COP29 must move from stalling to action
In November, 2024, the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP), the annual United Nations meeting on climate change, will happen in Baku, Azerbaijan, a country where fossil fuels account for two-thirds of its economy.1 The attendees will gather after a Northern Hemisphere summer in 2024 that is the hottest ever recorded, with predictions that 2024 will reach 1·57°C above pre-industrial levels.2 The 2016 Paris Agreement3 agreed to keep “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C” and pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1·5°C above pre-industrial levels”.