Climate change talks are contentious enough, but Donald Trump’s return as US president is likely to further complicate discussions on finance – and may even hold back global climate action
THE annual United Nations (UN) climate change conference kicks off on Monday (Nov 11). Looming large over what will likely be two weeks of heated negotiations is the possibility of the United States pulling out of the Paris Agreement, the international treaty on climate change signed in 2015 to limit global warming to 1.5 deg C.
While climate talks are notoriously contentious every year, the re-election of former US president Donald Trump – who has downplayed and even denied the effects of climate change – just days away from this year’s COP29 summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, could muddle negotiations even more.
Dubbed by its organisers as the “finance COP”, the summit this year places particular importance on the setting of a new climate finance target, with the United States meant to be among the key contributors.
