Cop summits no longer fit for purpose, UN told

Future UN climate summits should be held only in countries that can show clear support for climate action, and have stricter rules on fossil fuel lobbying, according to influential climate policy experts.

- Fiona Harvey, Dharna Noor and Damian Carrington Baku

The group includes the former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, the former president of Ireland Mary Robinson, the former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres and the prominent climate scientist Johan Rockstrom.

They have written to the UN demanding the current complex process of annual "conferences of the parties" under the UN framework convention on climate change, the parent treaty to the Paris agreement, be streamlined, and meetings held more frequently, with more of a voice given to developing countries.

"It is now clear that the Cop is no longer fit for purpose. We need a shift from " negotiation to implementation," they wrote.

This year's talks, known as Cop29, are nearing their halfway mark in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku. Azerbaijan is a controversial host for the summit, as a major fossil fuel producer, with oil and gas making up half of its exports.

Last year's Cop was also held in a petrostate, the UAE, and the president of that Cop, Sultan AI Jaber, kept his main job of heading the country's national oil company, Adnoc.