702m so far pledged for the loss and damage fund agreed at Cop28 in Dubai last year.
Based on data from companies and specialised analysis firms, Urgewald’s Global Oil & Gas Exit List was said to include 1,769 active companies in the oil and gas industry covering 95% of the world’s hydrocarbon production.
Urgewald said the listed firms produced 55.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent, the highest level on record. Nils Bartsch, the NGO’s head of oil and gas research, described the findings as “deeply concerning.”
Tinaye Mabara, of the Agape Earth Coalition, was quoted in the report as saying:
It is perverse to see companies shelling out tens of billions of dollars each year to search for new oil and gas reserves that will lead to even more loss and damage in the future.
2023 was the hottest year on record. 2024 looks set to break the record.
Aliyev slams France for colonial "crimes" in New Caledonia
Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, has used his time on stage to lambast France for its colonial “crimes” in its overseas territories, continuing a longrunning diplomatic schism between the two countries.
Aliyev drew loud applause from delegates of some Pacific island nations after a speech in which he slammed Paris for its response to independence protests that rocked New Caledonia this spring.
Thirteen people, mostly indigenous Kanaks, and two police officers, have been killed and nearly 3,000 people have been arrested since police in the territory launched an investigation just days after the unrest started in May.
Tensions began after changes to the voting registry that Kanaks felt would favour recent arrivals to the Pacific archipelago.
“The crimes of France in its so-called overseas territories would not be complete without mentioning the recent human rights violations,” said Aliyev.
“The regime of President (Emmanuel) Macron killed 13 people and wounded 169... during legitimate protests by the Kanak people in New Caledonia,” he added.
Paris has long supported Baku’s regional rival Armenia, which Azerbaijan defeated in a lightning offensive last year when it retook the breakaway Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Macron has has not attended Cop29.
In the run-up to the summit, Azerbaijan was denounced for its human rights record and political repression. But Aliyev hit back at the European Union and the Council of Europe human rights body calling them “symbols of political corruption that share responsibility with the government of President Macron for the killings of innocent people”.
He also said that “all political prisoners of France must be liberated”.
Campaigners have accused wealthy nations of pushing weak language in climate finance talks at the Cop29 summit to avoid properly funding poorer countries’ adaptations to the climate crisis.
On the third day of the climate summit in Baku, where a key aim is reaching a deal on funding to help poorer nations adapt to climate shocks and transition to cleaner energy, a draft text on climate financing goals is already under negotiation.
But ActionAid International said wealthier nations are trying to push for an investment model involving “loans, corporate investment, and other finance flows that could potentially do more harm than good”.
Teresa Anderson, ActionAid’s global lead on climate justice, said:
This is a sprawling and unstructured document which includes every possible idea, option, and permutation. The text reflects developing countries’ need for a goal worth trillions of dollars in grant-based finance so they can cope with the climate crisis.
It also includes developed countries’ preferred language on an ‘investment layer’ which emphasises loans, corporate investment, and other finance flows that could potentially do more harm than good.
The ‘investment; language that rich countries are pushing hard is clearly a bare-faced pitch to avoid providing real grant-based finance, and instead use frontline countries’ desperation to open up to more corporate exploitation.
Cop9 negotiations would be more likely to make progress if negotiations focus on areas where there is already consensus, such as the principle that the core of the goal should be public finance.
The president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, caused a stir on Tuesday, when he doubled down on a previous remark that the nation’s oil and gas were a “gift from God” and that criticism of the Cop29 host’s expansion of gas production was “well-orchestrated campaign of slander and blackmail” involving “some politicians, state-controlled NGOs and fake news media in some western countries”. That was unconventional diplomacy, to say the least, for the country tasked with bringing the world together at the summit.
Today, faith leaders rejected his comments, writes Damian Carrington, Guardian environment editor.
“God calls us to take good care of the divine gifts of land, water and other resources,” said Bishop Julio Murray, an Anglican from Panama, who is Moderator of the World Council of Churches’ Commission on Climate Justice. “The biblical concept of Jubilee calls for the rest of the land – for the liberation of land from exploitation, extraction and drilling – to allow regeneration and renewal of our only planetary home. We know that the clock is ticking on climate change. We need to put a stop to fossil fuel extraction and production if we are to prevent the worst consequences of climate change.”
“According to Genesis 2:15, the Bible tells us that God placed people in the Garden of Eden to ‘take care of it’, emphasising a role as stewards rather than exploiters of the earth,” said Romario Dohmann from the Evangelical Church in the River Plate.
