As COP29 in Baku heads into its second week, talks have resumed “with tempered hope that negotiators and ministers can work through disagreements and hammer out a deal after slow progress last week”, says the Associated Press. That hope “comes from the arrival of the climate and environment ministers from around the world this week”, the newswire says. It quotes Melanie Robinson from the World Resources Institute, who says: “We are in a difficult place…The discussion has not yet moved to the political level – when it does I think ministers will do what they can to make a deal.” There is widespread reporting on the lack of progress in week one on a new collective goal on climate finance – including from the Associated Press, Forbes, Hindustan Times, Carbon Pulse and the Hindu. Grist says that COP29 is “deadlocked on one ugly question”. It says: “Everyone at the COP29 climate summit agrees that the world’s poorest and most climate-vulnerable countries need trillions of dollars to transition to clean energy and cope with climate-fueled disasters. And everyone agrees that rich countries, which are responsible for a disproportionate share of historic carbon pollution, have some responsibility to pay up for this. But the question nobody can seem to agree on is this: Which countries are rich?”

German development secretary Jochen Flasbarth has warned that countries must come to a deal this week because “there are clear signals that we will get in difficult times” for future summits, reports the Guardian. Flasbarth, who the newspaper describes as “one of the most influential figures at COP29”, tells the outlet: “Postponing the decision here to Belém [the city in northern Brazil where next year’s UN climate summit will be held] is not something advisable…We have an increasing crisis in the world, war in the world, and countries disappearing from global solidarity like the US, and the departure of the Argentinian delegation.” Euronews looks into “much is needed and where [it is] coming from”, while Le Monde has an article on the “search for innovative climate financing”. 

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that “a long-awaited fund designed to help lower-income countries respond to natural disasters is finally taking shape”. The Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage – agreed at COP28 in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, last year – now “has a leader and is looking to start distributing money within the next year”. The newspaper says that formal agreements have been signed at COP29 “that will allow the fund to begin formally receiving the money that has been pledged and to start distributing it soon”. Less positive is the “puzzling” lack of financial pledges to the UN Adaptation Fund, Mikko Ollikainen – who is head of the fund – tells Climate Home News. He tells the outlet: “Contributor governments [are] almost all talking about the importance of adaptation – and quite a few of them are recognising the need for grant-based financing for adaptation especially – so it’s puzzling how that relates to the reality of there not being new pledges to the Adaptation Fund or adaptation funds in general.” The fund has only managed to secure contributions of around $61m from donor countries at a fundraising event on Thursday, against its annual goal of $300m, the outlet notes. A second article reports on how aid agencies are “grappl[ing] with climate adaptation in fragile states”. And a Reuters “exclusive” reports that a group of conflict-affected countries “is pushing at COP29 to double financial aid to more than $20bn a year to combat the natural disaster and security crises facing their populations”. 

In other COP29 coverage. Reuters says the summit is “struggling to focus minds on the health of the planet, with turbulent geopolitics, a confrontational host and the re-election of US climate sceptic Donald Trump stealing the limelight”. The New York Times reports that US officials have been “seeking to assure the world that US climate action won’t end with the return of Donald Trump as president”. Inside Climate News reports that measures to limit methane and other non-CO2 greenhouse gases “are likely to stall” under Trump.  President-elect Donald Trump. The Sunday Times reports that “talks to keep Russian fuel flowing to Europe in a controversial ‘gas-swap’ scheme” have been held at COP29. It was described by environmental groups as “a Trojan horse to sneak Russian influence into Europe”. Bloomberg says that Saudi Arabia is “leading a push back” against plans for countries to recommit to last year’s historic pledge to transition away from fossil fuels. BusinessGreen reports that the UK has backed a “collective target to deliver [a] six-fold increase in global energy storage capacity”, which was among a “flurry of energy initiatives officially unveiled in Baku”. The New York Times says that nuclear power “was once shunned at climate talks”, but is now “a rising star”. And UK energy secretary Ed Miliband tells the Guardian at COP29 that renewable energy is now “unstoppable”, and no government can prevent the shift to a global low-carbon economy. 

