Skip to main content
Job vacancy with the National Education Union
Climate summit process no longer fit for purpose, experts say
Activists participate in a demonstration calling for climate finance during the Cop29 UN Climate Summit, November 14, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan

THE global climate policy process is no longer fit for purpose and requires comprehensive overhaul, a group of prominent scientists, advocates and policy leaders said today. 

The urgent message in the open letter  to the United Nations comes as world leaders gather in the Azerbaijani capital Baku for the 29th Conference of the Parties climate summit (Cop29).

Signatories to the letter include former UN secretary-general Ban Ki Moon, Earth4All executive chairwoman Sandrine Dixson-Decleve, Potsdam Institute for Climate Action Research director Johan Rockstrom, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change former executive secretary Christiana Figueres and former Ireland president Mary Robinson.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Chinese President Xi Jinping virtually addresses a climate summit, September 24, 2025, at U.N. headquarters
Climate Crisis / 25 September 2025
25 September 2025
Morning Star team in China
Features / 20 September 2025
20 September 2025

ROGER McKENZIE argues that the BRI represents a choice between treating humans as commodities or as equals — an essential project when, aside from China’s efforts, hundreds of millions worldwide are trapped in poverty

A PROMISE RENEGED ON: Let Us Beat Swords Into Plowshares bronze sculpture by Soviet artist Evgeny Vuchetich which encapsules the UN charter. It was presented to the UN in December 1959 by the government of the USSR, it stands in the North Garden of UN HQ in New York Pic: Rodsan18/CC
Features / 18 September 2025
18 September 2025

The colonial mindset behind the governance of the UN is the reason for its inertia when it comes to conflict resolution, argues ROGER McKENZIE – but can China’s Global Governance Initiative point in a new direction of global equality?

Conference on Belt and Road Initiative media coverage opens in China
China / 16 September 2025
16 September 2025
Similar stories
Activists participate in a demonstration for phasing out fos
Features / 20 November 2024
20 November 2024
TOM HARDY traces how these climate conferences have been captured by fossil fuel interests while CO₂ levels have continued to rise since 1995 — but XR’s citizen assemblies and direct action have offered an alternative
Activists demonstrate for climate justice and a ceasefire in
Britain / 11 November 2024
11 November 2024
Protesters hit out at fossil fuel corporations fuelling the climate crisis and profiting from genocide in Gaza
Mukhtar Babayev, COP29 President, speaks during the opening
World / 11 November 2024
11 November 2024