Signs of mutiny as COP29 hits the halfway point

Process has devolved so much into farce that many delegates want to scrap the summits and start over.

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Young people speak at Monday’s Roundtable on Children, Youth, and Climate Action, hosted by the COP29 Presidency at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

As the United Nations COP29 climate summit hits its halfway point this week, the enduring image of several days in Baku, Azerbaijan of arguing about funds and emissions is not so much an image at all, but a smell. The smell of oil.

Dispatches from major news outlets on the ground in Baku almost all said the smell of oil surrounding the old Olympic Stadium where the conference is being held was impossible to escape and served as a fitting symbol for a global process that has gone off the rails.