Cop29: five critical issues still left hanging after an underwhelming UN climate summit in Azerbaijan

By Mark Maslin, Professor of Natural Sciences, UCL
Priti Parikh, Professor of Infrastructure Engineering and International Development, UCL
Simon Chin-Yee, Lecturer in International Development, UCL

Billed as the “finance Cop”, the 29th UN climate change summit (otherwise known as Cop29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, was expected to provide the money to enable the transition away from fossil fuels announced at last year’s Cop28.

Negotiations were focused on increasing the US$100 billion (£79.4 billion) promised per year by developed countries to help the least developed countries build up their renewable energy capacity. Many demanded a ten-fold increase, as

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