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The 29th UN Climate Change Conference, COP29, began in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, on Monday. Over the course of two weeks, representatives of more than 190 nations have been tasked with finding ways to bring under control global carbon emissions, which have been rising for decades.
The negotiators are expected to secure concrete commitments and pledges of action from the leading economies of the world on how they intend to cut emissions and, more specifically, the time frame for doing so.
But this is not all they are expected to do. Another equally or even more challenging task is to ensure rich countries finally meet their commitments on financing to help the developing world deal with climate change through mitigation, adaptation, and upgrading infrastructure to cut carbon emissions.
For more than two decades, wealthier nations have repeatedly reneged on agreements to provide the hundreds of billions of dollars needed each year to help developing nations, in which more than 75 percent of the global population live, address the effects of climate change, which are already causing havoc and widespread destruction, again mainly in the developing world.
In any global negotiations, international geopolitics are a key factor; countries that are not viciously divided over numerous issues can, indeed, find ways to reach agreement. However, the current global situation is terrible; the world has rarely been so divided and countries rarely so distrustful of each other as they are now.
This is not only a matter of prolonged conflicts such as those between Russia and Ukraine or Israel and Palestine, but also China’s disagreements with the US and the EU, and friction between Africa and European nations, notably France. The list goes on. Even at the peak of the Cold War, the world did not appear so divided.
The geopolitical situation seems unlikely to evolve in a positive way in the near future, although there are some who are hoping against hope that the Trump 2.0 White House might actually help to reduce tensions globally.
It is against this backdrop, then, that COP29 began in Baku on Nov. 11 and will continue until Nov. 22. One vital question for negotiators is whether they can maintain what little momentum was obtained, against all odds, during COP28 in Dubai last year.
The first major breakthrough a year ago was an agreement for the first-ever global stocktake, basically an exercise to determine exactly what is happening with carbon emissions at the global and national levels, and to benchmark the figures against commitments made during COP21 in Paris in 2015.
This review of the situation is essential to ensure the nations that signed up to the Paris Agreement are actually keeping their promises, to ensure accountability, and so that corrective action can be taken in terms of adjusting the pace and form of efforts to meet the goals of the agreement.
The global stocktake also includes a review of the financial assistance provided by developed countries to their developing counterparts. 

The world has rarely been so divided and countries rarely so distrustful of each other as they are now.

Ranvir S. Nayar

Another significant outcome of the conference in Dubai was a commitment by nations, for the first time in 30 years of UN negotiations, to transition away from fossil fuels in a “just, orderly, and equitable manner.”
The fact that this agreement on a commitment to ditch oil, gas, and coal was reached in a country, and region, that depends on fossil fuels for more than 70 percent of its gross domestic product was not lost on anyone.
Though this transition agreement remains only a promise on paper for now like almost every other major decision so far in climate change negotiations, COP28 President Sultan Al-Jaber nonetheless deserves plaudits for pulling it off during his presidency. Compare this to COP24 in Katowice in 2018, when host nation Poland refused to push a proposal to phase out coal because the host city was the site of a historic coal mine and the country depends on coal to meet a small fraction of its energy needs.
Five years later, the momentum generated under the presidency of Al-Jaber indicated that even in difficult situations, the right kind of guidance and leadership can help negotiators to find a way to navigate even the most complicated issues.
The man who took up the mantle from Al-Jaber as president of COP29 is Mukhtar Bahadur Babayev, an Azerbaijani minister, whose country, like the UAE, depends to a very large extent on oil and gas exports.
Babayev can perhaps take inspiration from what Al-Jaber managed to achieve in Dubai and try to keep the ball rolling in Baku. Despite the many differences between the backdrops to the two conferences, he can maybe take heart from the similarities that also abound.
After all, both the UAE and Azerbaijan are relatively small, wealthy countries, with economies that depend to a significant degree on fossil fuels, and both Baku and Dubai are among the most modern cities in the world, attracting millions of tourists each year.
Just as Al-Jaber managed to secure an agreement on the transition away from fossil fuels, Babayev can perhaps secure an agreement for a mechanism to ensure that countries, in particular the rich ones, are actually held accountable and face a real threat of punitive action if they continue to fail to keep their promises and meet their commitments.
This is what the world needs to see after watching the leaders of wealthy nations make false promises, year after year for more than two decades.

• Ranvir S. Nayar is the managing editor of Media India Group and founder-director of the Europe India Foundation for Excellence.