The president of Azerbaijan, the country currently hosting the COP29 climate summit, called oil and gas a “gift of god” during his address at the opening of the high-level segment at talks, BBC News reports. It says: “Ilham Aliyev criticised ‘western fake news’ about the country’s emissions and said nations ‘should not be blamed’ for having fossil fuel reserves. The country plans to expand gas production by up to a third over the next decade.” Politico says “opening speeches at the annual COP climate conferences rarely contain such frank and unsparing political attacks, nor such open fossil fuel defences – especially not by the host nation.” The Daily Telegraph carries Aliyev’s remarks on its frontpage. The Associated Press reports that “Aliyev and his administration are accused by human rights organisations of spearheading an intensifying crackdown on freedom of speech ahead of the climate summit, including against climate activists and journalists”. Aliyev was followed by UN secretary general António Guterres, who said 2024 had been “a masterclass in human destruction”, the Guardian reports. Following this, “countries big and small got the chance to bear witness to climate change” during world leaders’ speeches, the Associated Press reports. Carbon Brief’s Daisy Dunne was in the room and live-blogged what each leader focused on during their address. Around 30 of the 80 heads of state speaking yesterday and today are from African countries, Le Monde notes. Agence France-Presse reports that leaders from big economies, such as the US, China, the European Union and India, all skipped the summit. The Financial Times reports on the remarks of Liu Zhenmin, China’s climate envoy, who called for the US to engage in “constructive dialogue” to tackle climate change in future, “a thinly veiled swipe at the incoming Donald Trump administration”. (See more on Liu’s comments below.) The New York Times reports on efforts from Joe Biden’s team to rally morale at COP29 despite the “bitterly disappointing” election. Nigeria’s TheCable notes that the size of the country’s delegation at COP has dropped by more than half since last year in Dubai – but is still Africa’s largest. See Carbon Brief’s delegate analysis for a full breakdown of party delegation sizes.

The G77 and China, the largest bloc at UN climate talks representing around 130 countries, has rejected the framework for a draft text on a new climate finance goal – the central objective of the negotiations at COP29, the Press Trust of India reports. It explains: “The substantive framework for a draft negotiating text, prepared by the co-chairs of the ad hoc work programme on the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) and published in October, is the first item for countries to deliberate on. However, on Tuesday, G77 and China rejected the framework, arguing it does not accurately reflect the suggestions that developing countries have made for the new climate finance goal. Other groups of developing countries, including the Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDCs), Alliance of Small Island Developing States (AOSIS), Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and the Independent Alliance of Latin America and the Caribbean (AILAC), backed G77 and China in this rejection.” It adds that “an international coalition of climate researchers and activists, G77 and China have requested that the co-chairs prepare a new draft text before the next negotiating session”. Down to Earth reports that the G77 said in its opening statement at COP that it demands “an amount of at least $1.3tn per year from developed countries for all developing countries” in climate finance. The publication adds: “The NCQG must specify what does not count as climate finance, from an accounting perspective; non-concessional loans and export credits cannot be considered climate finance.” Reuters reports that the world’s top multilateral banks have pledged to ramp up climate finance to low- and middle-income countries to a much smaller $120bn a year by 2030.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that Barbados prime minister Mia Mottley, who “has emerged as one of the leading international voices on climate finance”, used her address at COP29 to once again call for countries to examine innovative sources of funds for developing countries. It reports: “She said that placing levies on shipping companies, airlines and some financial trades, as well as taxing fossil fuel extraction, could raise at least $350bn a year – more than three times what rich nations mobilise annually through public sources.” Separately, Bloomberg reports on the push for private finance to contribute more to international climate funds, with the headline: “Countries are pledging money they don’t control at COP29.” Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reports that the country’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif said that debt “cannot become the new normal” in climate financing during an address at the summit. Argentina’s La Nación reports that Brazilian environment minister Marina Silva also called for developed countries to honour climate finance promises in her address to COP29.

