Opinion: Neglect of Health Care and the Election

Top: Participants arrive on day four at the UNFCCC COP29 Climate Conference on November 14, 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Visual: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

I f speeches and slogans could save the climate, COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, would already be a success. But there are few signs the current round of climate talks will deliver on the only thing proven to slow global warming: rapid greenhouse gas cuts.

In fact, just ahead of the talks in Baku, COP29 CEO Elnur Soltanov was secretly recorded making plans to wrangle new oil and gas deals during the two-week conference. Last year’s COP28 in Dubai was headed by Sultan Al Jaber, head of ADNOC, the United Arab Emirates’ national oil company. And two years before that, fossil fuel companies paid Glasgow COP26 organizers at least $33 million to sponsor the talks. 

Climate policy experts say conflicts of interest that prevent any real progress on reducing fossil fuel emissions are now baked into the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The talks have also grown too large and unwieldy, critics complain, and since the beginning, the UNFCCC process has marginalized the concerns of smaller developing countries, Indigenous peoples, and women.

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