Mukhtar Babayev, COP29 President, speaks during the opening plenary session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, November 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan
THE Cop29 climate summit, which began in Azerbaijani capital Baku today, will hear the usual soaring rhetoric, urgent pleas and pledges of co-operation contrasting with political changes, wars and economic hardship across the world.
But one of the central tasks in Baku, where the world’s first oil well was drilled, will be to reach a deal to help developing nations transition their energy systems away from planet-warming fossil fuels and towards clean energy, while providing compensation for climate-related disasters mostly triggered by carbon pollution from rich nations and ensuring adaptation to future extreme weather.
Summit president Mukhtar Babayev said that the 29th United Nations Conference of the Parties “is a moment of truth for the Paris Agreement,” which in 2015 set a goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C above the level of pre-industrial times.
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
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?
As the Alliance of Sahel States and southern African nations advance pan-African goals, the African Union must listen and learn rather than parroting the Western line on these positive developments, writes ROGER McKENZIE
