Azerbaijan, a petrostate with an economy built on oil and gas, is hosting Cop29, the United Nations climate conference. It’s a controversial choice, but is there hope to be found at this year’s summit?

The main objective of Cop29 is getting richer nations to agree to inject climate finance into developing countries. “Everyone’s focus is on $1tn [£774bn],” the Guardian’s environment editor, Damian Carrington, tells Helen Pidd. “Which sounds like a crazy big number. Personally, actually, I think it’s a bargain.

“Lost lives, destroyed livelihoods, damaged homes, businesses, farms disappearing and all the rest of it. The impact of all of that, particularly in monetary terms, will be way, way bigger than the amount of money that it would require to avoid that.”

Will countries reach a deal on finance to combat the devastating impact of the climate crisis?

“It requires everybody to act in concert, and trying to do that among the world’s 200 or so countries, or with their different political systems and goals and aspirations and rivalries and so on – is really tough,” says Carrington.

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