Trump and trade worries cloud COP29 summit

The annual UN climate summit began on Nov 11 with some prominent leaders planning to skip the event ahead of tough talks on finance and trade, after a year of weather disasters that has emboldened developing countries' demands for cash.

Delegates gathering in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, hope to resolve the COP29 summit's top agenda item - a deal for up to US$1 trillion (S$1.33 trillion) in annual climate finance for developing countries, replacing a target of US$100 billion.

"Let's dispense with the idea that climate finance is charity," UN climate chief Simon Stiell said at the Baku Stadium venue. "An ambitious new climate finance goal is entirely in the self-interest of every nation, including the largest and wealthiest."

But the financing goal is competing for attention with economic concerns, wars in Ukraine and Gaza and the election of Donald Trump, a climate-change denier, for a second term as president of the United States - the world's biggest economy.

Political leaders expected to stay away include US President Joe Biden, Chinese President Xi Jinping and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.

The Caspian Sea nation, which prides itself on being home to the world's first oil wells, faces pressure to show progress from 2023's COP28 pledge to transition away from fossil fuels.

Azerbaijan's oil and gas revenues accounted for 35 per cent of its economy in 2023, down from 50 per cent two years earlier. The government says these revenues will fall further, to 22 per cent by 2028.