Almost 60 faith-based organisations have signed a Call to Action, released today, that states: “All countries must prioritise the urgent phase-out of fossil fuels, which are the primary source of greenhouse gas emissions.”
Updated
As briefly mentioned by my colleague Dharna Noor earlier, negotiators at Cop29 are welcoming a pledge by development banks to lift climate funding to poor and middle-income countries.
The World Bank is among the group that on Tuesday announced a joint goal of increasing this finance to $120 billion by 2030, a roughly 60% increase on the amount in 2023.
“I think it’s a very good sign,” Eamon Ryan, Ireland’s climate minister, told Reuters on Wednesday. “But that on its own won’t be enough,” he added, insisting countries and companies must also contribute.
Ryan’s view was echoed by Patrick Verkooijen, CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation who welcomed the announcement as “a shot in the arm for the climate finance discussion”
Securing an international climate financing agreement that ensures up to trillions of dollars for climate projects is a key aim of negotiators in Baku over the next two weeks. Developing countries are hoping for big commitments from rich, industrialised counterparts that are the biggest historical contributors to global warming, and some of which are also huge producers of fossil fuels.
“Developed countries have not only neglected their historical duty to reduce emissions, they are doubling down on fossil-fuel-driven growth,” climate activist Harjeet Singh told Reuters.
Christmas has come early at Cop29 with the arrival of Sustaina Claus, writes Damian Carrington, Guardian environment editor.
Philip McMaster, from Canada, who has been to 10 Cops, has a particular solution to the world’s climate and other problems: better childhoods to produce better leaders.
“My focus is to make childhood great again – that’s our little slogan” he says. “Why? Because childhood produced Trump, childhood produced Biden, it produced you, it produced me. The childhood period is very informative and produces the next generation of leaders.”
“But if you’re putting a phone up in their face, and they don’t get outside and don’t play, and they’re over pharmaceuticalised, you’re just gonna have a bunch of blobs,” McMaster says.
“For 600,000 years, we’ve been having childhoods, feet in the ground, family relations, social relations, scrape your knees, fall down, understand how things work, physicality.
“But childhood is certainly not working now. It has produced the people who are making these decisions now, and they have lost their touch with reality. They’ve lost their touch with childhood.”
Dickon Mitchell, prime minister of Grenada, gave a powerful speech – as leaders of nations on the frontline of the climate crisis are able to do, writes Damian Carrington, Guardian environment editor.
“I lead a country which experienced in the first half of the year a 50 year drought. Then on the first day of the second half, we experienced the earliest category five hurricane on record,” he said. “The island was devastated by flash flooding and landslides, all in a couple of hours.”
“We are not here to beg, or to ask for sympathy,” Mitchell said. “It is one planet. It may be small islands today, but it will be Spain tomorrow and Florida the next day.”
He called for a partnership with rich nations, in which Grenada shared how it is learning to cope with climate chaos.
He called particularly for the finance to be provided for the Loss and Damage fund, which is for rebuilding communities after climate catastrophes: “Put the money in the fund, and make it available to those who suffer.”
Earlier, Siaosi Sovaleni, Prime Minister of Tonga, expressed his country’s support for Australia’s bid to host Cop31 in 2026, and run it as the “Pacific Cop”. He says: “Climate change was, is, and will be the most existential threat to Pacific islands including Tongo.” Turkey is also making a strong pitch to host that summit.
The profits of oil and gas producers could pay the entire annual bill for loss and damage caused by climate breakdown, according to a new analysis.
Global Witness, a climate NGO, says the world’s top 30 oil and gas companies (excluding those based in poorer countries) recorded a combined average of $400bn per year in free cash flow since the Paris agreement was signed in 2015.
That is the same amount researchers from Loss and Damage Collaboration said should be considered the minimum annual funding needed by lower-income countries to deal with the aftermath of climate disasters.
Sarah Biermann Becker, a senior fossil fuels investigator at Global Witness, said:
From super-charged hurricanes in the US to typhoons in the Philippines, ordinary people are already paying for the climate crisis. They’re paying with their health, homes and livelihoods, and doing what they can to build back in the wake of disaster.
But as people struggle in the wake of climate chaos, there is one sector that’s raking in billions and avoiding any culpability for its role in the devastation – the fossil fuel industry.
It’s time to end this injustice. We need billions of dollars to deal with climate impacts, and Big Oil firms are some of the richest companies on the planet – it’s time they paid their fair share to repair the damage they’ve done.
