How did COP29 end up in Azerbaijan?

Ninety per cent of Azerbaijan’s income comes from oil, so the optics of locating the climate conference there were challenging.

Simon Stiell, executive secretary of UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, pictured on Sept. 22, 2023. He addressed delegates at the opening of the COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan on Nov. 11.UN photograph courtesy of Loey Felipe

Opinion

BY GWYNNE DYER

November 11, 2024

LONDON, U.K.—It’s hard to imagine a less plausible venue for the annual UN-sponsored conference on climate than the dictatorial petrostate of Azerbaijan. Baku, the capital, has a walled medieval centre that’s worth a day or two, but offshore the shallow Caspian Sea is ...

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