Diplomatic tensions over global warming “spilled over into the G20 summit negotiations in Brazil”, reports Reuters, “with sources saying the 20 major economies reached a fragile consensus on climate finance that had eluded UN talks in Azerbaijan”. Heads of state arrived in Rio de Janeiro yesterday for the G20 summit and will spend Monday and Tuesday addressing issues from poverty and hunger to the reform of global institutions, the newswire explains, noting that “leaders of the Group of 20 major economies half a world away [from COP29 in Baku] in Rio are holding the purse strings” on climate finance. On Saturday, discussions of a G20 joint statement in Rio “snagged” on “the same fights that have plagued COP29”, the article says: “Wealthy countries, especially in Europe, have been saying that an ambitious goal [on climate finance] can only be agreed if they expand the base of contributors to include some of the richer developing nations, such as China and major Middle Eastern oil producers.” But, the newswire says, early on Sunday morning, “negotiators agreed to a text mentioning developing nations’ voluntary contributions to climate finance, stopping short of calling them obligations”. 

On Saturday, UN climate chief Simon Stiell  had written a letter to the G20 calling on leaders to “send crystal-clear global signals” on climate finance, Reuters reports. He said they should support an increase in grants and loans, along with debt relief, so vulnerable countries “are not hamstrung by debt servicing costs that make bolder climate actions all but impossible”, according to the newswire. BusinessGreen also covers the letter, while the Financial Times reports – on its frontpage – on how Donald Trump’s recent election victory “threatens to throw G20 initiatives into disarray”.

Simon Stiell, UNFCCC executive secretary, said at COP29 that “China must step up and help lead the fight against climate change, starting with a strong new climate target”, Politico reports. The news outlet quotes Chinese environment vice-minister Zhao Yingmin, in response to Stiell’s comments, saying: “China has contributed to addressing climate change. But in the future, China will do our best to contribute more.” Bloomberg quotes South Africa’s environment minister saying China could “lead the global fight against climate change”. China may be “wary of converting its previous intentions [to strengthen climate action] into robust policy measures until the incoming US president has revealed more of his plans”, the Guardian says. Experts tell economic newswire Yicai at COP29 that “China’s shift toward green energy is becoming a major driver of job creation and economic benefits”. Chen Weihua, EU bureau chief of the state-run China Daily, writes that “geopolitical rivalry” should not “undermine global solidarity” on climate.

Energy news outlet International Energy Net quotes China’s environment minister Huang Runqiu saying in a COP29 finance meeting that developed countries should “fulfil their financial commitments to developing nations”, highlighting the need to “balance quantity and quality of funding”, focusing on “public financing from developed countries” and improving “accessibility”. The Associated Press covers research launched at COP29 revealing that “seven states or provinces spew more than 1bn metric tonnes of greenhouse gases”, six of which are in China. Nigerian newspaper News Central says that Nigeria and China “announced a new partnership” at COP29 “to advance renewable energy projects and green industrialisation in Nigeria”. The Ethiopian News Agency reports that “Ethiopia and China are driving meaningful progress towards the Paris Agreement and setting an example for international climate cooperation” at COP29. Jiemian says the “first solar project developed and invested by Chinese companies in South Africa” has begun construction.

In Peru, Chinese president Xi Jinping inaugurated the Chancay deep-water port as Beijing “look[s] to further tap into resource-rich Latin America”, Reuters reports. The Associated Press covers complaints by nearby residents of fishing spots being “destroyed”. The South China Morning Post says China’s advantage of an “abundant supply of rare-earth minerals” may cease to be an advantage if recycling of the minerals is increased. Xi writes in a comment piece in Brazilian newspaper Folha de S Paulo that “the G20 must advance international cooperation in such areas as green and low-carbon development, environmental protection, energy transition and climate change response”. 

Elsewhere, industry news outlet BJX News reports that the “rising non-technical costs”, such as “land use” and “fluctuating electricity prices”, pose challenges to China’s large-scale solar development. An executive at solar manufacturer Longi told Bloomberg China’s solar industry is “on the road to recovery”. Yicai quotes Liu Shijin, chief advisor at the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), saying “overcapacity” in China “should be correctly understood” as “normal processes of market competition”, adding “disturbance of the market order by the government’s undue administrative intervention and unfair competition” should be avoided.

Human rights groups have accused Azerbaijan’s government of using COP29 to crack down on environmental activists and other political opponents, BBC News reports. Natalia Nozadze from Amnesty International tells the outlet that, since Azerbaijan was announced as COP29 host, “we’ve seen a dramatic increase in arrests and clamp down on all issues that the government may perceive critical or contrary to its political agenda”. The article notes that “for the first time since the early 2000s, the number of political prisoners – including journalists, environmental activists and political opponents – has reached more than 300”. It continues: “This is the third year in a row a country hosting the climate summit has been accused of oppression and curtailing the legal right to protest…The Azerbaijani government rejects the claims and says the government holds no political prisoners.”