A fund to help poorer countries respond to the effects of climate-related disasters was set up two years ago at Cop27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. But, as pointed out by Mia Mottley, the prime minister of Barbados, yesterday, so far pledges to the fund total just $700m.
Joseph Mangiben from Buenguet Province, the Philippines, said:
When I was a child, strong typhoons didn’t come consecutively every single year. But today they come one after the other. I feel scared and I’m worried about what might happen. The ones who suffer most are poor nations like the Philippines.
Ali Zaidi, climate advisor to the US president Joe Biden, has touted his country’s plans to triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050 as a bipartisan project that could survive Donald Trump’s resuming power in January.
The reelection of Trump, who has vowed to pull the US out of the Paris agreement and even questioned the reality of anthropogenic climate breakdown, has cast a long shadow over the Cop29 talks in Baku.
Biden is not attending the summit, but according to AFP US officials in Baku have been trying to reassure their counterparts from other countries that Trump will be unable to halt US climate action.
Speaking to delegates, Zaidi suggested the nuclear plans in particular were an example of that. He said:
I would remind you that this is an area that has witnessed not only bipartisan support... but also an area where Democratic and Republican administrations have passed the baton, one to the other, to keep progress going.
These targets are bold, but they are also achievable.
Many nations have already said they believe growing nuclear power will be the best way to meet net-zero commitments, in spite of the heavy cost of building reactors and the fear of catastrophic accidents.
Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has used his statement in Baku to warn that Europe needs to devote more resources to responding to the impact of climate disasters.
His country has doubled its renewable energy output since 2014, but in recent years has also struggled to recover from multiple floods and wildfires . This year, it had its hottest summer on record, after a winter with barely any rain.
Addressing delegates, Mitsotakis said, according to Reuters:
We cannot focus so much on 2050 that we forget 2024.
We need more resources to prepare to respond in time, in order to save lives and livelihoods and to help people and communities rebuild after disaster.
Europe accounted for a diminishing share of global emissions but was almost alone in defending the rules of free trade and should make sure that the energy transition will not hurt its economy, Mitsotakis said.
We need to ask hard questions about a path that goes very fast at the expense of our competitiveness, and a path that goes somewhat slower but allows our industry to adapt and to thrive. It is our responsibility to weigh these trade offs carefully
Trump vow to ditch Paris agreement 'of grave concern' to small island states
Donald Trump’s pledge to exit the Paris climate agreement is “something of grave, grave concern” to climate-vulnerable countries, Ambassador Dr. Pa’oleilei Luteru, chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, told the Guardian, writes Dharna Noor, fossil fuels and climate reporter for the Guardian US.
In many places, climate disaster causes temporary devastation. But for small island states, the threat is existential, said Lutero, who is also the permanent representative of Samoa at the UN.
“Our survival is very much at risk,” he said.
As the world’s largest economy and top contributor to historic emissions, the US has an “ethical responsibility” to lead the climate fight, Lutero said. And without decisive climate action, the threat to other countries will also become more pronounced, Lutero said.
“This is not just a crisis for small island developing states. Although we are the ones at the forefront, it will come to everyone if we do not act,” he said. “The US doesn’t live on a different planet.”
The UK should also increase its ambition on climate action, Lutero said. Britain’s recent refusal to advocate for strong UN treaty language on fossil fuel phaseout has been “disappointing,” he said, as have cuts to the country’s development budget.
UK officials have told him more aid budget cuts are possible, though they assured that they do not foresee a “drastic reduction in the amount of resources.”
“Obviously, if you going to cut the budget it’s going to have an impact,” he said.
Cop29 negotiators must quickly set a goal for climate finance, Lutero continued — a main task for negotiators at Cop29, since an (often broken) 2009 pledge expires this year.
“It’s of critical importance that we agree on, or at least have a very good idea of, the quantity that we’re talking about,” he said.
Poor nations need at least $1tn annually to cope with climate costs, and developed countries are willing to ensure about half of that comes from public money, leaving a yawning gap that countries are hoping to fill by other means. But “you can’t fill the gap if you don’t know what the starting point will be in terms of resources,” Lutero said.
In addition to making ambitious financial commitments, rich nations should help vulnerable countries employ green technologies, while pressuring the global financial institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to restructure with climate justice in mind.
A multilateral approach to the climate crisis is needed, Lutero argued.
“It’s only when we come together that we can address global issues,” he said.
Fiona Harvey wrote this week about how to fill the climate finance gap:
Updated
As we mentioned earlier, today global leaders have been the delegates in Baku.
