Dickon Mitchell, the Prime Minister of the Caribbean island of Grenada, described how his country was hard hit by extreme weather.
Right now, as I stand here, my island has been destroyed by floods, landslides, and torrential rains – all within a few hours. It can be small island states today. It will be Spain tomorrow. It will be Florida the day after. It's one and the same planet.
No Will
Albanian Edi Rama left in frustration over the lack of political will and action, and how many countries' leaders chose to stay away from the meeting, while extreme weather events are becoming both more frequent and intense.
What does it mean for the future of the Earth if the largest emitters continue as usual? What in the world are we doing – over and over again – if there is no political will to agree and do something beyond words?
Others defended the use of fossil fuels. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni emphasized that phasing out must take into account production and social systems.
We must protect nature, with humans at the center. Doing it ideologically and not pragmatically risks leading to failure.
Asking Questions
Her Greek colleague Kyriakos Mitsotakis believes that the world must be more honest about the compromises required to keep global temperatures down.
We must ask uncomfortable questions about a process that is going very fast, at the expense of our competitiveness, and one that goes slower, but allows our industry to adapt and thrive.
But other European leaders, such as Croatia's Andrej Plenkovic, warned of the climate catastrophe on their own continent.
The past year has shown the devastating impact of rising temperatures, with violent floods in Spain, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and southern Croatia. The Mediterranean, one of the most vulnerable regions, requires immediate action.
The UN's climate summits, COP, are held in different locations each year. COP stands for "Conference of the Parties" and refers to the parties in the UN's climate convention.
The first climate summit, COP1, was held in Berlin, Germany in 1995.
At the meeting in Kyoto, Japan in 1997, the first global climate agreement, the Kyoto Protocol, was negotiated.
In the Paris Agreement from 2015, most of the world's countries agreed to keep the increase in global average temperature well below 2 degrees, and preferably below 1.5 degrees, compared to pre-industrial times. This is to be achieved mainly through reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
COP29 will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, from November 11 to 22.
In 2024, two other important COPs will also be held. One is the recently concluded meeting on biodiversity, and the other is a meeting to be held in December on desertification.