UK prime minister Keir Starmer used his appearance at COP29 to confirm the nation’s new pledge to cut its emissions by 81% from 1990 levels by 2035, the Times reports on its frontpage. The UK’s new nationally determined contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement is “based on the recommendation from the UK Climate Change Committee (CCC), a panel of top scientists, on what sort of reduction was needed to help limit global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels”, the Times says. The reporting focuses on what this could mean for people in the UK, noting that Starmer said “Britain can do [this] without anyone having to change how they live their lives”. The Daily Express leads on Starmer’s assurance that people will not have to alter their behaviour to meet the new target. (The print version of the same story instead leads on a Conservative claim that the pledge will cause “means more hardship” for people.) The Daily Mail reports the story with the headline: “Keir Starmer unveils yet ANOTHER eco target at thinly attended COP29 climate summit.” The Daily Telegraph reports that CCC chief Emma Pinchbeck has said that, in order to meet climate targets, there will be “a need for people to switch gas boilers for heat pumps and use electric cars”. The i newspaper reports that, according to a “government insider”, ministers will “incentivise people to make the switch to clean energy – after [Starmer] ruled out imposing extra bans or taxes”. The Guardian reports that Starmer also said the UK has a “huge opportunity” to get ahead of other countries in the race for green investment after the election of Donald Trump as US president.

China is “worried about the upheaval Donald Trump might bring to the fight against climate change”, Politico quotes Chinese climate envoy Liu Zhenmin as saying, adding that “[other] Chinese diplomats were also voicing their concern about Trump on Monday”. Liu also said that “everybody’s concerned about next steps” after the US election, but that “international multilateral climate cooperation should continue” regardless, the article adds. The state-run broadcaster China Global Television Network (CGTN) says Liu also “called on developed countries to take the lead in providing financial assistance to developing nations” and emphasised the “importance of both developed and developing countries working together to address climate change”. The state-supporting newspaper Global Times quotes Ma Jun, director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, saying that in the face of “more frequent natural disasters”, countries should recognise the “importance and urgency of emission reduction”. Guangming Daily quotes Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, saying that China should “set more emission reduction targets domestically”, strengthen “innovation in green technology”, and promote “global resource mobilisation” to achieve its climate aims. The state-run newspaper China Daily publishes an opinion article by two representatives of the China Council for the International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), which says the world must “think about climate overshoot beyond 1.5C with greater urgency” and China has a “crucial role to play in addressing climate overshoot”. The New York Times quotes a climate expert at the World Resources Institute saying “eliminating the role of the US in encouraging China to commit to a more rapid emissions reduction…could have major consequences”. The Atlantic says that “without surprise commitments from China… COP could simply fail to deliver a finance deal, or, more likely, turn out a miserably weak one”.

Meanwhile, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports that south-east Asia’s “path to securing climate financing” is facing challenges, including “new uncertainties” around US commitment. China’s Runergy New Energy, the “world’s fifth-largest solar cell supplier”, has “shut down [part] of one of its solar panel factories in Thailand” and “partially suspended operations at one of its solar cell plants” as the company adjusts to “changing global market conditions, particularly in the US”, Yicai reports. State news agency Xinhua says Thailand has “witnessed a surge in electric vehicle (EV) adoption”, particularly of Chinese EVs.

Elsewhere, China has issued a guideline for “carbon footprint accounting standards for key industrial products”, China Energy Net reports. International Energy Net reports that Zhang Jianhua, the head of China’s National Energy Administration (NEA), said during a visit to Tianjin that the city should accelerate “local clean energy resource development”, deepen “regional energy cooperation” and increase “interprovincial green electricity trading”.

There is “no sign” of the transition away from burning fossil fuels that was pledged by the world’s nations a year ago at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, with 2024 on track to set another new record for global emissions, the Guardian reports. It reports on new Global Carbon Project data that indicates that emissions from coal, oil and gas will rise by 0.8% in 2024. It continues: “In stark contrast, emissions have to fall by 43% by 2030 for the world to have any chance of keeping to the 1.5C temperature target and limiting “increasingly dramatic” climate impacts on people around the globe.” New Scientist reports that the new findings “dash hopes” of global emissions peaking in 2024, which had been forecasted by some researchers. It says: “The report finds human-caused CO2 emissions are set to reach a record 41.6bn tonnes in 2024, a 2% rise on 2023’s record. Almost 90% of that total consists of emissions from burning fossil fuels. The rest is from changes in the land, driven mostly by deforestation and wildfires.” There is further coverage of the Global Carbon Budget report in publications including the Press Association, Reuters, Bloomberg, Axios, Mail Online and the Hindu. Carbon Brief has an in-depth summary of the findings.

