The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29), which wrapped up last weekend, failed to make sufficient progress to maintain global temperatures at 1.5 degrees Celsius and avoid the worst impacts of climate change. COP29 ended with a global climate finance target that developing countries said was inadequate to enable them to tackle climate change.

One of the final texts of the conference did not clearly mention the need to transition away from fossil fuels, as previously agreed upon last year in COP28’s key outcome document. No further progress was made on this crucial topic at COP29. 

Frontline communities have long borne the brunt of the impacts of fossil fuel production and it is a human rights imperative to phase out all fossil fuels.

COP29 also adopted new carbon market rules intending to allow countries to meet their Paris Agreement commitments through carbon offsetting projects. But the decision ignores a long history of such projects which have violated the land rights of rural communities and vastly overstated their climate benefits.

Azerbaijan’s crackdown on dissent limited meaningful participation of civil society during COP29. In the lead up to the conference, authorities arrested dozens of journalists, human rights defenders, and other government critics on spurious charges.