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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Observer editorial

The Observer view: the Cop summit is foundering, we need urgent action not more hot air

A pedestrian walks in front of the COP29 information centre in Baku, Azerbaijan.
A pedestrian walks in front of the Cop29 information centre in Baku, Azerbaijan. Photograph: Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images

‘Global emissions continue to increase, carbon sinks are being degraded and we can no longer exclude the possibility of surpassing 2.9C of warming by 2100.” It is a bleak assessment of our planet’s future and could have been made by just about any environmental organisation on Earth.

In fact, they are the views of an international group of climate experts that highlight, in sharp detail, the manifest failings of the UN’s annual Cop climate summits, whose 29th iteration is now being staged in Baku, Azerbaijan. These talks, they said last week, are no longer fit for purpose and need an urgent overhaul.

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