Divisive trillion dollar deal that (nearly) sank COP29 summit

AT THE COP15 climate summit, in Copenhagen in 2009, then-US secretary of state Hillary Clinton told then-US president Barack Obama that the event was “the worst meeting I’ve been to since eighth grade student council” of 13 to14 year olds. However, the just-concluded COP29 in Baku may have seized this mantle of the worst ever organised annual UN-hosted global warming event.

This is not just embarrassing to the Azerbaijani hosts who – grandly – billed the event as a landmark “finance COP”. It also threatens the legitimacy of future climate summits, including Brazil’s COP30 next year which will now require supreme political skill to organise.

Several times last Saturday (Nov 23) the talks threatened to collapse completely. This included a walkout by dozens of countries from the Alliance of Small Island States, which represents countries that are most vulnerable to climate change.