According to the US-based news agency AP, many were expected to detail their nations’ first hand experiences of the catastrophic weather-related disasters becoming more frequent as a result of climate breakdown.
Dickon Mitchell, prime minister of Grenada, told how his country had for most of the year suffered a 15-month drought, which only broke with the catastrophe of the category 5 Hurricane Beryl. He said:
At this very moment, as I stand here yet again, my island has been devastated by flash flooding, landslides and the deluge of excessive rainfall, all in the space of a matter of a couple hours.
It may be small island developing states today. It will be Spain tomorrow. It will be Florida the day after. It’s one planet.
Small island states are among those suffering the worst of the impacts of climate breakdown. Philip Edward Davis, prime minister of the Bahamas, also came with stern words for delegates, warning that progress on the climate was too often set back by changes of governments, such as in the US and Germany recently.
If we leave climate action to the whims of political cycles, our planet’s future becomes precarious, very precarious.
The climate crisis does not pause for elections or to accommodate the way of changing political ideas or ties. It demands continuity, commitment and most of all, solidarity.
Hello, this is Damien Gayle taking over the liveblog for a few hours now, with thanks to Matt for getting things going this morning. Please do send us any comments or tips, or suggestions for that matter, on things we ought to be taking a look at. You can reach the team at cop29@theguardian.com.
A common theme around Cops is that climate summits are a waste of time - from the leaders of poor countries fed up with failed promises from the rich world, to activists sceptical of delegates flying to semi-petrostates, to teenagers aghast at the persistent lack of action from people who claim to care.
Sigrid Karl, an Austrian youth delegate at Cop29, described feeling overwhelmed, hopeful and needing stamina. “Even though it’s difficult sometimes, there’s so many people here really trying to fight.”
She said the Europeans had been willing to engage with young people perhaps more than some other delegations. Still, she added, the rhetoric around listening to young people can be “frustrating” if it shifts the responsibility to solve problems. “It’s not young people that are able to take these political positions.”
Karl said she understood people who felt disengaged with climate talks. “I totally get that it seems far away, but this is a very important process to talk about these issues globally and find solutions together.”
Still, not everyone has to be engaged with these processes, she said. “There’s so many things to do nationally and in your communities.”
As negotiations continue in Baku this piece outlining what a successful Cop29 would look like by my colleague Fiona Harvey is worth a read
The Guardian’s editorial published last night [and in this morning’s print edition in the UK] pulls no punches, arguing for urgent action and warning the world faces a “menacing moment” as signs of climate breakdown escalate around the world
Simon Evans from Carbon Tracker has a useful update on the talks from Cop29
#COP29 13 Nov update
— Simon Evans (@DrSimEvans) November 13, 2024
After a day lost to Monday's "agenda fight", talks are in full swing
Draft texts are emerging (see linked tracker)
But the big one, on the new climate finance goal, is not due until later today (a draft from Bonn was rejected by G77+China)… pic.twitter.com/2hkveQBKF1
My colleague Phoebe Weston has some analysis from the UN biodiversity conference which ended in disarray earlier this month. She reports that the event held in Colombia saw a record number of lobbyists from the meat, oil and pesticides industries in attendance
Updated
Key event
Small, climate-vulnerable island states have the right to be angry with rich nations for their failure to lead on climate action, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday.
“You are on the sharp end of a colossal injustice, an injustice that sees the very future of your islands threatened by rising seas,” he said.
Guterres praised the nations for their ambitious climate pledges, saying, “you are the first responders,” and urged wealthy G20 nations to take their lead.
To support vulnerable islands, negotiators must finalise the creation of a loss and damage fund and boost funding for adaptation and mitigation, Guterres said.
In September, the UN called for the transformation of international financial institutions to relieve debt and promote access to climate aid, the secretary-general noted.
“We must push for implementation of these commitments starting here and now,” he said.
Transforming the architecture of financial institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund is a key priority for vulnerable, heavily-indebted nations, Ambassador Dr. Pa’oleilei Luteru, chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, told the Guardian.
“We’re not saying give us free money,” he said. “What we’re saying primarily is we want an even, level playing field.”
Updated
Away from Baku my colleague Jonathan Watts has been reporting on the real world impacts of the escalating climate crisis – this time from flood hit Spain. And he says that as the weather gets more extreme – anger is rising among the public.
Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Pakistan, has joined a chorus of leaders using their speeches to call for more money to reach their climate goals - and specifying that they need grants rather than loans that saddle them with more debt.