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports on how hosting the COP29 climate summit “has brought disruption – and even hardship – to [the] daily lives of millions living in and around Baku. COP29 is “the biggest influx of visitors in the city’s history, and the government has done everything possible to present a positive experience”, the article says: “Streets that usually bustle with workers and shoppers are almost empty. Vendors selling cheap fruit and vegetables disappeared in early November, days before COP29 got under way. The so-called ‘slave markets’ where legions of the unemployed, mostly men, gather in search of informal manual jobs have also vanished. Even Baku’s ever-present beggars are nowhere to be seen.” 

In other reporting around COP29, the Guardian reports that Azerbaijan has “rolled out ‘red carpet’ treatment to fossil fuel bosses and lobbyists”. It says: “At least 132 oil and gas company senior executives and staff were invited to the COP29 summit, and had special badges denoting they were guests of the presidency.” The Guardian also reports that “at least 480 lobbyists working on carbon capture and storage (CCS) have been granted access to COP29”. DeSmog reports that the CEO of Centrica, the parent company of British Gas, “has quietly gained access” to the summit. The Associated Press reports that “hundreds of activists formed a human chain outside one of the main plenary halls during a protest at COP29”. The newswire also speaks to “12 Indigenous people attending this year’s negotiations to say one thing about how climate change is impacting their community”. And Brad Plumer from the New York Times has a piece on “what it’s like to report from the summit”. 

President-elect Donald Trump has picked oil and gas industry executive Chris Wright to lead the US Department of Energy – a man that Reuters describes as a “staunch defender of fossil fuel use”. It continues: “Wright is the founder and CEO of Liberty Energy, an oilfield services firm based in Denver. He is expected to support Trump’s plan to maximise production of oil and gas and to seek ways to boost generation of electricity, demand for which is rising for the first time in decades.” The newswire says that Wright is “likely to share Trump’s opposition to global cooperation on fighting climate change”, noting that he has “called climate change activists alarmist and has likened efforts by Democrats to combat global warming to Soviet-style communism”. He also “made a media splash in 2019 when he drank fracking fluid on camera to demonstrate it was not dangerous”. The Washington Post, BBC News and Al Jazeera all describe Wright as a climate change “sceptic”. The Post notes that, in a LinkedIn video last year, Wright said: “There is no climate crisis…the only thing resembling a crisis with respect to climate change is the regressive, opportunity-squelching policies justified in the name of climate change.” Axios notes that Wright has called net-zero emissions pledges “silly” and “hopelessly destructive” because of the costs that come with cleaner energy sources. The Associated Press, New York Times, Financial Times, Times, Bloomberg, CNN and Politico all have the story. In an analysis article, Sky News climate reporter Victoria Seabrook says the choice “spells disaster for the fight against climate change”.

Relatedly, Reuters reports that Trump also announced the creation of a National Energy Council to coordinate policies to boost US energy production – and that will be led by his pick for interior secretary, North Dakota governor Doug Burgum. The Independent delves into the comments on climate by many of Trump’s picks. And the Associated Press reports on how Alaska’s political leaders “hope to see Trump undo restrictions on oil drilling”. 

Meanwhile, a Reuters “exclusive” reports that Trump’s transition team “is planning to kill the $7,500 consumer tax credit for electric-vehicle purchases as part of broader tax-reform legislation”. The newswire adds: “Ending the tax credit could have grave implications for an already stalling US EV transition. And yet representatives of Tesla – by far the nation’s biggest EV maker – have told a Trump-transition committee they support ending the subsidy, said the two sources, speaking on condition of anonymity.” In response, Reuters also reports, current energy secretary Jennifer Granholm told reporters at COP29 that cancelling the tax credit would mean “ceding the territory to other countries, particularly China”. A third Reuters article reports that the chief executive of utility firm Edison International has said that the US utility industry wants the incoming Trump administration to preserve clean energy and EV tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act.

In other US news, Reuters reports that Joe Biden plans to finalise the “clean fuel programme” – which would provide credits for the production of sustainable aviation fuel and other lower-emission transportation fuels – before he leaves office. Bloomberg says that Biden is also weighing up “a last-ditch push for an international agreement that would restrict financial support for foreign oil and gas projects” before talks between the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) start today. And the Associated Press and Reuters reports that Joe Biden yesterday became the first sitting US president to visit the Amazon rainforest.

