Cracks form on the bottom of Titicaca lake on the border between Bolivia and Peru due to severe drought. (Photo: AFP/VNA)

Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, addressed a group of students at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy in Baku, host of the COP29 climate summit in November, laying out the steps that need to be taken this year to realize the commitments made at last year’s summit in Dubai to transition away from fossil fuels.

Climate finance will be the main focus of this year COP 29, said Stiell, adding that without more finance, the wins achieved at the COP28 Dubai summit will fizzle out. 

The action the world takes in the next two years will shape how much climate-driven destruction it can avoid over the next two decades, and far beyond, he said.