“Without climate justice, there can be no real resilience,” he said. “I wouldn’t want other countries to face the fight Pakistan faced in 2022.”
Pakistan was devastated by floods two years ago, shortly before Cop27. The disaster added a sense of urgency to that year’s negotiations that helped pressure rich countries to set up a fund to pay for the losses and damages borne by poor countries. (You can read more on that from my colleague Nina Lakhani here.)
“Two years, I warned at the top of my voice that the future would never forgive our inaction,” said Sharif. “Today, I echo the same warning with greater urgency and fullest energy at my command.”
Updated
25 countries have announced a commitment to swift and ambitious climate action.
“Too much is at stake for anything other than a race to the top,” said Hilda Heine, the president of the Republic of the Marshall Islands at a Wednesday press conference.
The statement from the “high ambition coalition,” formed in the lead up to the 2015 Paris Climate Accord negotiations, called for Cop29 negotiators to increase their climate finance commitments, promote accessibility to aid, and push for the transformation of international financial institutions to promote climate and development goals.
“Addressing debt and the high cost of capital is also key,” Heine said
The diverse list of signatories, including the Marshall Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, Germany, Spain, and Chile, additionally called for mitigation pledges in line with a 1.5 degree rise in temperature and increased efforts to adapt to the climate crisis. The rights of women and girls are also essential, the statement said.
On Tuesday, multilateral development banks issued a joint agreement to boost financial support for climate aid — a “crucial” step, said Chile’s Minister for the Environment Maisa Rojas.
“We really needed that so that that [climate] ambition really translates into action,” she said.
In the US — which joined the high ambition coalition in 2021 — Donald Trump has pledged to pull the country from the Paris Agreement when he takes office next year. This will be a “regressive step” from the world’s largest historical emitter, said Gaston Browne, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda.
The United States has an obligation, a moral obligation, perhaps more so than any other, to provide leadership and climate funding,” he said.
But Trump’s re-election will not derail climate progress, said Heine.
“I think already policies are already in place to move this work forward,” she said.
The by the Marshall Islands in the lead up to the 2015 Paris Climate Accord negotiations, the “high ambition coalition” aims to push the world to make swifter cuts on greenhouse gas emissions.
Albanian PM questions point of summit 'if biggest polluters continue as usual'
Edi Rama, Prime Minister of Albania, has gone off-script - he said he left behind his “well-prepared speech” after watching yesterday’s leaders make their statements on silent screens above comfortable couches in an adjoining room at the Cop29 venue in Baku yesterday.
“People there eat, drink, meet and take photos together - while images of voiceless leaders play on and on and on in the background,” he said. “To me, this seems exactly like what happens in the real world every day. Life goes on, with its old habits, and our speeches - full of good words about fighting climate change - change nothing.”
He pointed to the UN Secretary-General’s statement yesterday highlighting that carbon emissions increased between the last Cop and this one, a finding that my colleague Damian Carrington has broken down here.
“What does it mean for the future of the world if the biggest polluters continue as usual?” asked Rama. “What on earth are we doing in this gathering, over and over and over, if there is no common political will on the horizon to go beyond words and unite for meaningful action?”
Updated
Muhammad Yunus, chief adviser of the interim government of Bangladesh, has hit out at “limitless consumption” and called out for a new culture without waste, fossil fuels or personal profit.
“Our civilisation is at a great risk as we continue to promote self-destructive values,” said Yunus, an economist and Nobel laureate. “We have chosen a lifestyle that works against the environment. We justify this with an economic framework that is considered as natural as the planetary system.”
Yunus became the caretaker head of Bangladesh’s interim government in August, after the nation’s longtime prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled abroad in the face of violent unrest against her rule.
Yunus called for a counter culture based on different values, but said the lifestyle would be chosen by young people, rather than imposed on them.
“It can be done,” said Yunus. “All we need to do is accept a new lifestyle consistent with the safety of the planet and all who live on it.”
Rich countries must deliver on trillion dollar finance deal, says Antigua PM
Justice was the theme in a strong speech from Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, whose islands bear the brunt of the climate-supercharged hurricanes.
“For nations like mine, [climate change] is no longer a warning, but a daily, devastating reality. We can’t wait any longer for empty pledges.” He says rich nations must deliver the trillion dollar finance deal that is the key issue at Cop29.
“To those who bear the greatest responsibility, I say this: the time for moral responsibility is now - justice demands promises are enforced.” He calls for grants, not loans, which could worsen debt levels.
Browne also says his nation supports Vanuatu’s initiative at the International Court of Justice calling for an opinion on the legal obligations all states have in relation to climate change. “If voluntary promises remain broken, international law will be our path to justice.”