UK transport secretary Louise Haigh has reiterated that rules on the percentage of electric vehicles (EVs) car firms must sell in the UK will not be weakened, despite growing pressure from the industry, BBC News reports. Speaking to LBC Radio yesterday, Haigh said she will look at “flexibilities”, but insisted that “the mandate will not be weakened”, the article explains. She said: “There has been a downturn in demand on a global level so we are absolutely in listening mode – we want to discuss how the current situation is affecting them, but we are not diluting our ambition…I’m meeting with Nissan tomorrow and the business secretary, the energy minister and I are meeting with a number of automotive manufacturers later in the week in order to discuss the challenges that they face on a global scale.” The Financial Times had reported on Saturday that Nissan planned to warn ministers that the UK car industry has reached a “crisis point”, with jobs and competitiveness at risk unless the government relaxes electric vehicle rules. The Sunday Times says that rules on quotas – which sees carmakers, as of this year, ensure that 22% of car sales and 10% of van sales in the UK are EVs, or incur a £15,000 penalty for each vehicle outside the target – ”may be adjusted to relieve the pressure on the industry”. According to the newspaper, government sources played down the prospect of an imminent decision, but said that “this is the beginning of a consultation to explore what we can do”. The Financial Times also has the story, while the Guardian reports that “big UK businesses including Ovo, SSE and BT Openreach are urging the government to stick to current electric car targets”. In the Times, Michael Lohscheller – chief executive of EV manufacturer Polestar – writes that “car makers stand ready to speed the green transition”.

Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph reports that energy secretary Ed Miliband is set to “drastically scale back the fines that manufacturers will face if they fail to sell enough heat pumps”. The Daily Telegraph also reports that chancellor Rachel Reeves has written to City of London regulators, including the Bank of England, saying they must do more to prioritise green policies. The Sunday Telegraph reports the comments of a senior executive of RWE, who has warned that the UK’s plan to make the energy grid net-zero by 2030 is “not feasible” and risks sparking a price surge. BBC News says that the future of a proposed new coal mine in Whitehaven, Cumbria, “is still unclear”, despite a ban on new schemes. And Reuters reports that energy regulator Ofgem has approved a £2bn pounds of funding to build nearly 200km of new subsea and underground cables linking Scotland to the north-east of England. 

Elsewhere, the UK’s right-leaning media reacts to the government’s attendance at COP29. In a frontpage story, the Mail on Sunday reports that the UK has an “astonishing” 470 delegates at the summit. [This is reported as an “exclusive”, despite Carbon Brief reporting country delegation sizes last Tuesday. The newspaper also says it “obtained” the official figures, which presumably means it just downloaded them from the UNFCCC website where they are freely available.] The article includes the revelation that Baku is “almost 2,500 miles from London”. The Daily Telegraph picks up on the Mail’s reporting and also reports that Keir Starmer has “been accused of emboldening the repressive Azerbaijan regime” by attending COP29. Finally, the Daily Mail reports that “oh so green” Ed Miliband “has racked up around 23,000 air miles since the general election”.

The Guardian covers Carbon Brief’s updated map of extreme event attribution research, describing it as “stark evidence of how global heating is already supercharging deadly weather beyond anything ever experienced by humanity”. The article focuses on the “dozens” of studies showing how “previously impossible heatwaves have struck communities across the planet”. It says: “The impossible heatwaves have taken lives across North America, Europe and Asia, with scientific analyses showing that they would have had virtually zero chance of happening without the extra heat trapped by fossil fuel emissions.” Dr Joyce Kimutai of Imperial College London tells the newspaper that “the increasing role of climate change in the intensities of extreme weather events is definitely worrying…And if this continues it’s really going to be difficult for everyone. The climate crisis is not discriminating how it affects people. It’s hitting every part of the world.” The article quotes Carbon Brief’s senior science editor Robert McSweeney, who says the “sheer weight of this evidence reinforces the impact that human-caused warming is having today – not at some far-off point in the future”. The Guardian has also published an accompanying explainer on attribution methods. 

Carlos Mazón, the regional president of Valencia, has conceded mistakes were made in handling the catastrophic floods last month, but has refused to step down, claiming the unprecedented and “apocalyptic” scale of the disaster simply overwhelmed the system, the Guardian reports. Mazón has faced calls to resign after the floods killed 216 people in the area, the newspaper explains: “Public anger has grown after it emerged that Mazón did not arrive at the emergency coordination centre until after 7pm on the day of the floods because he had been enjoying a three-hour lunch with a journalist.” Addressing the regional parliament on Friday morning, Mazón said that “too many things had gone wrong; the whole system failed,” the article reports. The Associated Press quotes Mazón as saying the storm “showed that our detection and warning systems have cracks in them”. According to Reuters, Mazón said he did everything possible in the face of a “monstrous avalanche of water that exceeded all weather forecasts”. He also “repeated a line he has repeatedly used in the wake of the floods – that the body responsible for measuring water flows failed to send sufficient warnings”, says the Independent: “He promised a public inquiry at the regional assembly into the national and regional governments’ handling of the disaster.” The story is covered by the Financial Times, Daily Telegraph, Politico and BBC News.

