Exclusive-Azerbaijan offers to fund climate-vulnerable islands' delegates at COP29, source says

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The government of Azerbaijan, host of this year’s COP29 U.N. climate summit, has offered to cover the costs for negotiators from climate-vulnerable small islands to attend the event, a senior COP29 official told Reuters.

At the United Nations climate summit in November, countries are due to set a new target for funding to help poorer countries cope with climate change – a topic with direct consequences for island nations highly exposed to rising sea levels.

Baku has offered to fund the travel, hotel and all other costs for four delegates from every small island developing state (SIDS) to attend COP29 – the head of the respective country’s negotiating delegation, plus three other officials, said the senior COP29 official, who asked not to be named.

“We will do our best to ensure the participation of those countries in need,” said the official, who described the move as an attempt to ensure the talks are inclusive.

COP29 is scheduled to take place in the Azerbaijani capital Baku from Nov. 11-22.

The official declined to confirm the amount of funding involved. Some 40 SIDSs take part in U.N. climate negotiations.

Soaring hotel prices in host cities during the annual U.N. climate summits have become a recurring complaint among some delegates in recent years.

Delegates from developing countries draw on a range of funding sources to support their participation in U.N. climate negotiations, including from the U.N. climate body, regional organisations and bilateral donors.

Small island countries have a powerful voice in global climate talks, where they consistently demand governments take far more ambitious steps to rein in climate change.

Countries agreed at last year’s COP28 summit in Dubai to “transition away from fossil fuels” – a compromise struck after SIDSs, the European Union and others pushed for a stronger commitment to “phase out” such fuels. Some oil and gas-rich Gulf nations opposed the move.

COP29 host Azerbaijan, a Caucasus republic that is an oil and gas producer itself, has not yet confirmed how it plans to follow up on last year’s fossil-fuel agreement during COP29.

Today, Azerbaijan’s energy is nearly entirely produced from fossil fuels, although the government aims to expand renewable sources like wind and solar.

(Reporting by Kate Abnett; editing by Mark Heinrich)