Updated
Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy, is now speaking at the leaders’ event, reports my colleague Damian Carrington, having “arrived late and a little out of breath.”
Meloni points out that the world population will be 8.5bn by 2030 and global GDP much higher, all bringing more demand for energy. As well as renewables, she says “gas, biofuels, hydrogen and carbon capture and storage” all have a role, though scientists are clear all fossil fuels must be phased out.
She also cites nuclear fusion as a potential “gamechanger”, though the joke that fusion is always 40 years away is not showing much sign of getting old. Large scale power from nuclear fusion is very unlikely to arrive in time to stop the global heating aleady wrecking communities around the world.
After a largely technical speech, Meloni finishes on a personal note: “I’m a mother, and as a mother, nothing gives me more satisfaction that when I work for policies that will enable my daughter and her generation to live in a better world.”
Updated
My colleague Damian Carrington has more from today’s leaders’ summit at Cop29 – and news that one of the few G7 world leaders to attend has missed their speaking slot.
Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has missed her slot at the leaders summit part of Cop29. Meloni and the UK’s Keir Starmer are the only G7 leaders to attend.
Meanwhile, the Crown Prince of Kuwait, Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, pledges to cut his nation’s carbon emissions by 80% by 2040, which sounds very impressive but is very unlikely to include the state’s substantial oil and gas production.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, representing the Vatican, focuses on the trillion dollar finance for developing countries that is the key issue in Baku. He says these countries must not be put into further debt with loans for climate action: “Ecological debt and environmental debt are two sides of the same coin.”
Petr Fiala, Prime Minister of Czechia basically makes a sales pitch for his nation’s nuclear power industry. “I strongly believe nuclear power is needed to meet sustainability goals.” He says Czechia has 50 years of experience and is “ready to assist any countries which wishes to use it in the future”. Nuclear power is “clean and very safe”, he says. Critics say it is far more expensive than renewable energy and much slower to build.
Iranian official says sanctions stopping efforts to build county's green economy
The first national leader to speak at Cop29 on Wednesday was Shina Ansari Hamedani, Vice President of Iran, and her speech was a heady mix of climate policy and geopolitics. Her key point was that the “illegal and unilateral” international sanctions against Iran prevent it accessing the finance to build a green economy. In this she included nuclear power, the development of which is a key reason for the sanctions.
She also called the sanctions “unjustified and irrational”, before also condemning the war in Gaza calling Israel the “occupying Zionist regime”. Her final point struck a milder note as she appealed for global action: “Our shared environment is a common bond.”
Iran is both heavily dependent on oil for revenue and very vulnerable to climate impacts, including droughts and deadly humid heatwaves.
Updated
As we are waiting for things to get going in Baku today this is a useful refresher on all things Cop from my colleague Fiona Harvey
Leaders to address summit as report shows failure to cut emissions
It’s day three of Cop29 here in Baku and more global leaders will take to the stage, including Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Pakistan’s Shehbaz Sharif. The aim is to spur negotiators towards a strong deal by setting out the stark impacts of the climate crisis and the “terrible truth” brought by Spain’s Pedro Sánchez and by Mohamed Muizzu from the Maldives did just that.
The president of host nation Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev took a different tack and said his nation’s oil and gas was a “gift from God”.
But all countries are today facing a disastrous report card on climate action in the publication of this year’s Global Carbon Budget report. This finds that emissions from fossil fuels, the overwhelming cause of global heating, will rise in 2024 to another record high.
That is a stark contrast to the agreement at the last summit, Cop28, to “transition away from fossil fuels”, which was hailed as a landmark for the simple but astonishing reason that no previous summit agreement had mentioned fossil fuels. It is also a stark contrast to the reality that emissions must plunge by 43% by 2030 to have any chance of keeping global temperature rise below 1.5C and limiting the climate carnage.
“The impacts of climate change are becoming increasingly dramatic, yet we still see no sign that burning of fossil fuels has peaked,” says Prof Pierre Friedlingstein, at the University of Exeter, who led the report.
So the negotiators have their work cut out to ensure that the next round of national climate commitments, due by February, deliver a step change. Tuesday did see a positive moment when the UK announced a strong commitment, pledging to cut emissions by 81% by 2035, a move that was widely welcomed in Baku.
Wednesday will also see events backed by the Cop29 presidency on advancing the effort to triple nuclear energy and address the challenges for small island developing states, who face literal extinction from the rising seas.
Updated