In an article for Politico, Nigerian president Bola Ahmed Tinubu says that an upgraded climate-finance target without debt relief “will be like pedalling harder on a bicycle as its tires go flat”. Africa is “caught in a web of climate vulnerability and unsustainable debt”, he says: “Of the 20 nations most threatened by the climate crisis, 17 of them are in Africa, and almost half of the continent’s countries are either in debt distress or are teetering on the brink of it.” He continues: “Uniquely exposed to risk, servicing past obligations is now coming at the cost of safeguarding our future. And the funds Africa requires to combat the climate crisis are fundamentally at odds with its debt burden.” 

An Observer editorial says that COP29 is “foundering and we should be under no illusion about the consequences of future summit failures”. However, it “would be folly” to scrap COP summits, it says: “The idea may sound attractive, but it would be folly to act so precipitously. COP summits are still the only meetings at which every nation – rich and poor – gets a seat at the table when it comes to trying to save Earth.” Similarly, Chatham House senior research fellow Ruth Townend writes in the Independent that “the UN’s climate conference has been beset by controversies and criticism…but it is the best chance we have of saving the planet from devastating global warming”. An editorial in Saturday’s Guardian says that the global south “needs to unite” at COP29 “for sustainable growth, leveraging resources and negotiating transformative climate finance pacts”. A Bloomberg article asks: “The 1.5C climate goal is dead. Why is COP29 still talking about it?” Nicoline de Haan – director of the CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform – writes in Climate Home News that “gender equality cannot be last on the agenda at COP29 climate talks”. The Sunday Telegraph runs an abridged version of Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev’s COP29 opening speech. [His comments on neo-colonialism led to France withdrawing their top negotiators in protest.] 

Elsewhere, a comment article by two scientists in the Hindu says that Donald Trump’s re-election is a “devastating blow to global climate efforts”. Washington Post foreign affairs columnist Ishaan Tharoor discusses the “shadow of Trump” at COP29. A Wall Street Journal editorial says that Trump’s choices of Dakota governor Doug Burgum to head the Interior Department and Liberty Energy CEO Chris Wright at Energy mean “more domestic fossil-fuel production”. A Los Angeles Times editorial looks at how “California leaders can protect the environment from another Trump administration”.

In the right-leaning UK media, there is continued reaction to COP29 and the UK’s new emissions pledge, announced at the summit last week. Daily Telegraph columnist and associate editor Ben Wright has a long article on why “Ed Miliband’s net-zero dream is doomed to failure”. (It relies heavily on comments from representatives from a climate-sceptic lobby group, which is not made clear to readers.) In the Mail on Sunday, climate-sceptic commentator Andrew Neil writes that Keir Starmer’s climate change “obsession” with “be his downfall”. The Sunday Telegraph publishes a comment article by Matt Ridley – who has a long history of climate misinformation – on how “we can begin to see a glimmer of hope that the COP might one day fade into irrelevance”. And broadcaster and motoring journalist Jeremy Clarkson writes in his Sun on Sunday column that “Starmer being at COP29 was a waste of time”. 

In other UK-related comment, Michael Liebreich – an “expert on clean energy and transport” – writes for ConservativeHome that “the inconvenient choice for Conservatives is to recommit to net-zero or get used to opposition”. On that note, Nick Timothy – recently elected Conservative MP for west Suffolk and former chief of staff to prime minister Theresa May – writes in his Daily Telegraph column that Ed Miliband’s energy policy “isn’t just incoherent, it’s a danger to security”. And a Mail on Sunday editorial asks: “Why does green piety so often come with a huge dose of hypocrisy?”

South Asia’s spring “mega-heatwave” of 2022 “triggered rapid snowmelt” across much of the region, resulting in an average loss of 42% in snow cover and 57% in snow depth of the regional snowpack, according to a new study. The authors find that the rapid melting “resulted in the complete disappearance of low-level snowpack in the western Himalayas, Pir Panjal, and Afghanistan highlands, leading to the lowest snowpack observed in the last six decades”. They add that, during the heatwave, the amount of snow that fell was only 29% of the long-term average.