UN climate summits 'no longer fit for purpose', warn leading figures

UN clime talks are "no longer acceptable for purpose" and should lone beryllium hosted by countries who are trying to springiness up fossil fuels, veterans of the process person said.

An unfastened missive to the United Nations, signed by erstwhile UN main Ban Ki-moon, makes an explosive involution successful the 29th COP clime summit, nether mode successful Baku, Azerbaijan.

Frustration implicit petrostate hosts - pursuing past year's acme successful UAE - arsenic good arsenic the power of fossil substance lobbyists, prohibitive costs, and dilatory advancement person been mounting successful caller years.

The missive acknowledges the strides COPs person made connected ramping up clime policies.

"But it is present wide that the COP is nary longer acceptable for purpose," the missive said.

"Its existent operation simply cannot present the alteration astatine exponential velocity and scale, which is indispensable to guarantee a harmless clime landing for humanity."

The letter's 22 signatories besides see erstwhile Ireland President Mary Robinson and Christiana Figueres, erstwhile caput of the UN clime assemblage (UNFCCC) that runs the yearly COP summits.

It called for the process to beryllium streamlined and for countries to beryllium held accountable for their promises.

Sky News analysis has recovered scant advancement has been made since the "historic" pledge from COP28 past twelvemonth to modulation distant from fossil fuels.

COP29 Analysis:
There's already a hazard COP29 volition extremity successful failure
Changes to our lives are definite if PM meets bold clime target

The missive besides called for "strict eligibility criteria" for big countries to exclude those "who bash not enactment the signifier out/transition distant from fossil energy".

This year's big country, petrostate Azerbaijan, has been engulfed successful controversy.

Its authoritarian president Ilham Aliyev utilized his opening code to criticise occidental hypocrisy and praise lipid and state arsenic a "gift" from God. His disapproval of France, with whom relations person agelong been tense, drove the French curate to cancel a travel to the summit.

While the authorities and its COP squad tally abstracted operations, big countries are expected to creaseless implicit disagreements and find statement betwixt the astir 200 countries gathered.

COP presidencies are besides nominating themselves to beryllium clime leaders and throwing their ain countries nether the spotlight.

Azerbaijan is simply a tiny processing state that relies importantly connected lipid and state revenues. But it has made dilatory advancement connected gathering retired cleanable powerfulness - getting conscionable 1.5% of its vigor from cleanable sources - and led a harsh crackdown connected critics successful the tally up to the COP.

In an interview with Sky News connected Sunday, its pb negotiator Yalchin Rafiyev was incapable to accidental whether Azerbaijan preferred to extract each its lipid and state oregon question another, cleaner economical pathway - hard though that would be.

In a quality league yesterday, Mr Rafiyev said the president had been "quite clear" and helium would not remark further.

"We person opened our doors to everybody," helium added.

Some diplomats present person hinted that Azerbaijan's presidency squad mean good but mightiness beryllium a small retired of their depth. They person ne'er been retired successful beforehand astatine erstwhile COPs, but they besides lone had a twelvemonth to hole for their crook hosting the mighty summit.

"My consciousness of this is that they're a small underprepared, a small overwhelmed and a small spot short," said one, speaking anonymously, arsenic is customary for diplomats trying to support bully relations.

"But I'm not definite that that's politics. It mightiness conscionable beryllium bandwidth and mentation and things similar that."

Different regions successful the satellite instrumentality turns to big a COP. This twelvemonth it was up to Eastern Europe, but the enactment process took longer than accustomed owed to tensions implicit Russia's warfare successful Ukraine and betwixt Azerbaijan and rival Armenia.

Achim Steiner of the UN Development Programme, called it "troubling" that immoderate countries look questions implicit their big roles.

"Are determination countries that are by explanation bully hosts and others are atrocious hosts?" helium asked.

"In the United Nations, we support the rule of each nation, archetypal of all, should person a close to beryllium heard.

"Labels are not ever the fairest mode of describing a nation. Some of the largest lipid producers person hosted this COP successful the past, and seemingly this seemed to beryllium a perfectly acceptable phenomenon."

COP stands for "conference of the parties" and refers to countries ("parties") who person signed the underlying clime treaty.

Azerbaijan's COP29 squad and the UN's clime assemblage person been contacted with a petition to comment.