Expensive food and the smell of oil – that’s the summit

Expensive food, lots of people, delays and a smell of oil. The climate meeting in Baku is a hotbed for tens of thousands of lobbyists, environmental activists, researchers and journalists. Here are four voices from COP29.

Bernt Nordman is a climate expert and represents WWF Finland on site in Baku.

– The meeting started with a big so-called agenda fight, meaning that the entire first day was spent discussing what we can discuss, he says. So it didn’t start very well, but now the negotiations have started in earnest, he says.

In order to call COP29 a success, a new collection goal for climate finance, the so-called NCQG, is needed.

– The current promise is 100 billion dollars per year, we need a decision that is many times higher.

Simon Evans is policy editor at UK climate news site Carbon Brief. He thinks the meeting has shifted into a new gear.

– Now the negotiations are underway and they are a bit like a bubble in the background until it bursts and takes a more prominent role, he says.

The logistics have worked unusually smoothly. But the food is expensive – a soup lunch costs the equivalent of just over SEK 260.

– There are no windows here, and there is very strong artificial light. So it’s a typical COP environment, he says.

Lower motivation

David Lapola, professor at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas is still jet lagged after the trip from his native Brazil. He will present a research report at one of the fair’s many side events.

He says that there are a lot of people, but that the motivation feels lower than in Dubai last year.

– I don’t think people expect that much from this year’s COP. Ambitions are not that high.

He notes that his specialist area of ​​forests is absent, but that it may have a greater role in next year’s meeting in Brazil.

– It’s a big paradox here in Baku because it literally smells like oil. I think there’s a refinery nearby, and the smoke is wafting over the city. Everywhere you see the conference’s motto – in solidarity for a green world – but the scent you smell rhymes badly with it, he says.

Buckles up

Laetitia Pettinotti is an observer from the ODI think tank, and as an observer has insight into the negotiations – which began with delays.

– Everyone braces themselves for a marathon, she says.

She thinks that more than a target amount is required for the agreement to be seen as successful. It needs to emphasize the urgency, be clear and act as a springboard for financial climate cooperation.

– Because there is much more to negotiate when it comes to climate finance, she says.