Irish Examiner view: Too late for magical thinking at Cop29

Participating countries have been given until next February to do their homework on how they intend to recover lost ground in cutting their greenhouse gas emissions.

It was sad to see that the Azerbaijan discussions were marked by the withdrawal of the Argentine delegation on the instructions of that country’s new president, the populist Javier Milei. Picture: Daniel Bockwoldt/DPA/AP

Now that the captains and the kings have departed from Baku — at least those of them who found the time in their busy schedules to attend the Cop29 climate conference — officials and some of their ministers have been left behind to try to make sense of it.

To lean on one of the annoyingly ubiquitous catchphrases of the past few years, “good luck with that”.