Even before the ink was dry on the COP29 agreement, there's skepticism about what was actually achieved.
Photographer: Dominika Zarzycka/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty ImagesInside the Frantic Maneuvers That Saved COP29 Talks at a Cost
Two weeks of difficult negotiations came to the brink of failure before settling on a $300 billion deal that flashes warnings for the future of climate diplomacy.
Negotiations over hundreds of billions of dollars in new climate funding for developing countries had staggered into overtime at COP29 in Azerbaijan. Bitter recriminations had thrown a desperate, closed-door session on Saturday into what looked like a fatal impasse. It only darkened the mood that food had all but run out the night before inside the Baku Olympic Stadium, which had become United Nations territory during the annual summit.
As talks stagnated, a group of envoys from some of the most vulnerable nations — including island states who see themselves as the first casualties of rising seas and runaway temperatures — abruptly walked out.