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.

The world is on course for 1.5°C of warming this year, which is expected to become the hottest year in human civilisation, the European climate service Copernicus announced earlier this month. But the Paris 1.5°C goal is about decades, not one year of that amount of warming.

The effects of climate change in terms of disasters such as hurricanes, droughts and floods are already here, Mr Babayev said.

“We are on the road to ruin,” he warned. “Whether you see them or not, people are suffering in the shadows. They are dying in the dark. And they need more than compassion. More than prayers and paperwork. They are crying out for leadership and action.”

“Cop29 is the unmissable moment to chart a new path forward for everyone."

UN climate secretary Simon Stiell, whose home island of Carriacou was devastated by Hurricane Beryl earlier this year, said: “Let’s 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,” because it will keep future warming from hitting 5°C, which is where he said the world was going before it started fighting climate change.

Last week’s presidential election victory for climate change denier Donald Trump in the US, the world’s largest carbon emitter, will clearly alter the dynamics of the negotiations.

But some of those attending the summit remain optimistic. 

“Within sight of the destruction lies the seed of creation,” Hopi and Akimel O’odham community organiserJacob Johns said at a panel discussion of indigenous peoples’ hopes for climate action. 

“We have to realise that we are not citizens of one nation, we are the Earth.”