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What Is COP29? Here’s What to Know About Global Climate Talks.

Diplomats and leaders from around the world are gathering for annual climate negotiations. Here’s what they’re all about and what Donald Trump’s victory means for the meeting.

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A person in a white hard hat and orange vest walks along a tall, green fence with the words “COP29 Baku Azerbaijan.” A stadium is visible on the other side of the fence.
Diplomats and heads of state from nearly 200 countries are gathering in Azerbaijan to update their plans to address climate change.Credit...Aziz Karimov/Reuters

United Nations climate talks began in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Monday.

The meeting comes just days after the election victory of Donald J. Trump, who has dismissed global warming as a hoax, and at the end of what will probably be the hottest year in recorded history. Extreme weather, much of it made more intense by climate change, is wreaking havoc around the globe.

Against that backdrop, diplomats and heads of state and government from nearly 200 countries are gathering to try to chart a path forward. Here’s a concise guide to the meeting.

It’s an annual gathering of the 197 countries that have agreed to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Those countries, the parties to the convention, come together every year and try to update their plans to address climate change.

COP stands for Conference of the Parties. This is the 29th such gathering.

In recent years, COP has grown from a relatively insular meeting of diplomats and policy experts into an enormous event that attracts tens of thousands of attendees, including business executives, the leaders of nonprofit groups and activists.

The event is scheduled to take place from Nov. 11 to Nov. 22, but the gatherings have a history of going into overtime as negotiators scramble to secure final agreements.


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