An editorial in the Guardian urges progress at COP29, saying: “The priority for this round of climate talks is the financing of the green transition, and the urgent necessity for rich countries to support poorer ones. New taxes on fossil fuel companies, which have vastly inflated their profits since the Ukraine war, are among measures being argued for, along with frequent-flyer levies and loan guarantees enabling poorer countries to borrow. Petrostates including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates should also become contributors. All of the above, and more, will be needed if the targets set in Paris are not to be pushed beyond the realms of possibility. The transition to clean energy needs to be faster.”

An editorial in Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper has an editorial urging climate action and noting the likely negative impact of Donald Trump, saying: “Once he assumes office, it is feared that not only will he undo president Joe Biden’s legacy of America’s return to the Paris Agreement by pulling the nation out of it once again, but will also withhold climate financing for vulnerable developing nations. According to a forecast by the meteorological information organisation of the European Union, the global average temperature rise will exceed 1.5C this year. Even though this is only for this year, the situation is grave. Any slackening of climate control measures now will inevitably worsen matters for the present as well as the future.”

Elsewhere, the Financial Times has a column by the president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, arguing that the world’s “economic survival depends on unlocking green capital”. Climate Home News has a column by ambassador Ali Mohamed, Kenya’s special envoy for climate change and chair of the Africa group of negotiators at COP29, saying that “Africa can lead the green industrial revolution” with “increased climate finance”. A column for ThePrint in India by Sana Hashmi, a fellow at the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation and George HW Bush Foundation for US-China Relations, says China will “seize” the opportunity to be a climate leader presented by Trump’s election victory.

Many UK newspapers have editorials and op-eds in response to the UK launching its new UN climate pledge at COP29. An editorial in the Independent says it is “an uncharacteristically bold move” from Keir Starmer, adding: “There is an industrial opportunity here for the UK, as well as a moral and environmental obligation. With growth at the centre of the government’s plans for raising living standards and improving public services, investment in renewables (particularly onshore wind and solar power), carbon capture and hydrogen promises much for the future.” The Daily Mirror says in its editorial: “Keir Starmer and energy secretary Ed Miliband are right to sell green power as good financially for households and businesses instead of relying solely on net-zero pitches. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine sent gas and oil prices rocketing, underlining the need for self-sufficiency, with wind turbines and nuclear plants generating most of our electricity.”

Much of the Conservative-supporting press strikes a different tone. The Sun says the new pledge means climate advisers “now want to pitchfork us all into vegetarianism, presumably via punitive meat taxes”. [The government has ruled out new taxes to encourage behaviour change, see above]. An editorial in the Daily Telegraph says: “The danger for heads of government attending an event like the climate change jamboree in Baku is that they are required to announce something to make the trip look important. It would help explain why the leaders of some of the biggest carbon dioxide emitters on the planet chose to stay away to avoid being committed to something they cannot deliver. Starmer has no such compunctions. He not only attended the COP29 summit in Azerbaijan, but came armed with yet another set of decarbonisation targets even though Labour has already brought forward those announced by the previous government.” [Starmer was presenting the UK’s NDC, which all parties are expected to do under the Paris Agreement by February 2025.] The Daily Telegraph also publishes critical columns, including one that has the subhead “COP could be done over Zoom” and another by climate-sceptic Matthew Lynn with the headline: “Starmer and Miliband have just rolled up at the biggest circus in town.” The Daily Mail has a column by climate sceptic Quentin Letts, which notes that Azerbaijan has called fossil fuels “a gift from god”. The Times has a sketch titled: “Want a great deal on oil and gas? Pop to a climate summit.” The Wall Street Journal has an editorial saying: “Oh by the way, a global climate conference opened this week (yes, really) in Baku, Azerbaijan. We hope the skies aren’t too clouded by the exhaust from all of the private jets flying in.”

Amid “drastic mass loss” from Greenland’s peripheral glaciers and ice caps, new research explores how they could change in future. Using the Open Global Glacier Model to simulate glacier dynamics and runoff changes, the researchers find that these glaciers and ice caps could decrease in area by 39% under a low-emissions pathway and 61% under very high emissions by 2100. The declines are larger for glacier volume – 48% under low emissions and 67% under very high emissions. The regions that have larger areas of glaciers and are farther from the ocean would likely see smaller losses, the study notes.