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Because the United Nations requires hosts to be selected by consensus, next year’s climate summit is mired in wartime political tensions.
By Lisa Friedman and Max Bearak
Report of COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
At the UN’s annual meteorological summit, governments are expected to reach a consensus on how to tackle catastrophic climate change.
So far, they haven’t even agreed on where next year’s convention will be held.
Tensions over Russia’s war in Ukraine have hampered the ability of diplomats meeting in the United Arab Emirates for this year’s summit, known as COP28, to find a location for 2024.
Under U. N. rules, the location of the summit varies by region and countries in those regions will have to agree on the host.
Next year it is scheduled to take place in Eastern Europe or the Caucasus — both of which have been battered by war. Russia has blocked nearly every viable candidate in the region, effectively holding next year’s event hostage.
The latest standoff came on Friday, when Azerbaijan received the blessing of its former neighbor and foe Armenia to host the summit but hours later was blocked through Russia, according to European diplomats.
Observers called the inability of nations to select a host for next year a troubling sign for efforts to find global consensus on the far more serious issue of tackling climate change.
“Russia simply needs to be a troublemaker in everything that happens internationally,” said Jake Schmidt, strategic director of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. “I don’t think we can find a place for the next meeting. “
While the next summit is still a year away, the selection of the host country is made well in advance because it takes months of preparation to hold a productive summit. The current host, the U.A.E., began its work in 2021.
It is also a logistical challenge. The annual “Conference of the Parties,” or COP as it is commonly known, has in recent years been a spectacle requiring amenities and infrastructure. This is the 28th year (COP28) and Dubai has over 100,000 registered participants.
Most Eastern European countries have strongly condemned Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and have joined Western powers in imposing tough sanctions in reaction to the invasion. Russia, in turn, has used UN bodies, such as the COP, to retaliate.
So far, it has excluded Bulgaria, Slovenia and Moldova from next year’s summit and is unlikely to back any European Union countries.
When Azerbaijan came on the scene, it first opposed it through its neighbor Armenia, which made its own offer. Turkey, which is not considered by the U. N. to be on the list of countries expected to host next year’s climate talks. , has also expressed its willingness to welcome it.
Then, on Friday, after Armenia’s unforeseen fate for Azerbaijan, it suddenly seemed that a consensus candidate had emerged.
A statement from the prime minister’s office in Armenia said that as a good-will measure to repair relations between the two warring countries, it would release two Azerbaijani soldiers and endorse its bid to host COP29 in exchange for 32 of its own soldiers held by Azerbaijan. Bulgaria prepared to drop its bid. Azerbaijani diplomats were congratulating one another.
But hours later, on Friday, Russia vetoed Azerbaijan and the countries became one again.
Julian Popov, Bulgaria’s environment minister, called this “absurd. “
“You can’t take a position where one member can block the whole process,” Popov said.
If the countries fail to agree on the host country by 2024, the summit will be held by default in Germany, according to the regulations of the UN meteorological agency. It may also be held in the United Arab Emirates for a second year, but that is unlikely. Sultan Al Jaber, the Emirati oil executive who is chairing the summit and has been widely criticized by environmental activists, has indicated that he is unwilling to take up the torch, according to a user close to his thinking.
“This is a situation,” said Alden Meyer, a strategic adviser to E3G, an environmental think tank, adding, “It’s amazing that we can make progress on climate. “
Lisa Friedman reports on federal environmental and climate policy from Washington. She has published extensively on the Trump administration’s efforts to repeal and replace climate regulations and restrict the use of science in policymaking. Learn more about Lisa Friedman
Max Bearak is a Times reporter who writes about energy and climate policies and new approaches to reducing greenhouse fuel emissions. Learn more about Max Bearak
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