Where Is COP29 Taking Place? Climate Conference Location Still Unknown – GWC Mag

The Gist:

• The host country of each year’s COP is usually chosen among a rotating group from any of five regions.
• COP28 has been shrouded in controversy and is headed by a president with conflicting interests.
• A country in Europe is expected to be the host of COP29.

The United Nations’ annual climate change conference (more commonly referred to as COP) has been overshadowed by controversy in recent years before the formal events even begin. And although the 2024 host country should have already been decided, world leaders cannot come to agreement on COP29’s location.

Per Reuters, COP28 has not followed the usual pattern of world leaders mapping out the upcoming year’s host country. According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), the host country is typically chosen among five regional areas: Africa, Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, Latin American and Caribbean, and Western European and “others.”

As of December 2023, we have what Retuers describes as an “unprecedented deadlock” in naming the following year’s venue. There are a few possibilities, though.

The Eastern European group is technically next in line to host; however, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine complicates matters. On Dec. 6, 2023, Reuters named Armenia and Azerbaijan as two unlikely options to host COP29. As the Council on Foreign Relations, a public think tank, describes it, the two are engaged in an extensive, decades-long conflict, which would seemingly prevent either from being chosen to host in 2024.

However, it seems that profits from the oil industry may provide a temporary smoothing of tensions. On Dec. 7, 2023, a joint statement between the two nations Azerbaijan and Armenia indicated that oil-rich Azerbaijan has the support of Armenia for COP29 in 2024.

Additionally, Politico pointed to the UAE and Brazil, two fossil fuel-producing giants scheduled to host within a few years of each other, as examples of the powerful influence of petroleum at COPs.

For what it’s worth, per Reuters, Dubai, UAE was chosen to represent the Asia-Pacific Group for 2023’s COP28 back in Nov. 2021; Brazil announced during COP27 its intention to represent Latin America at COP30 in 2025; and India threw its hat in the ring to play host in 2028.

And in May 2022, public think tank Australia Institute made its bid for Australia to host the 2024 event.

The president of a COP is typically someone from the host country — and unfortunately, it’s often someone who really should not be in charge of climate talks. And by that, we mean it’s often someone with direct ties to the fossil fuel industry.

Al Jaber later backtracked and claimed that his comments were taken out of context; however, the oil industry’s influence over COP28 is clear, and it’s safe to say that environmentalists around the globe are hoping for a COP29 president without such a stake in the fossil fuel industry.

The UN has tabbed November 2024 for world leaders to reconvene at the next COP. The UN’s calendar of events indicates Nov. 11-22, 2024 as the specific dates.

However, without a venue and president for certain as of December 2023, these dates should be considered fluid.