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.