COP29

These days, it’s hard to escape news stories discussing how climate change is contributing to extreme weather disasters, including the recent U.S. hurricanes. Aid agencies are increasingly worried about the widespread damage. A growing question as these disasters worsen in a warming world is how to pay for recoveries, particularly in poorer countries that have contributed the least to climate change. I am a climate scientist who researches disasters, and I work with disaster managers on solutions to deal with the increasing risk of extreme events. The usual sources of disaster aid funding haven’t come close to meeting the need in hard-hit countries in recent years. So, groups are developing new ways to meet the need more effectively. In some cases, they are getting aid to countries before the damage occurs. Disaster aid funds aren’t meeting growing need Countries have a few ways that they typically send money and aid to other countries that need help when dis...

COP29 (the United Nations Conference on Climate Change currently underway in Baku, Azerbaijan) is becoming the perfect stage for the European Union to redefine Azerbaijani fossil fuels as "sustainable" and "low-emission".In this way, while on the one hand it publicly proclaims its gradual reduction of dependence on fossil fuels, on the other the EU leads the expansion of Azerbaijani gas, in order to guarantee internal energy security after the cut in Russian gas supplies – it matters little if with resources that come from a country where serious violations of human rights are taking place. Ilham Aliyev's Azerbaijan is one of the fossil energy producers that could constitute a ideal partner for the EU, after it decided to replace low-cost Russian fossil fuels with those from other countries.The State has in fact announced its intention to increase its fossil production by a third in the next decade, also thanks to the growing need of European countries.The Cor...