Current:Home > NewsBaku to the future: After stalemate, UN climate talks will be in Azerbaijan in 2024 -MarketLink
Baku to the future: After stalemate, UN climate talks will be in Azerbaijan in 2024
View
Date:2025-04-24 22:16:31
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — For years, climate change has been a factor — not the only one — in wars and conflicts. Now for the first time, it’s part of a peace deal.
A long-time stand-off that had turned the choice for next year’s United Nations climate talks into a melodrama and mystery resolved as part of a prisoner swap settlement between Azerbaijan and Armenia. It set the stage for the COP29 climate talks in 2024 to be in a city where one of the world’s first oil fields developed 1,200 years ago: Baku, Azerbaijan.
It also means that for back-to-back years an oil powerhouse nation will be hosting climate talks — where the focus is often on eliminating fossil fuels. And it will become three straight years that the U.N. puts its showcase conference, where protests and civil engagement often take center stage, in a nation with restrictions on free speech.
In 2021, the COP was in Glasgow, where the modern steam engine was built and the industrial revolution started.
“It’s very ironic,” said longtime COP analyst Alden Meyer of the European think-tank E3G.
Climate talks historian Jonna Depledge of Cambridge University said, “there’s nothing inherently wrong with that. On the contrary, this is where the change needs to needs to happen.”
“The fact they want to step up and be a climate leader is a positive thing,” said Ani Dasgupta, head of the World Resources Institute and a former Baku resident. “How will they do it? We don’t know yet.”
It’s also about peace. In its announcement about a prisoner exchange, the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan wrote: “As a sign of good gesture, the Republic of Armenia supports the bid of the Republic of Azerbaijan to host the 29th Session of the Conference of Parties ... by withdrawing its own candidacy.”
Climate change often causes drought, crop failures and other extreme weather that is a factor in wars from sub-Saharan Africa to Syria, Dasgupta said. So it’s nice for climate change to be part of peace for the first time, he said.
This month’s talks in Dubai were planned more than two years in advance, while the Baku decision is coming just 11 months before the negotiations are supposed to start.
The United Nations moves the talks’ location around the world with different regions taking turns. Next year is Eastern Europe’s turn and the decision on where the talks will be held has to be unanimous in the area. Russia vetoed European Union members and initially Azerbaijan and Armenia vetoed each other.
But the peace decision cleared the way for Baku, and all that’s left is the formality of the conference in Dubai to formally accept the choice for 2024, United Nations officials said.
___
Read more of AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment
___
Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears
___
Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
veryGood! (7)
Related
- The White House is cracking down on overdraft fees
- Teddi Mellencamp Shares Next Step in Cancer Battle After Unsuccessful Immunotherapy
- Robbers' getaway car stolen as they're robbing Colorado check chasing store, police say
- Appeals court says Mark Meadows can’t move Georgia election case charges to federal court
- Romantasy reigns on spicy BookTok: Recommendations from the internet’s favorite genre
- An airstrike likely carried out by Jordan’s air force targets drug dealers in Syria, reports say
- Charlotte Hornets' Miles Bridges denied entry to Canada over legal situation, per report
- Is black pepper good for you? Try it as a substitute.
- Why members of two of EPA's influential science advisory committees were let go
- Somber, joyful, magical: Some of the most compelling AP religion photos of 2023
Ranking
- Chuck Scarborough signs off: Hoda Kotb, Al Roker tribute legendary New York anchor
- Greek consulate in New York removes pink flag artwork against domestic violence, sparking dispute
- Teamsters authorize potential strike at Bud Light maker Anheuser-Busch's US breweries
- Working families struggle to afford child care. Could Michigan’s ‘Tri-Share’ model work?
- New Mexico governor seeks funding to recycle fracking water, expand preschool, treat mental health
- Mold free: Tomatoes lost for 8 months on space station are missing something in NASA photo
- Shania Twain Jokes Brad Pitt's 60th Birthday Don't Impress Her Much in Cheeky Comment
- Rachel Bilson Reflects on Feud With Whoopi Goldberg Over Men’s Sex Lives
Recommendation
McConnell absent from Senate on Thursday as he recovers from fall in Capitol
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, first woman on the Supreme Court, to be laid to rest at funeral Tuesday
Storm slams East Coast with wind-swept rain flooding streets, delaying travel: Live updates
Kendall Jenner Steps Out With Justin Bieber and Friends in Aspen Amid Bad Bunny Breakup
Juan Soto to be introduced by Mets at Citi Field after striking record $765 million, 15
Mold free: Tomatoes lost for 8 months on space station are missing something in NASA photo
Did America get 'ripped off'? UFO disclosure bill derided for lack of transparency.
Many kids are still skipping kindergarten. Since the pandemic, some parents don’t see the point